OCYS Consolidated Thread

[Unregistered]

OCYS itself is a rat hole!!!!

[Unregistered]

You obviously have no idea what you are talking about. He has never said that he wants a 1.2 billion stadium, far from it. You show your ignorance with your comment about the Citrus Bowl, there is hardly anything left of the old stadium, only the upper bowl. When it is done, the whole lower bowl will be brand new along with all of the restrooms and concessions. So what exactly will there be left to be a rat hole as you put it.

why debate this? The OC faithful want their shiny new stadium with its "intimate soccer experience" paid for by taxpayers. they want it now, and they're not interested in anything to the contrary. Facts and logic be damned.

[Unregistered]

Did you read the article?

"In response to his concerns last month, Orlando Venues Director Allen Johnson and Jacobs said officials and architects explored the idea of accommodating soccer in the $207 million renovation of the Citrus Bowl.

Johnson said they looked at adding a retractable-roof system that would fan out over the lower bowl during soccer games but leave the stadium open to the sky during college football bowl games and other events.

"It was an extremely expensive proposal, probably close to $100 million, as I recall," Johnson said. "We were told it would be cheaper to build a soccer-specific stadium than it would be to try to retrofit the Citrus Bowl."

So it seems like Jacobs and other county officials were aware of the facts. Not sure about Dyer and the other Commissioners, but I have a hard time believing that Dyer wasn't aware of the facts. But I agree the other Commissioners also should have obtained all of the facts. That doesn't relieve Edwards from his responsibility of getting the facts. He was opposed to the stadium, and it was his responsibility to gather any facts that support his position and to present those to the other Commissioners. This was a basic question, one that I had assumed had been discussed in detail prior to the vote. If he had asked this basic question, he may have been able to convince some of the other Commissioner's to vote against the stadium also. At least all of the facts would have been in the open. Even if he has no knowledge about anything, he should have at least been smart enough to say, "They are currently playing in the Citrus Bowl, why can't they continue playing there? We are already planning to renovate the existing stadium, can we make modifications that would make the stadium acceptable to MLS, and would that be a more cost effictive option?" And if he was told it would be too expensive to make the renovations, he should have asked for proof. If he failed to ask those questions, he failed to do his job. He doesn't just get to sit back and assume that someone else is going to gather all of the facts. He failed to do his job. Others may have failed to do their job also, but I think he is the only one saying he didn't know renovating the Citrus Bowl was an option. This is so basic that I have a hard time believing this wasn't discussed prior to the vote.

It's not incumbent on the objector to prove the negative. It's incumbent on the proponent of the project to prove it's worthy, and it's the responsibility of those voting "yes" to make sure the taxpayer money is appropriately spent.

In this case, the proponent is a businessman who will personally benefit financially if the tax money is appropriated. OF COURSE he's fudging the numbers. OF COURSE his "economic impact study" is too rosy.

It's Buddy, Teresa and the 'yes" commissioners who didn't look into the details enough to know they could have used the Citrus Bowl. Shame on them.

[Unregistered]

I get a slightly different answer. You might want to try that calculation again.

And since you are saying the stadium could be paid off over the next 30 years by simply raising ticket prices, you need to include interest expenses into your calculation. I'm assuming that the builder isn't going to wait 30 years for their payment. You are probably talking about raising ticket prices $20-$30 per seat.

Why do that when Buddy and Teresa will hand you $84mm in exchange for a luxury box and a private parking spot?

[Unregistered]

Bottom line OC has Ecnl and fkk has nothing to offer besides a club. We have made up our minds.

Really, this is the same argument that was made about 8000 posts ago. Look at any city, it doesn't matter if there is a DA club or an ECNL club, there is still other clubs in the area that have good teams and produce D1 prospects. The people that earned ECNL status and have helped kids navigate the college recruitment process are at FKK and in my opinion this year has been great. I expect next year to be even better, there isn't any reason why it won't. You can keep trying to convince other people that there isn't anything there at FKK, but it was much better this year than OC was last, I have no reason to take my kid any where else. Good luck to the U14 and U17 next weekend in the Final Four.

[Unregistered]

It's not incumbent on the objector to prove the negative. It's incumbent on the proponent of the project to prove it's worthy, and it's the responsibility of those voting "yes" to make sure the taxpayer money is appropriately spent.

In this case, the proponent is a businessman who will personally benefit financially if the tax money is appropriated. OF COURSE he's fudging the numbers. OF COURSE his "economic impact study" is too rosy.

It's Buddy, Teresa and the 'yes" commissioners who didn't look into the details enough to know they could have used the Citrus Bowl. Shame on them.

Did you read my post? Jacobs and other county officials claim they did look into the details and determined that it would have been more expensive to use the Citrus Bowl.

