Posted on 05/21/2014 4:16:56 AM PDT by lowbridge
City of Orlando officials have filed a lawsuit seeking to seize a church property through eminent domain, in order to build a soccer stadium on it. The Orlando City Lions, set to enter Major League Soccer in 2015, are seeking to build a new soccer-specific stadium to play in.
The Orlando Sentinel published today:
If successful, the eminent domain action filed Thursday in Orange Circuit Court would allow Orlando to take the last of 20 parcels needed for the $115 million stadium being built for the Orlando City Lions, an MLS expansion franchise.
Newly released records show the city more than doubled its initial offer for the small, African-American-owned Faith Deliverance Temple, to $4 million.
Members of the family that owns the church reduced their initial selling price from $35 million to $15 million. Even so, the two sides remained far apart.
This isnt the first time the Orlando City Lions and Major League Soccer have used eminent domain to take land to build the new soccer stadium.
(Excerpt) Read more at ijreview.com ...
So the complaint is not that the church is being forced to sell. It’s that it’s being forced to sell at a fraction of it’s extortion demand.
So, we now learn that the government of Orlando believes that a soccer stadium is of greater value to the community than a church. It’s really that simple.
They put such a huge price on their cinder block becuase they know they will be forced to sell . They do not want to sell but what can they do when the government is forcing them to. As you say, they'll face the bulldozers.
Just because the gov has the bulldozers does not make it right.
Are you supposing this, or do you have some inside knowledge that's not apparent in the article?
“Speaking personally, I wouldnt want to show up in the Next World and have to explain why I helped seize a church to knock it down and build a soccer stadium.”
The article seems to put more significance on the fact the church was black owned than that it was a church.
Well they do perform on the Sabbath, to your point.
Somehow it’s worse that a church owned by blacks is more special than a church owned by whites.
if they bought it it means the owners sold it. churches can be bought and sold and torn down and rebuilt and the money can be used to take of widows and orphans knowing, of course, that there will always be the poor. i’d be more concerned with what mortals are going to do with a zillion dollars falling in to their laps.
I was about to comment about building a fifty seat stadium so all the soccer fans could get tickets; then I remembered that Orlando has something of a Hispanic population, so...NEVER MIND!
“Apparently, sports have become the new religion...”
I think you’ve nailed it there.
I’m assuming based on never having met anyone who wanted to sell when the government tried to steal their property
That’s why they set the 35M price in the first place
Having seen the same wrangling by a couple of churches in Atlanta who eventually sold for inflated figures to make way for the new Falcons’ stadium, I can almost assure you that these folks thought they’d hit the lottery when the city wanted their land. And they have. They just won’t be getting quite the payout they thought they’d get. I’m figuring they’ll settle for about 7 mill, for a property that’s probably only worth 50K.
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