The Orlando Magic Recreation Center is a premier facility located in Orlando, Florida. It is a state-of-the-art recreation center that offers a wide range of recreational activities for people of all ages. The main idea behind the Orlando Magic Recreation Center is to provide a space for the community to come together and enjoy sports and recreational activities. The center features a large gymnasium that is home to a variety of sports leagues and tournaments. There are basketball courts, volleyball courts, and indoor soccer fields available for use. In addition to the sports facilities, the Orlando Magic Recreation Center also offers a fitness center with top-of-the-line equipment.

Orange breaking ground on second of five recreation centers

The second recreation center of five being paid for by the Orlando Magic will break ground Friday in east Orange County.

But as shovels hit the ground on the $25 million project, at the site on Goldenrod Road, some are complaining that they won’t be free community gyms after all.

The county will subsidize operational costs through rental income and user fees, which will range from a $30 payment for junior basketball programs to $100 a year for access to fitness equipment. Groups will pay rental costs per square foot for events.

“Community gyms should be free for the community,” said Fernando Toro, an east Orlando resident and activist. “It’s counterproductive to have something for the community if you are going to charge for use.”

Even so, no groups in the park-starved sections of the county are complaining that the gyms are not needed, as happened in Winter Park and Dr. Phillips.

Three other recreation centers are planned for Meadow Woods, Pine Hills and Winter Garden. The fifth, on Econlockhatchee Trail, broke ground in late June.

Parks and Recreation Manager Matt Suedmeyer said the county is spending about $3.5 million to prepare the land, make sewer connections and provide access and utilities for the centers, all slated to open between March and December next year. Winter Garden agreed to pay an estimated $880,000 in its site development costs so the county could locate one recreation center in the city.

The Orlando Magic will pay the $5 million cost to build each center as part of the deal giving the franchise $480 million in taxpayer-backed financing for its arena.

“We are proud to be a part of this partnership which will make Central Florida a better place to live,” said Alex Martins, the Magic’s chief operating officer.

Each center, Suedmeyer said, will be about 24,000 square feet, with indoor space for basketball, soccer and volleyball. The centers will have fitness centers with cardiovascular training equipment and weight-lifting machines. Other space will be used for community meetings.

“It’s very exciting,” said Darlene Dangel, director of the Goldenrod Chamber of Commerce. “It will boost a lot of the youth sports in this area and even the elderly will benefit from the use of the facility.”

Orange County Commissioner Mildred Fernandez, who was among the deal proponents, said “these gymnasiums will be a perfect example of how a public-private partnership can work to benefit the community without burdening our taxpayers.”

That’s assuming people in the community can pay, said John Kelly Harris, an east Orange resident who ran unsuccessfully for Fernandez’s seat.

“I like the fact that kids are going to have a place to go. What I don’t like is that kids that don’t have the money won’t be able to use the parks,” Harris said. “Maybe we should look at private businesses that can provide that funding.”

The county has to raise about $480,000 in yearly costs for each center, during a time of budget cuts, Suedmeyer said. So commissioners approved fees to raise the funds. Their resolution also included 25 percent hardship discounts for youth programs, which will be available to low-income residents on government assistance.

Mayor Richard Crotty said the county’s deal with the Magic makes economic sense.

“Not only am I satisfied, our taxpayers should be satisfied,” Crotty said. “We have five major recreational facilities being constructed by the Orlando Magic, with very little cost to the county and no tax rate increase needed.”

Victor Manuel Ramos can be reached at [email protected] or 407-420-6186.

MORE ABOUT THE REC CENTERS…

The following is a list of sites and planned construction dates, including the Goldenrod site, where officials will gather for a 9 a.m. groundbreaking Friday:

Magic Celebrates Three-Year Anniversary of Community Gyms and Amway Center Opening

As he and his friends walked to school and through the neighborhood three years ago, Winter Garden’s Jamari Morgan would look out at the construction cranes, the steel beams rising from the ground and the scurrying workers and let his mind conjure the possibilities.

Word had spread quickly among Morgan and his friends that a new community gym was in the works, and the only news better than that for the teenager was that his favorite team, the Orlando Magic, was the driving force behind the dazzling facility.

Not only would Morgan and his basketball buddies no longer have to play ball in a nearby park where unsavory activities occasionally went down, but they would also now be privy to a 250,000-square-foot West Orange Recreational Center that was downright beautiful to the eye.

“When we finally got to see the inside the gym, we were blown away because it was nothing like what we were used to,” raved Morgan, 18. “It gave us a really nice place to come and hang out with friends.”

