A potential competitor to Bahamas tourism could spring up in two years as Fort Lauderdale launches a partnership to build an Atlantis-style water park resort with a company which worked on Paradise Island's attractions.

Currently Fort Lauderdale is one of the corridors through which thousands of U.S. tourists cruise and fly to The Bahamas but now that city's aging sports stadiums could be turned into a major water park resort by 2012.

Similar to the Atlantis water park, it would consist of giant river systems where visitors can ride inner-tubes or swim between water slides, wave pools, downhill rapids and beaches.

While it would have some 300 treehouse-style hotel rooms surrounding the resort, that is much smaller than the 2,900 rooms at the Paradise Island mega-resort.

City commissioners in Fort Lauderdale agreed on Tuesday to negotiate a deal with Schlitterbahn Development Group, which worked on the phase three expansion of Atlantis' water park. The developers estimate the project will cost $110 million and draw up to 10,000 visitors a day.

Jeff Henry with Schlitterbahn said: "We are bringing a resort feel, and it will be the equivalent or better than Atlantis in the Bahamas.

"It will be the No. 1 destination in Fort Lauderdale other than the beach. It is a phenomenal facility, and there is no other place like it in the United States."

Schlitterbahn has water parks in Kansas and Texas and has been involved in the development of a water park in Dubai.

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