The Players Championship is Northeast Florida's signature event -- or is it?

[JeffreyS]

The Players Championship is Northeast Florida's signature event -- or is it?
he Players Championship, whose blue skies and green grass are being broadcast around the world, is certainly one of the biggest, most important events in Northeast Florida.
But it has rivals for that honor, one old and one new. At least that's what some people around town told us after we asked them: What is the area's signature event? What event is synonymous with this northeast corner of Florida? Responses were all over the place which, as a couple of them noted, is a good thing.
MARIA COPPOLA
Coppola Public Relations

The Players is a strong contender, but the champ is still the Florida-Georgia game. "A significant event has to have a tradition. ... Look at the history of Florida-Georgia, how hard the city fights to keep the event here, what the economic impact is, how it's become almost a weeklong event — and even though we add seats it's always sold out."

Watch for One Spark, too: "That has a lot of value for the city. We're not just a place to drink beer and watch football, or drink beer and watch The Players. Though at One Spark you can drink beer — craft beer — and eat from food trucks. And it certainly showcases downtown."

TREY HEBRON
Talent booker for 1904 Music Hall and a founder of The Elbow, a group of downtown entertainment venues

"Monster Jam?" That was his first response, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, via Facebook. "Let me think about it. That's a toughie. Florida-Georgia is what I think introduces the most people to Jacksonville overall. I'd love to attribute it to something involved in music but I really can't."

KERRY SPECKMAN
Freelance writer, entertainment blogger at TheSpecktator.com

For the city of Jacksonville, it's Florida-Georgia. For the region as a whole, it's The Players.

For the future, it's "One Spark for sure." She attended Austin's South By Southwest festival before it got huge, and sees that possibility with One Spark. Then there's this: "All the attention it brought to Jacksonville, and it made Jacksonville look so progressive — it made us look good, fun and positive. It's just so original."

THERESA O'DONNELL PRICE
Director of major events at the University of North Florida, past special events director for city of Jacksonville

The Players definitely rules — this week, at least. But what about other college football games, the Jazz Festival, the up-and-coming One Spark? "And of course the Jaguars. To be one of the few markets in the country that has an NFL team? Absolutely."

But she has a hard time picking just one signature event. That's a good sign, though: She's a native of the city, and has seen more and more happening here. How can you narrow it down to just one? "The bar has been raised on events."

RON WHITTINGTON
Corporate communications manager at Visit Jacksonville

He has a hard time picking one event, but says that in Jacksonville itself, Florida-Georgia attracts about 100,000 people. Many out-of-towners are among the 100,000 who come to the Jazz Festival. The Gator Bowl varies, depending on the teams. About 51,000 of the estimated 260,000 people who came to One Spark were from outside the area.

The Players, of course, is set outside Jacksonville, but it's a big deal — the Players said attendance last year was 173,946. And half of those visitors are from outside the area.

KAREN SADLER
Founder of World Arts Film Festival (May 15-17)

"I guess World Arts Film Festival would be my first choice." She laughed. "It's the only thing I spend time thinking about."

No, seriously: It's events such as that, all over town, that are defining the area, rather than a handful of big splashy occasions. "I like the sort of micro-events that are happening, like a craft beer festival or an eco-fest and then all these sorts of causes, focuses, interests. I love it."

TONY ALLEGRETTI
Executive director of the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville

Watch out for One Spark, but it has a long way to go before catching up with the clout of The Players.

He likes that TV broadcasts now show the city skyline and mention Jacksonville, even though the event's one county south. "They're really making an extra effort to highlight that it's us."

STEPHEN DARE
A founder of metrojacksonville.com, downtown advocate

For the area, it's The Players. For Jacksonville it's already One Spark — "definitely." "There's the right combination of money and creativity and cutting-edgeness. No city has those three things in the same place very often, and when you have that, good things happen."

There's a buzz about it, here and elsewhere. "They've been unself-consciously promoting it, all across the country."



Matt Soergel: (904) 359-4082

http://members.jacksonville.com/news/metro/2014-05-09/story/players-championship-northeast-floridas-signature-event-or-it-0

[JeffreyS]

My list
1. The Players (Most known outside the area)
2. Florida-Georiga (Biggest event)
3. One Spark (Rising fast and may already have the biggest impact)
4-11 Jags home games.
12. Jazz Fest
13. The Fair
14. Springing the Blues

[I-10east]

3. One Spark (Rising fast and may already have the biggest impact)

I agree. Although someone who many agree with said that it didn't do anything for Jax.

