{"id":1115227,"date":"2026-07-28T01:09:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T01:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1115227\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T01:09:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T01:09:39","slug":"as-orlando-courts-usa-mens-basketball-tourism-tax-committee-pushes-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1115227\/","title":{"rendered":"As Orlando courts USA Men\u2019s Basketball, tourism tax committee pushes back"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\"><strong>ORLANDO, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 Could the USA Men\u2019s Basketball team\u2019s quest for another gold medal begin in Orlando? It\u2019s possible, but that push hit an obstacle a bit Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">During a meeting Monday, Orange County\u2019s Tourist Development Tax Sports Incentive Committee rejected the Greater Orlando Sports Commission\u2019s funding request to lure USA Men\u2019s Basketball to the city ahead of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Orlando is one of the cities under consideration to host the team for training camp and exhibition games from June to July 2028.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cYou\u2019re talking Lebron James, who has been suggested playing in the Olympics,\u201d Jason Siegel, the CEO of Greater Orlando Sports Commission, said in his pitch to the committee. \u201cAlong with all of that other marketing and exposure and social media and those guys in our community, eating in our restaurants, posting on social media, going to our theme parks. We know that this is just a unique and exceptional opportunity.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">After the meeting, Siegel told News 6\u2019s Mike Valente that the committee\u2019s rejection marked a \u201cstep in the process,\u201d and noted that he can still make the request to the Tourist Development Council later this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">The committee did, however, approve the Greater Orlando Sports Commission\u2019s funding request to participate in the Naismith Hall of Fame Series, bringing the Florida Gators and George Tech Yellow Jackets to the Kia Center for a men\u2019s basketball game in December.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">The committee approved $100,000 for the event in 2026, and voted to renew the event for 2027 and 2028 contingent on certain performance metrics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">The Orange County Commission still needs to approve the funding request for the Naismith game before it can move forward.<\/p>\n<p>Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 bTVksG\">More Stories Like This In Our Email Newsletter<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Could the USA Men\u2019s Basketball team\u2019s quest for another gold medal begin in Orlando? It\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1115228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5311],"tags":[12048,7126,65169,65381,79,304077,304076,49,978,659],"class_list":["post-1115227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-basketball","tag-olympics","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-sports","tag-tdt","tag-tourism-development-tax","tag-united-states","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116994937055775531","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1115227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1115228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1115227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1115227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1115227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}