Morgan’s story is similar to that of roughly 75,000 kids and adults a month in Orange County who utilize the five community gymnasiums built by the Magic. The five facilities – the South Econ Community Park on Econlockhatchee Trail; Goldenrod Park on Goldenrod Road; Meadow Woods Park on Rhode Island Woods Circle; Silver Star Community Park on North Apopka Vineland Road; and the West Orange Recreation Center in Winter Garden – recently celebrated their third anniversary. And because the facilities are state-of-the-art and costs are kept at a reasonable amount by the not-for-profit ventures, they have been a boon for Orange County residents looking to shoot hoops, play volleyball, work out or simply congregate in a secure, air-conditioned facility.

“It’s just a great partnership between the Magic and these facilities,” said Penny Fawcett, site supervisor of the South Econ Community Park. “The residents of Orange County have benefited greatly from the five Orange County-Orlando Magic gyms. The gyms are always full and they offer reasonably priced programs. It’s just a great opportunity for the residents to take advantage of reasonably priced events to recreate.”

The South Econ Community Gym was the first of the five facilities to be constructed, opening its doors on May 14, 2010 in a ceremony attended by Magic CEO Alex Martins and former Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty. The South Econ facility is one of the most heavily used community centers in Orange County and it recently had a high-water mark of 21,961 attendees over a month this summer. On most days, there are two Junior Magic league basketball games going on at a time for eight straight hours.

Boasted Fawcett: “We were the first of the five gyms. And we’re still the best.”

The construction of the five community gymnasiums coincided with the 2010 opening of the Amway Center (opening on 10/10/10), a 19,000-seat facility considered by many in NBA circles as the finest arena in North America. In addition to serving as the home court to the Magic and the 2012 NBA All-Star Game, the Amway Center has hosted dozens of concerts, arena league football games and events over the last three years.

While the Amway Center has undoubtedly given Orlando a sports facility to be proud of on a national stage, the five community centers have made an impact on an even more local level. With their large gymnasiums, cardio and weight rooms, game rooms and multi-purpose rooms, each 250,000-square-foot facility has proven to be a haven for local schoolchildren. Be it after-school programs, partnerships with the Boys and Girls Clubs or Junior Magic basketball leagues, thousands of kids flood the facilities on a daily basis during the summer and after school lets out.

“When I first walked in and saw this gym, it was a jaw-dropping thing to see,” said Winter Garden’s Deshaah Shirley, a 21-year-old college student who has been playing and volunteering his time at the West Orange facility for the past three years. “This gym was so beautiful to see and something that was nice to have in the community. I didn’t know that we were able to have something this nice, honestly. I was here for the grand opening and I’ve got to say that it was a beautiful sight. It’s just so nice for us to have a place like this to play basketball.”

Over the past few months, both summer camps and Junior Magic leagues were not only full at all five facilities, but all also featured lengthy waiting lists as well. Because the costs are so reasonable -- $40 for a week of camp during the summer – some parents in the area were greeted with surprise.

“The initial response was, ‘Why is this so cheap?’ But Orange County is a nonprofit and the parents are really happy that it’s available to them and their children,” said Lora Bryant, site supervisor of the West Orange facility.

“The first reaction that most people have when they come here is they are shocked how nice the facility is and how clean it is kept. They are like, ‘Wow, this is really nice,’” Bryant continued. “We have a lot of kids who before here had no place to go. We have some kids who have come back and spent a lot of time here volunteering, coaching or keeping score. I believe that we’ve made a big difference in their lives. They’ve finished school and they’ve come back asking us for recommendations for college, so that’s a very good thing.”

One such student is Shirley, currently a student at Florida International, who spent his summer working as a camp instructor at the West Orange Rec Center. Shirley is majoring in International Business at FIU, but he recently added a social work minor because of the love he has for working with children at the West Orange facility. He said the employees at the Magic-sponsored facility helped him so much that he wants to give back by helping other children as well.

“When this place went up, I started out as a member, working out and playing basketball here. But then I started volunteering as a coach and working the basketball camps,” Shirley said.
“Now that I’ve been through this, it made me pick social work as a minor in college because I like helping people out so much. It helped shape my career because I want to help people. It inspired me in that aspect.”

Morgan, the 18-year-old, who used to walk past the West Orange facility during the days that it was being constructed, said the Magic should be lauded for reinvesting in their community. He said that having the West Orange facility to call as a second home helped to keep him safe during his formative years. After all, the alternative before the construction of the recreation centers wasn’t always the best option.