[Ocklawaha]

Averaged over four months during the bulk of the publicity push, the Jacksonville Jazz Festival reached nearly 825,000 people per day. These impressions were earned by convincing reporters, bloggers, editors and individuals with social media profiles that the 2011 Jacksonville Jazz Festival was "cool" and worth paying attention to.
During the course of the campaign, The Jacksonville Jazz Festival had more than 1.1 million post views on the Facebook account – and it wasn't a one-way conversation. There were 7,426 comments, wall posts and likes made during the campaign.
Facebook ads proved to be highly effective as well. Six unique ads were developed which garnered more than 23 million impressions, 13,335 "clicks" and had an overall click-through rate of .057% – well above industry standards of 0.049%. If we were to combine the impressions made through the Facebook ads and earned media efforts via public relations and social media, the 2011 Jacksonville Jazz Festival made quite an impression – 122,934,528 to be exact.
SOURCE: Dalton Agency

Yet it appears to me that the city is either too poor, too dumb or too unmotivated to capitalize on this massive PR event. Not one program director at our many radio stations was smart enough to 'own' the festival and switch to a modern jazz format.  Our excellent jazz station broadcasting from Jones College closed down in 84-85 with an offer to give all of the recordings in the collection to anyone that would carry on... no takers.  In 2006, the city decided to begin charging admission, but the deficit stayed around $500,000. The 2007-8 budget included significant cuts that required the Jazz Festival to be scaled back. The numbers of headliners plunged from 6-10 down to 2-3, and the wind was officially out of our sails...AGAIN! This year, the only real stars IMO are on stage Friday and Saturday night, the rest is (yawn) rather plain.

Before we completely screw this pooch, it's time to find the money to once again make it that event where world jazz fans converge on Jacksonville. The payback would be incalculable!

[FSBA]

I think the buzz for TPC was tempered this year because it was the same weekend as the NFL Draft.

If the NFL is going to keep the draft in May it would behoove the TPC and PGA to have the tournament the week after.

[ProjectMaximus]

My list
1. The Players (Most known outside the area)
2. Florida-Georiga (Biggest event)
3. One Spark (Rising fast and may already have the biggest impact)
4-11 Jags home games.
12. Jazz Fest
13. The Fair
14. Springing the Blues

What about the Gator Bowl? (aka Taxslayer)

And what are the 11 Jags home games?

[JeffreyS]

My list
1. The Players (Most known outside the area)
2. Florida-Georiga (Biggest event)
3. One Spark (Rising fast and may already have the biggest impact)
4-11 Jags home games.
12. Jazz Fest
13. The Fair
14. Springing the Blues

What about the Gator Bowl? (aka Taxslayer)

And what are the 11 Jags home games?

Gator Bowl should be between the fair and Springing the blues. I have probably forgotten some others as well. 

It wasn't 11 Jags home games it was item numbers 4 thru 11 as the 8 jag home games.

[ProjectMaximus]

^ lol got it...reading comprehension not so good this afternoon

[mtraininjax]

Whoa - One Spark has been around 2 years and already its the savior. You do know that the numbers used for attendance are not unique visitors daily? I hope you read the fine print, like the one they never tell you about eating fast food, but you pickup one day with the tire around your belly.

One Spark is below the Gator Bowl in daily attendance. It is not a top 5, top 10 event. Not yet.

I like One Spark, but what direct impact to Jacksonville has One Spark created, besides a new festival like it in Germany? Its not the holy grail, not yet.

Jax sports and entertainment throws around a 30 million dollar impact for the Gator Bowl game here, yearly. Can One Spark say the same thing, year over year? Even at a top 3, that would be an impact of over $100 million a year. If that is the case, where is my check? Is it in the mail? What is the real direct impact of One Spark, can it be counted?

Most of you forget the RAM festival that happens every weekend most of the year. A major impact for many artists, farmers, and themed events. How quickly we forget One Spark would not have succeeded without events like RAM, to prove that people would support downtown events.

[tufsu1]

I think the buzz for TPC was tempered this year because it was the same weekend as the NFL Draft.

If the NFL is going to keep the draft in May it would behoove the TPC and PGA to have the tournament the week after.

Sorry but no....the NFL draft was in May this year due to scheduling conflicts at Radio City...meanwhile, The Players has claimed Mother's Day weekend for the past 5 years.

[tufsu1]

One Spark is below the Gator Bowl in daily attendance. It is not a top 5, top 10 event. Not yet.

