Orange County commissioners
pledge $3 million in bed-tax funds to lure WrestleMania and the Special Olympics USA Summer Games.
Orange County commissioners are ready to rumble for the Special Olympics USA Summer Games and for WrestleMania, pledging $3 million in bed-tax revenue Tuesday to boost bids to lure the events.
Commissioners unanimously voted for the funding requests made by a sports incentive committee working with Visit Orlando, Central Florida’s tourism-promotion bureau. The committee asked for $2 million to help Orlando’s proposal to host the Special Olympics national competitions in the summer of 2022 and another $1 million to again serve as the host of the all-star wrestling extravaganza in 2023 or 2025.
WrestleMania 33 was staged at Camping World Stadium in 2017.
Orange County is among the suitors for the coveted events, both of which promise to deliver an economic wallop for Central Florida’s hoteliers.
“Hosting the games in Orlando not only builds excitement among the thousands of athletes and patrons here, but it comes with the potential to generate as much as $61 million in economic impact,” said Joe Dzaluk, a retired IBM executive who is president and CEO of Orlando’s Special Olympics 2022 bid.
He said events would be hosted at Disney's ESPN Wide World of Sports, the YMCA Aquatic Center and the U.S. Tennis Association campus in Lake Nona.
Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs championed both bids, saying it would be an honor for the community to host Special Olympians and their families.
“It’s a financial impact...but, to me, that’s not the really important part,” she said. “It just [would] mean so much to us to be able to host that here.”
Jacobs also admitted she enjoyed WrestleMania 33, which staged events for spectators and fans at Amway Center, Camping World Stadium and the convention center.
“I didn’t think that was my thing,” Jacobs said of the madefor-pay-TV athletic soap opera. “I didn’t realize it was theater and gymnastics and humor. Oh, my gosh, the humor. I have to admit I had a lot of fun.”
Orlando’s rivals for the events weren’t disclosed to commissioners.
The Special Olympics is the largest sports organization in the world for people with intellectual disabilities, boasting 5 million athletes in 172 countries.
Florida boasts 47,000 Special Olympians, though the number is expected to double to 100,000 in the next four years, said Sherry Wheelock, president/CEO of Special Olympics.
Five years ago, the organization had 20,000 athletes.
About 3,200 Special Olympians reside in Orange County.
The group’s USA games are held every four years. Seattle is hosting the games this summer.
The Special Olympics funding request, which required county approval, includes $1.7 million for advertising and promotional costs and rental fees for athletic venues in Orange County.
Three Orlando-area Special Olympic athletes — Alexandra Cooper, Nicole Hogan and Gregg Dedic — helped pitch the request to commissioners, then took turns later posing with replicas of the WWE wrestling championship belt.
Cooper, who has participated in Special Olympics for 12 years, said the fierce-but-friendly competitions help her make friends like fellow swimmer Hogan, of Winter Garden.
The sports incentive committee also wants $1 million to pay expenses associated with its bid for WrestleMania either in 2023 or 2025.
More than 75,000 watched WrestleMania’s main event in 2017, according to WWE, which stands for World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. — the owner of the WrestleMania franchise.
WrestleMania 33’s matches featured some of the wrestling series’ biggest personas, including The Undertaker, Goldberg, Brock Lesnar and film star John Cena.
In its bid for WrestleMania, the county has agreed to pay WWE an $800,000 “site-bid fee” as an incentive to choose Orlando.
County documents forecast that WrestleMania’s fans would inject $150 million into Central Florida businesses.
The so-called bed tax is a 6 percent tax levied by Orange County on short-term rentals, which are mostly hotels and motels but also may include homesharing lodging options such as Airbnb. So far, it has amassed nearly $146 million for the 2018 fiscal year, according to collections tallied by Orange County Comptroller Phil Diamond.