“There’s another park down the street that is outdoor, but it’s not really that safe there because of a lot of crime going on in the area,” Morgan said. “But with this gym, it has given us a good, safe place that’s in the air conditioning and it keeps kids out of trouble.”

Asked about the impact that a facility such as the West Orange Rec Center has had on his life, Shirley shuddered to think where he might have been without the safety and consistency of the three-year-old facility. And he said that while the West Orange facility has brought a sense of pride and community to the Winter Garden area, the good vibes given off by the gymnasium has also been contagious to children and young adults in the area.

“Having this place, the people who work here, they inspire you to do better in life. It’s a safe place to keep you away from the trouble surrounding us,” Shirley said. “And I will say that once this place went up a lot of the good characteristics of our neighborhood started to (improve). A lot of us kind of have grown up in here, so the addition of this gym has been huge for us.”

Note: The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Orlando Magic. All opinions expressed by John Denton are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Orlando Magic or their Basketball Operations staff, partners or sponsors. His sources are not known to the Magic and he has no special access to information beyond the access and privileges that go along with being an NBA accredited member of the media.

Coaches Wanted at South Econ Recreation Center!

In addition to the sports facilities, the Orlando Magic Recreation Center also offers a fitness center with top-of-the-line equipment. This allows members to work out and stay active in a modern and convenient setting. The center also has a swimming pool and aquatic center for those who enjoy water-based activities.

ORGANIZATION: Orange County Government, Florida

Are you a sports enthusiast ready to change the lives of young athletes? Orange County Parks and Recreation's South Econ Recreation Center is looking for coaches to share their talents with Jr Magic basketball! Selected coaches will receive a free background screening and a one-year Orange County fitness center membership. Coach's shirt and Fox 40 whistle provided--no experience is needed!

Age groups are 5/6, 7/8, 9/10, and 11/12. Practices take place during the week with Saturday games. For more details on dates or to apply for a youth coaching position, please contact the site at 407-254-9092.

More opportunities with Orange County Government, Florida

No additional volunteer opportunities at this time.

About Orange County Government, Florida

Location:

450 E. South Street, 2nd Floor, Orlando, FL 32801, US

Mission Statement

Mission: The mission of the Orange County government volunteer program is to enhance and expand delivery of services, increase efficiency and cost-effectiveness of operations, and promote citizen participation in local government affairs by engaging volunteers to work together with paid employees and elected officials.

Description

County government. Population base of approx. 900,000. County employee population of 6,000. One of the fastest growing communities in the United States.

One of the unique features of the Orlando Magic Recreation Center is its focus on youth development. The center offers a variety of programs and classes for children and teens, including basketball leagues, swimming lessons, and dance classes. These programs aim to provide a safe and supportive environment for young people to learn new skills and build confidence. Overall, the Orlando Magic Recreation Center is a fantastic facility that caters to the diverse recreational needs of the community. Whether it's playing sports, working out, or participating in youth development programs, there is something for everyone at this state-of-the-art facility..

Reviews for "Stay Fit and Active at the Orlando Magic Recreation Center"

1. John - 2 stars - I was really disappointed with the Orlando Magic Recreation Center. The facilities were old and run-down, and there were limited options for activities. The staff were also unfriendly and unhelpful. I would not recommend this place for anyone looking for a fun and enjoyable recreational experience.

2. Sarah - 1 star - I had a terrible experience at the Orlando Magic Recreation Center. The equipment was old and in poor condition, and there were not enough machines for the number of people there. The bathrooms were dirty and overall, the place felt unclean and poorly maintained. Definitely not worth the price of admission.

3. Mike - 2 stars - I expected much more from the Orlando Magic Recreation Center. The place was crowded and there were long lines for everything. The staff seemed overwhelmed and not able to handle the influx of people. The facilities were also outdated and not well-maintained. I would suggest looking for other recreational centers in the area instead.

4. Emily - 1 star - My experience at the Orlando Magic Recreation Center was terrible. There were no clear instructions or signage, making it difficult to navigate around the place. The lack of organization and poor management led to chaos and frustration among visitors. The whole experience felt like a waste of time and money. I would not recommend this place to anyone.

5. David - 2 stars - The Orlando Magic Recreation Center didn't meet my expectations. The facilities were overcrowded and it was hard to find a spot for the activity I wanted to do. The equipment was also outdated and there was a lack of variety. Overall, it wasn't an enjoyable experience and I would look for other recreational centers that offer better amenities and service.

A Day of Adventure and Fun at the Orlando Magic Recreation Center