Last week we reported that Enterprise Florida, the state's business recruitment agency, agreed to provide $5 million to the Greater Orlando Sports Commission to help Orlando become a host city for the 2026 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament ("Florida throws $5 million behind Orlando's bid to host 2026 World Cup," Dec. 8). Many, many readers had things to say about this decision, and those responses — both pro and con — fell neatly into a few categories: Spend that money on better things, like affordable housing or road improvements; $5 mill is not nearly enough to whip Camping World Stadium into shape; great, now I-4 traffic's gonna suck even worse; and WHOOOO! Party like it's 1994! There was also a light sprinkling of anti-soccer sentiment which was ... not entirely unexpected.
@Nathan Miller This is America, we had two world wars and signed the Declaration of Independence just to get away from soccer and they brought it over here anyway. I guess the treaty of Versailles meant nothing.
@John Del Bagno God please no! We have too many tourists as it is! Use the money to round up all the people that moved here from NY and send them back! Also, soccer is awful.
@Rafael Bassi The stadium needs way more than that amount of money to even be close to adequate. Spend the money on something for the City and its residents.
@Nitzy Jai That stadium is wayyy too small for that beast.
@Jeriel Hernández Ramirez Use some of that money to make actual bus stops and help the public transportation system.
@Alex Williamson The World Cup is a fantastic event that brings people from all over the world together while simultaneously stimulating economies of host cities. We have the infrastructure, this is a fantastic idea.
@Matt Kniskern Just imagine if we had a light rail that went from the airport to downtown and outlying areas. It's almost like we could benefit from something like this without suffering as large an ill effect to our already overtaxed local highways.
@Luis Rojas Can we spend some of that 5 million coordinating the stoplights so we don't have to keep racing from one red light to the next?!?!?!? Tired of being the most dangerous city for pedestrians in the nation.
@Eric Slusher How about we get some affordable housing???? ...???
@Jarett Jdubb Wright For all you dummies who don't understand economics: We invest 5 million and have a return on investment many times that amount ... you know, spend money to make money?
@Wes Miles Can we throw $5M at fixing our roads first?!
@Matthew Johnson Yeah, let's congest up I-4 more than it already is. I'd rather see them throw that 5 million toward fixing the congestion problems.
@Nick Agon Kresky How about 5 million toward infrastructure so the city doesn't grind to halt if and when events happen!
@Terrie Watkins I so remember the Cup celebrations in 1994. Orlando was rocking!!
@Zachee Charles Orlando you can do it! The world loves you so bad.
@Marissa Goldstein How about you throw that 5 mil toward teachers' salaries, and invest in kids' futures.
@Andre Thomas Just more welfare for FIFA.
@Brian Christopher 5 million is literally a drop in the bucket. Got to do better. Plus the allure of soccer in Orlando has faded since our team joined the MLS and been mediocre.
@Vicky Gallas Well, 1994 was fantastic! I spent my nights downtown at Church Street. Why either Orlando or Miami though? Why not both cities? They should throw whatever is necessary at this to get it done!
@Larry Haupt Alright. Bring I-4 to a standstill which will cause all the exits to get onto I-4 to stand still which will make all the roads flooded and then the people who have no idea which lane they gotta be in or no idea where the fuck they're going will be in tons of accidents like there's not enough already. It would be great for the economy here for sure, but it won't be good for us people who live here and have to work. Would definitely disrupt the daily routine.
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