You have a very naive view of how these things work. If the objector doesn't present any evidence to support their opposition, then it is pretty easy for the proponents to prove the project is worthy. I'm not asking him to prove a negative. I searched for 5 minutes and found an article that said that renovating the Citrus Bowl was an option. And that came straight from the "businessman's" mouth. Did Jacobs and the other proponents mislead the other Commissioners and the public about the costs of renovating the Citrus Bowl? I don't know. Maybe they did. The reason we don't know is because people like Edwards were too lazy to do the appropriate research and ask reasonable questions. It would be nice if we could expect everyone to be honest and only tell the truth and to release all of the facts even if they don't support the project they want. Reality is much different.

[Unregistered]

Why does everyone keep blaming the youth club? OCYS has absolutely nothing to do with the MLS stadium ... good or bad.

[Unregistered]

Why do that when Buddy and Teresa will hand you $84mm in exchange for a luxury box and a private parking spot?

OC is getting $84 million for the stadium? Exaggerate much?

And you missed my point entirely, which was that raising ticket prices by $1 a seat would only cover 10% of the cost of the stadium, not including interest. The post I was replying to was an overly simplistic and ignorant post, which ignored most of the facts you would need to consider if you were going to try to determine how much OC would need to raise ticket prices in order to pay for the stadium without public funds.

[Unregistered]

Why does everyone keep blaming the youth club? OCYS has absolutely nothing to do with the MLS stadium ... good or bad.

They aren't blaming OCYS. They are blaming OCYS' stadium. It's the stadium's fault.

[Unregistered]

I think Buddy is sticking his c@ck in Teresa's *****!

[Unregistered]

Really, this is the same argument that was made about 8000 posts ago. Look at any city, it doesn't matter if there is a DA club or an ECNL club, there is still other clubs in the area that have good teams and produce D1 prospects. The people that earned ECNL status and have helped kids navigate the college recruitment process are at FKK and in my opinion this year has been great. I expect next year to be even better, there isn't any reason why it won't. You can keep trying to convince other people that there isn't anything there at FKK, but it was much better this year than OC was last, I have no reason to take my kid any where else. Good luck to the U14 and U17 next weekend in the Final Four.

Yes good luck but really thus argument of who earned it and who can navigate is old. Ecnl is with OC and now so are many college coaches. They can probably navigate the college circuit too.

[Unregistered]

You obviously have no idea what you are talking about. He has never said that he wants a 1.2 billion stadium, far from it. You show your ignorance with your comment about the Citrus Bowl, there is hardly anything left of the old stadium, only the upper bowl. When it is done, the whole lower bowl will be brand new along with all of the restrooms and concessions. So what exactly will there be left to be a rat hole as you put it.

He continually brings up Atlanta, and their new stadium, without mentioning the 1.2B costs. He never mentions the owner in Atlanta also owns the Falcons, and is using his own money for retractable roof and upgrades.

Sorry but the Citrus Bowl, is and always will be a rat hole, Your luxurious Upper Bowl included. I would not let my kids go there, without protection, for any reason, and certainly would not recommend out of town guest do either. Orlando is and always will be a po-dunk-town, we like to think we are a big city. Only to show our arrssess, over a measly 84M, thinking we should have gotten a A class stadium for that.

[Unregistered]

He continually brings up Atlanta, and their new stadium, without mentioning the 1.2B costs. He never mentions the owner in Atlanta also owns the Falcons, and is using his own money for retractable roof and upgrades.

Sorry but the Citrus Bowl, is and always will be a rat hole, Your luxurious Upper Bowl included. I would not let my kids go there, without protection, for any reason, and certainly would not recommend out of town guest do either. Orlando is and always will be a po-dunk-town, we like to think we are a big city. Only to show our arrssess, over a measly 84M, thinking we should have gotten a A class stadium for that.

Hilarious

[Unregistered]

let's not continue the argument about the alleged 'advantages' of OCYS' style of ECNL. it's been hashed out for months. People are smart enough to make up their own minds, and a large number of them don't want any part of the Purple Spin Cycle.

And yet your still on here making comments.. There's even a larger number not wanting the drama mama's of FKK, it paid off for them this year didn't it. Just wait til the players who are over there jump ship without saying anything to anyone

[Unregistered]

They aren't blaming OCYS. They are blaming OCYS' stadium. It's the stadium's fault.

Thanks for the clarification. I didn't realize it had gotten that personal. I guess now that it is in such good shape even the fields are fair game for blame!! :)

I used to love this time of year and watching all the BS get thrown around. Sadly for a select few it hasn't stopped in the last 18 months. That can't be healthy.