Visiting Orlando and the Amway Center

It has been quite a few years since I have spent any time in the city of Orlando. I have passed through a couple of times going somewhere else, but haven't really spent time in the city since 1999.

This evening I am at the brand new Amway Center, home of the NBA's Orlando Magic. The building holds 20,000 for a Magic game (whenever that may be) but will probably see no more than 6,000 tomorrow night when the Hatters face No. 9 Florida.

Part of the reason for the expected small crowd is that it will be on a Monday night, in a city with 10,000 other things available to do, and will be televised by Sun Sports.

The crowd will also be limited, believe it or not, by the Orlando Magic. You see, even though the Amway Center is a city owned facility, the Magic control virtually every aspect of operation and every avenue of profit.

None of the hundreds of suites in this facility are available for use tomorrow night. Those all belong to the Magic and are leased to their customers for use at any event held in the facility. That probably trims the available capacity of the facility in half.

Want to use the scoreboard for a game, you have to rent it, and the people who run it, from the Magic. Along with the scoreboard, which is an all-computer controlled board, are the ribbon boards circling the inside of the facility. The Magic take 50% of any ads you want to run, while the city takes another 25%.

Want to do any of the hundreds of other things that go into hosting an event, you have to rent those from the Magic as well.

Add to that the fact that no one who uses the building has the right to sell sponsorships to companies in direct competition with Magic sponsors, and all Magic sponsors get included in anything that is done, and your chance to make a dime, is severely hampered.

Without a doubt, this is a beautiful facility, but it will likely never host an NCAA Regional Tournament, or any conference tournament or event. You'll probably never see a WWE event in the building, not will you likely see many concerts or other events.

That is truly a shame, but that is the deal the city of Orlando cut with the Magic to keep the NBA in town. If the lockout had continued and cancelled the entire season, there is a good chance that tomorrow's Steson-Florida game would have not only been the only basketball game in the building this year, it likely would have been the only event of any kind.

That is truly a shame.