Controversy: Commissioner Edwards Says Orlando “Absolutely” Duped by MLS

The Atlanta MLS expansion team will play in the new Georgia Dome stadium, home to the Atlanta Falcons NFL team. That $1.2 billion football stadium will have a capacity of 65,000 with the potential of 75,000 with extra seating and a retractable roof when construction is done.

Ever since I broke the story exposing more proof that Orlando was duped by Major League Soccer on Saturday, the controversy has been heating up around town. WFTV Channel 9 News had a huge lead story yesterday on the issue, while Buddy Dyer remains in the Middle East with the soccer team owner promoting the team. WFTV directly asked Commissioner Edwards if the citizens were duped:

“Do you feel like MLS has duped the citizens here?” reporter Anthony DiLorenzo asked Orange County Commissioner Ted Edwards.

“Based on what I’ve seen, absolutely,” Edwards said.

Commissioner Edwards is demanding in a memo to Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs that the soccer stadium issue come back to the Board of County Commissioners. It appears the BCC will discuss the matter next month. Even Mayor Jacobs is feeling some heat on the stadium controversy, which she helped champion. According to the WFTV reports, Jacobs “has questions” for the MLS but didn’t say much more for now.

Commissioner Edwards added the possibility of legal action as well. He added about the MLS: “They were not transparent, apparently not honest with our community,” Edward said.

Since Dyer and Phil Rawlins are out of the country, the MLS had to comment for them to WFTV, but the statement is riddled in hypocrisy as well. The $1.2 billion Atlanta NFL stadium is a football stadium and would have been built the same exact way with or without soccer. The stadium will seat up to 75,000 – even bigger than the Citrus Bowl. Atlanta will use tarps to cover the upper bowl and artificially reduce the number of seats for soccer games to about 29,000, something they also could have done at the Citrus Bowl. The fact that the Atlanta Falcons stadium will have a retractable roof means nothing in this discussion, other than the fact they will have a bigger, better new stadium than anything the Orlando team puts together.