Orlando City Soccer Club agrees to 10 years in stadium – Orlando Sentinel

Orlando City Soccer Club has agreed to pay the city about $18 million for the land on which the team’s $155 million stadium will be built, enough to match or surpass what taxpayers have spent to ready the site.

But the contracts released by the city Wednesday only ensure that Major League Soccer matches would be played in the new venue for 10 years, less than half of the Orlando Magic’s 25-year lease at the Amway Center.

Under the agreement, the team has committed to play at least 80 percent of its home games in the new stadium or the Citrus Bowl for at least the next 10 years, or until the team’s mortgage is paid, whichever comes later.

An earlier draft of the deal, released last week in response to a public record request, would have tied the team to the stadium for 25 years. Leaving Orlando sooner would have required the team to give the land and stadium to the city — for free. The finished contract doesn’t carry that penalty.

Heather Fagan, deputy chief of staff for Mayor Buddy Dyer, said the 25-year figure was “really just a number to start discussions,” which the city expected would change during negotiations.

While a 10-year team commitment is short compared with many stadium projects, Fagan said Orlando City is an unusual case, given that the team is paying to build its own venue instead of relying on taxpayer dollars.

“We feel that they have more committed into the project and so they’re less likely to leave … Because it’s private, they have a lot more invested as a team,” she said.

Lenny Santiago, a team spokesman, echoed Fagan, saying 25 years was an “arbitrary number.”

“In the discussion it was decided 10 years would be a good starting point,” Santiago said.

Kris Boyter, an Orlando City season ticket holder, said the 10-year term seemed short. But he expressed confidence in the team’s ownership, and said retaining stadium flexibility could prove wise, given the fan base’s rapid growth.

“Obviously, in sports, that’s short term, that’s more like a guy’s career than a franchise,” Boyter said. “It’s not the norm, but then again, neither is using a privately funded stadium.”

The sale contract calls for a down payment from the team of about $4.1 million, though about three-quarters of that will cover still-needed modifications to the site’s stormwater system, records show.

The rest of the sale price will be repaid with interest over 15 years. According to the contract, the team will pay in two, $200,000 payments per year, starting in year three.

The city also estimates the stadium will bring in $1 million in property tax annually.

The soccer team, which recently announced it will play all of its 2016 season in the Citrus Bowl, has started work on the 25,000-plus-seat facility on a 11.8-acre tract along Church Street downtown.

The City Council will be asked to approve the land sale Jan. 25, along with the development agreement for the project. The sale price could still shift slightly, as it’s tied to a final survey of the land. The tract takes up roughly two blocks in Parramore, bordered by Glenn Lane, West Central Boulevard, Terry Avenue and West Church Street.

The team had expressed hope as recently as August that the stadium would be ready for at least part of the upcoming MLS season but recently delayed its debut until 2017, citing infrastructure delays.

And the sale contract released Wednesday shows not all of the site — areas of which, according to the document, are tainted with petroleum — has been sufficiently cleaned up to allow steel and concrete to rise on it.

The remaining contaminated section, roughly the eastern third of the site, will be cleaned by the team, which will get a credit of at least $2.5 million from the city against the purchase price, the contract states.

The team said it expects to begin erecting the stadium’s steel skeleton soon.

“We’re looking at in the coming weeks. Potentially early next month,” Santiago said Wednesday.

Boyter said he and other fans were always skeptical that a 2016 debut for the new venue was realistic.

“I’m definitely more optimistic that I’m going to be watching games in the new stadium in 2017,” he said.

Paul Tenorio of the Sentinel staff contributed. jeweiner@tribune.com or 407-420-5171