Speculation swept through the Orlando business community Friday about who is part of the investor group that time-share king David Siegel says he is assembling to make a bid for the Magic.

Siegel, who is in Park City, Utah, to open a new resort this weekend, would not identify the other potential buyers who expect to meet next week with Magic management.

Meanwhile, two high-profile local businessmen whose names have been mentioned by Orlando economic and government leaders said they aren't players in a Magic plan, although they didn't rule it out in the future.

Lee Chira, an Orlando-area developer who is considered a contender to be part of the group -- or to put together and lead his own venture -- said, "Not at this time."

Chira wouldn't say whether Siegel has asked him to participate. He said the slim information he has been privy to so far on the Magic's finances are discouraging. "I haven't seen numbers that make me want to get involved. I'm going to keep back right now and see what happens," he said.

Last year, in its attempt to gain public funding to build a new arena, the Magic released a report that said the franchise is posting annual losses of $10 million.

The irony of those figures, according to Chira and some other potential buyers, is that they were presented to make the Magic appear unprofitable -- and they did all too good a job of it. Now potential buyers see those figures as strong reasons to steer clear. "I would need to see some better numbers," said Chira, but he said he has no immediate reason to step forward to ask for them.

Harvey Massey, owner of Massey Services Inc., who had expressed interest in owning part of a major-league baseball team here in 1994, said he hasn't "had time to think" about buying at least part of the Magic.

"It isn't something I have considered." But when told about the investor group that Siegel is putting together, he said, "I wouldn't mind hearing about it if they called me."

Jim Hewitt, chairman of United Heritage Bank in Orlando and one of the Magic founders -- who once had an option to buy 35 percent of the team -- said he isn't part of the Siegel group and he's no longer interested in owning part of the team.

Meanwhile, Orange County Chairman Richard Crotty said Friday he has met with other local leaders -- and will meet with more next week -- to discuss "creative ways" to help the next Magic owner.

But Crotty said that more resort tax funding for the Magic still isn't possible this year. Collections of the tax fell to $104 million last year from $108 million in 2000 and are expected to drop again in 2002. Crotty said it might be two or three years before resort tax money could be spared for such Magic purposes as renovation of the TD Waterhouse Centre.

One possibility down the road, he said, is that a local owner who has better rapport with the hotel industry here -- as Siegel would -- might be allowed access to the resort tax money that current Magic owner Richard DeVos fought for. For that to happen, a state law that restricts use of the resort tax would have to be changed.

Last September, the Magic abruptly shelved plans to renovate TD Waterhouse after Crotty had proposed spending up to $40 million in resort tax money to renovate the 13-year-old arena. That money dried up in the wake of Sept. 11.

Orlando hotelier Harris Rosen said Thursday he is interested in leading a volunteer group of business and government leaders to broker a public stock offering that would buy the team and put much of its ownership in the hands of local shareholders.

Rosen said he hasn't started lobbying for it, though the idea has been endorsed by Fred Leonhardt, a senior partner in the law firm of Gray Harris Robinson, which has handled several public stock offerings.