Lots of cities have jazz festivals.  Too many cities host bowl games.   Lots of cities host golf tournaments (and The Players isn't even in Duval County).  One Spark is the one big event that Jacksonville has that isn't yet repeated elsewhere.  That alone makes it pretty special.

[IrvAdams]

One Spark is below the Gator Bowl in daily attendance. It is not a top 5, top 10 event. Not yet.

Lots of cities have jazz festivals.  Too many cities host bowl games.   Lots of cities host golf tournaments (and The Players isn't even in Duval County).  One Spark is the one big event that Jacksonville has that isn't yet repeated elsewhere.  That alone makes it pretty special.

Ditto for me on One Spark. Plus, it's rising quickly. It was huge for a second-year event, I thought.  Also, an honorable mention, especially for runners and people who follow them, is the Gate River Run which is now the official U.S. Championship run in its category and attracts a boatload of out-of-towners. In fact, Jax is becoming known in general as a runner's town for competitions, etc.

[ProjectMaximus]

I think the buzz for TPC was tempered this year because it was the same weekend as the NFL Draft.

If the NFL is going to keep the draft in May it would behoove the TPC and PGA to have the tournament the week after.

Sorry but no....the NFL draft was in May this year due to scheduling conflicts at Radio City...meanwhile, The Players has claimed Mother's Day weekend for the past 5 years.

Well, the NFL is planning to keep the draft in May. Nothing has been decided, so I don't think the TPC should necessarily wait on the whim of the NFL, but it's entirely possible the draft and TPC might coincide again. Actually, the rumor is that they're considering making it even later in May...pushing back towards Memorial Weekend.

Whoa - One Spark has been around 2 years and already its the savior. You do know that the numbers used for attendance are not unique visitors daily? I hope you read the fine print, like the one they never tell you about eating fast food, but you pickup one day with the tire around your belly.

One Spark is below the Gator Bowl in daily attendance. It is not a top 5, top 10 event. Not yet.

I like One Spark, but what direct impact to Jacksonville has One Spark created, besides a new festival like it in Germany? Its not the holy grail, not yet.

Jax sports and entertainment throws around a 30 million dollar impact for the Gator Bowl game here, yearly. Can One Spark say the same thing, year over year? Even at a top 3, that would be an impact of over $100 million a year. If that is the case, where is my check? Is it in the mail? What is the real direct impact of One Spark, can it be counted?

If I made a ranking (which will remain a hypothetical) I would rank based on what is happening NOW and the potential in the near future. I wouldn't care as much about history or longevity beyond factoring in the likelihood that the event survives/grows. So that said, One Spark to me benefits greatly from the growth potential, the cool factor, and the change in perception/reputation. Economic impact from a sports game is awesome and real, but it's nothing more than that. If a sports event were the biggest for its stage then that would be on the same scale...as One Spark transcends because of its uniqueness. Just my opinion.

Ditto for me on One Spark. Plus, it's rising quickly. It was huge for a second-year event, I thought.  Also, an honorable mention, especially for runners and people who follow them, is the Gate River Run which is now the official U.S. Championship run in its category and attracts a boatload of out-of-towners. In fact, Jax is becoming known in general as a runner's town for competitions, etc.

That's cool. It does always seem like a big event, but I really have no idea how it compares to other official runs as that isn't really my world at all. I did hit Burrito Gallery yesterday afternoon and was surprised to see about ten different Crossfit teams (maybe 75 or so people) pass through the restaurant while I was there. Googled it and realized the Southeast Regionals of the Crossfit games were being held at the Arena. It would be great if Jax can build its reputation for fitness! (My buddy is an Xfit coach in DC and he judges at the National Championships of the Crossfit games so I am very aware how serious these athletes take it)

[exile]

Crossfit is huge and getting even bigger, the games are now broadcast on ESPN. The Southeast Regional's are held in Jacksonville every year at the Veteran's Memorial Arena. City government and corporate leadership needs to support the games, because I'm sure other cities in the southeast will try luring the regional games to their city, especially as the popularity and media exposure increase. Maybe the city could even do something crazy and try to lure the CrossFit Games to Jacksonville. At the very least, this is something the city should be building upon. Justin Bergh, who owns CrossFit Southside, is the Crossfit Games General Manager, and Lead Instructor for the CF HQ Seminar Team. He was interviewed for Bloomberg's C-Suite show about CrossFit, and could be a good resource.

[ProjectMaximus]

Oh wow, I did not know the Crossfit Games GM was local. That's a bit of cache that I'm gonna drop with my friends in the future. And of course I agree, it would be great to keep this in Jax as it continues to grow!