The city's downtown is getting a face-lift worth more than $1 billion, with a new arena for the Orlando Magic, a renovated Florida Citrus Bowl and a new performing arts center, officials announced Friday.

The projects were made possible by a recently approved penny-on-the-dollar increase in Orange County's hotel bed tax.

The Orlando Magic haven't made the playoffs since 2003, but their young star is predicting a championship from the team.

"I think our team has the chance to go all the way. We got all the tools," Dwight Howard said, straight-faced. "I think this year we can go all the way. All the way to the championship."

The Magic begin training camp on October 3rd with the hope and expectation of making the playoffs.

"This group of guys will be playing with the pressure of expectations," Coach Brian Hill said. "That's part of the growth process that a team goes through."

Orlando fans may finally see a healthy Grant Hill in 06-07, with the former All-Star saying he feels great after spending the summer rehabilitating.

"I've fought through a lot just to get back to this point and I think that kind of shows how much I love to play the game," Hill said. "I feel great now, and I want to stay healthy for an entire season. I want to play as long as I can stay healthy. But if anything, I've learned that you take it one day at a time."

Orlando leaders needled Magic basketball executives Monday to reveal the team's private cash pledge to build a new arena and used their strongest language yet to press them to keep their home court downtown and not move it to the county's tourism corridor.

"I smell a rat here," City Commissioner Patty Sheehan said. "It's really wrong to play the city against the county. Are they the Orlando Magic or are they the Orange County Cheap Trick?"

The Magic presented their proposal for a new $385 million arena to Orlando commissioners as part of formal review of all three public projects, which includes a new downtown performing-arts center and an upgraded Florida Citrus Bowl. They did not reveal how much they will contribute, saying only the amount will be "significant."

City and Orange County leaders are trying to cobble together tourist-tax revenues, property taxes and other resources to pay for all three projects at once. The Magic say they will reveal their contribution when negotiations are further along.

After 18 months of rehab on a bad right knee, Andrew DeClercq wants to give his career one final chance.

DeClercq, a 10-year NBA veteran who last played in the NBA with the Orlando Magic in the 2004-05 season, will spend this week working out in Chicago, hoping to impress the Bulls enough to be invited to their training camp next month.

He has no contract, no promises, no guarantees of anything but a chance to show whether his knee is good enough to play again.

"I'm going after it as if I'm a rookie again,'' DeClercq said after a recent workout at RDV Sportsplex. "I'll give it everything I've got left and see if that's good enough. At this point, people don't know.''

Orlando Magic officials remained silent Tuesday about how much they would pay toward building an arena and also staked out neutral ground in a debate that's heating up over moving the new center to International Drive.

The Magic presented their proposal for a new $385 million arena to Orange County commissioners, who must help divide up tourist-tax money and other resources for three projects: the arena, a new downtown performing-arts center and an upgraded Florida Citrus Bowl.

The price tag for all three public venues could reach $1.1 billion, and pressure is building for the Magic to pony up on the arena -- the costliest of the three projects. But Magic officials say they aren't ready to reveal their contribution until the center's location is decided and they finish negotiations with county as well as city leaders, who also are set to pitch in tax money and land for the projects.

One way to make the arena cheaper would be to move it from city land in downtown Orlando to land within the county near the Orange County Convention Center.

J.J. Redick pleaded guilty Monday to drunken driving charges and received a one-year sentence of unsupervised probation.

The former Duke basketball star also received a 60-day suspended license in North Carolina, $410 in fees and court costs and must perform 24 hours of community service, according to Candy Clark, administrative assistant to District Attorney Mike Nifong.

When county commissioners hear the Orlando Magic's pitch for a new arena Tuesday, there will be one question on everyone's mind: How much will the team pony up?

Magic officials will say only that their contribution to the $385 million project will be "significant" and that they will pay more than other NBA teams in comparable markets in recent years.

But that isn't saying much. The Memphis Grizzlies paid nothing toward the 2-year-old, $250 million FedEx Forum, which Magic officials have pointed to as a model arena. The Charlotte Bobcats paid $23.2 million of the $265 million cost of the new Charlotte Arena. For the $190 million AT&T Center, the San Antonio Spurs paid about $45 million.

The Magic aren't comparing themselves to teams paying a bigger portion, such as the Dallas Mavericks, which gave $295 million toward the $420 million American Airlines Center, or the Miami Heat, which received land and an $8.5 million-a-year operating subsidy but paid all $185 million in construction costs.

In Orlando, leaders are poised to use tax for whatever the Magic don't contribute -- a prospect critics have long derided as corporate welfare for millionaire athletes.

"The question is, who's getting their wallet out?" newly elected Orange County Commissioner Fred Brummer asked.

The Orlando Magic haven't made the playoffs since 2003, but head coach Brian Hill believes the franchise has reason for optimism.

"It feels now a little like it did when I took over the first time [in 1993-94],'' Hill said last week. "Shaq[uille O'Neal] was going into his second season. We had just drafted Penny [Hardaway], and people knew we were on the verge of something.''