I'll tell you right now what by far is the biggest problem. Its really 90% of the problem. Its paying to park. This isn't NYC, Boston, of D.C. People in Florida don't want to pay to park. For an event like a Magic game or concert at the Amway, yeah they will. But just going out to dinner on the weekend or even worse a weeknight isn't happening. If no one has noticed every corner in this city and surrounding areas has either a Applebee's, TGI Friday's, Longhorn Steakhouse or whatever there. Plus the parking is over priced at that. Yeah, I guess $1.00 an hour under I-4 isn't bad, but thats more trouble than its worth. I bet more people would come if there was a flat $3.00 or even $5.00 fee to park instead of the $1.00/hr even if they're staying for only a couple of hours. The 55West garage is in a great location, but $2.00 an hour is bullsh*t. I live there and if my gf wants to spend the night we have to leave one of our cars somewhere because the parking ends up being like $30. And god forbid they could do some kind of validation system at the church st. businesses for parking here too.
If you're part of the "lets go to the club and get drunk" crowd, yeah that parking situation is no problem. But if the city wants families and the business they bring in the retail area to downtown the parking is the main hold up.