The FL 2012 bid group yesterday unveiled "ambitious"
plans for the Games, including building a 100,000-seat
Olympic stadium, a 150-acre Olympic village and "a
transportation plan with a high-speed rail service between
Tampa and Orlando," according to Gary Haber of the TAMPA
TRIBUNE. Plans for the stadium call for the facility to be
built on a city-owned housing complex near Ybor City. FL
2012 CEO Ed Turanchik said the stadium would cost $250M and
the athletes' village could cost $500M. FL 2012 "would pay
for the stadium from the expected" $2.5B it would receive
from Olympic TV revenue and merchandising fees. Meanwhile,
the group "believes private developers can be enticed to
build the Olympic village." But FL 2012 faces "several
hurdles" to its stadium development, as the group is
"banking on the fact that" they can persuade the Univ. of
South FL (USF) to "play its football games in a scaled-down,
63,000-seat version of the stadium after the Games end."
While the plan also "anticipates USF paying for a portion of
the project," USF has not "committed to moving." Earlier
plans "also included the possibility" of the Mutiny sharing
the stadium with USF, but the MLS team is "no longer
considering the site" (TAMPA TRIBUNE, 11/30). See (#28).
