Florida/Georgia Game

[Ernest Street]

And The stadium had to contractually add how many extra seats?!?..

[thelakelander]

Lol, did Georgia spend too much time partying last night? The swamp may be dry but I guess a dying gator can still bite.

[Ocklawaha]

The way I see it the whole thing could pack up and leave with a zinger of a surprise. Think what would happen if Lake City and Valdosta got together on the game and worked with both universities? The I-75 rivalry? A new college stadium somewhere on the border would be a coup. Just saying something like this, a wild shot in the dark could happen! BTW, Valdosta has 3 stadiums that range from 10,000 to 25,000 seats and there is talk of consolidating them all in one place. Georgia Southern is also building a new stadium...

Lake City, FL. POPULATION - 67,531   Columbia County, Florida   
Valdosta, GA. POPULATION - 139,588  Lowndes County, Georgia
Total MSA POPULATIONS - 207,119 ...Or a bit bigger then Jacksonville until about 1965.

[JeffreyS]

[Ocklawaha]

See what I mean? This has Valdosta written all over it!

[Ernest Street]

Aww HELL NAW!

[Keith-N-Jax]

Great game and the DT was full of people!! Go Gators!!

[Coolyfett]

Sure seem to be alot of empty seats today compared to past years.  Especially upper deck on Gator side.

empty seats?

[Badfinger]

The Florida/Georgia game is all about the almighty dollar, great article in the business journal supports that idea!

http://jacksonville.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/stories/2009/10/05/story1.html?ana=e_ph

Still waiting for you to back up your Catlett comment with anything. I get the feeling I will be waiting for a while.

Five years and still no response.

Anyone surprised?

[RattlerGator]

Sure seem to be alot of empty seats today compared to past years.  Especially upper deck on Gator side.

empty seats?

I was there, and the place was packed. I had a surprising number of Georgia fans seated around me on the Gator side of the stadium. It was super sweet to see them get the hell out of dodge before the end of the game.

[I-10east]

^^^Yup, the announced attendance was 83, 004.

[mtraininjax]

I wonder if people realize just how much the fate of this game in JAX is tied to the Jaguars, and having a stadium that can compete and hold serve with other venues.

Jacksonville Municipal Stadium, formerly the Gator Bowl Stadium, is the new name after the 1995 upgrades. With the temporary seating, they can get up to 84,000 fans in the stands. But, at a cost though too. The pools and video boards took out 7,000 of the former seats, so these cost the city 1-2 million each year to erect and take down. The pools and video were not built for the FL/GA game, nor for the Country Superfest or even the Monster Truck Jam, sadly not even for the motorcross or Little Gator Bowl.

But they are nice to see from space!

However, the building is showing its age, the food prep areas have not been updated, and the Club Sections are still in need of updates as there are repeated food and drink prep issues on gamedays. If you ask Levy, who manages these areas, I am sure its the City's fault, and visa versa. Not sure the toilet issue from the Super Bowl was ever finally resolved.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

There has always been a cost to erect temporary seating for the FL/GA game.  It has, up until this year, been in the $660k-700k range. 

Starting this year it has jumped to just over $1M, but that has little to do with the pools and everything to do with the schools' (Yeah, that's plural) request for upgrading seating that included backs and cupholders instead of the traditional bench seating that has been good enough up to this point.  But why risk losing the game over a couple hundred thousand dollars?  Placate the schools and get them to extend the contract for another 10-12 years in 2016, because during the next round of negotiations, we're going to be bidding against a newly constructed stadium in the suburbs of Atlanta.

Too bad that the actual reasons that things happen don't matter nearly as much as the perceived reasons.

[edjax]

Not to mention I believe we will be paying over 1 million per season to convert the Baseball Grounds for the Armada.  The Fla/GA game has way more impact economically than the entire season of Armada will have so I think the 1.6 million or whatever it is a good investment in comparison.

[bill]

There has always been a cost to erect temporary seating for the FL/GA game.  It has, up until this year, been in the $660k-700k range. 

Starting this year it has jumped to just over $1M, but that has little to do with the pools and everything to do with the schools' (Yeah, that's plural) request for upgrading seating that included backs and cupholders instead of the traditional bench seating that has been good enough up to this point.  But why risk losing the game over a couple hundred thousand dollars?  Placate the schools and get them to extend the contract for another 10-12 years in 2016, because during the next round of negotiations, we're going to be bidding against a newly constructed stadium in the suburbs of Atlanta.

Too bad that the actual reasons that things happen don't matter nearly as much as the perceived reasons.

The schools wanted what was taken out to be put back. Chair backs, it was not an upgrade