More than two-thirds of Orange County residents think building a new basketball arena for the Orlando Magic is "unimportant," according to an internal poll commissioned by county officials.

Renovating the existing arena fares somewhat better in the survey of 466 residents. But nearly half labeled even that unimportant.

In fact, when they ranked 26 key issues facing Orange County government, a renovated arena finished 25th and a new one finished dead last -- both well behind such subjects as school crowding and a new downtown performing-arts center.

The "2004 Citizen Survey" is the third poll Orange County has commissioned since 1999, officials said, and the first since July 2001.

Overseen by a statistician in the county's Corrections Department, about 30 University of Central Florida students queried residents by phone from the Emergency Operations Center during four evenings late last year. The entire process, officials said, cost $3,848. The margin of error is 4.5 percentage points.

The poll touched on a host of customer-satisfaction issues, asking people everything from "Is Orange County going in the right direction?" to how they would rate the county's response to the three hurricanes that hit Central Florida.

But it also asked people about plenty of high-profile, politically volatile issues, such as whether to consolidate various city and county services and potential projects for the county's coveted pot of tourist taxes.

The poll produced some glowing marks for Orange County. For instance, 62 percent said the county was headed in the right direction. And 88 percent of those polled said they either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement "Overall, I am satisfied with Orange County's response to the hurricanes."

"That's a clear takeaway that we're doing a great job," County Mayor Rich Crotty said. "I was very pleased with this."

The results, however, were much more ominous for Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and the Orlando Magic, who long for a new or remodeled basketball arena.

Arena plans were far behind such touchstone community issues as reducing school crowding, tackling traffic congestion and increasing public safety, the top three issues ranked.

A home for the Magic lagged even behind less obvious topics, from supporting minority business programs to supporting the arts in Central Florida.

Both building a new performing-arts center and renovating the Florida Citrus Bowl football stadium -- which, like any arena project, are potential targets for the county's tourist taxes -- finished ahead of arena work.

An Orlando Magic spokesman declined to comment on the survey.

Dyer said in a statement, "I was not aware that Orange County was conducting a poll on public policy issues and have not seen the polling questions or their results, therefore cannot comment."

Crotty, who in recent months has said keeping the Magic in town is his top priority when it comes to new projects for hotel-tax revenue, said the survey results hadn't changed his mind about the importance of arena upgrades.

Rather, he said, the poll showed that arena backers have work to do to build community support for a plan.

"It lets you know what kind of challenge you've got," Crotty said.