Super Bowl 2014 in New Jersey?? Bad, bad idea

[mtraininjax]

I thought it was interesting that the NFL owners vetoed Tampa and Miami in favor of New York. Hey, it is a 1.6 billion dollar stadium and while Sam Kouvaris can claim that Chicago, Washington, Buffalo all want a Super Bowl, you better have a new stadium to go along with your bid. The locations getting Super Bowls, Dallas, NY, and Indy is still new (Lucas Oil Field), are all very new with billions invested in and around them.

I don't see Jax getting another super bowl until we expand the Hyatt and convention center downtown, and that is further off than street cars downtown.

[Mattius92]

Yep Jacksonville is going to have to do some work.

[Dapperdan]

What work do we need to do? I don't think our stadium needs any work. We have a large stadium, updated facilities, more hotels than before. Why not try again?

[reednavy]

Probably because we lack mass transit and wtf are people going to do besides drink and party at the Landing or Laura Street and go be a tourist in St. Augustine? That was the major problem, besides accomodations, there was nothing really to do around here that didn't require jumping in the car and trekking across town.

[Tripoli1711]

I think Chicago and Washington's stadiums are sufficiently new to obtain a Super Bowl.  Buffalo, not so much.  I hope Buffalo does get a SB, they would hands-down replace Jacksonville as the most reviled of all time.

[Tripoli1711]

Probably because we lack mass transit and wtf are people going to do besides drink and party at the Landing or Laura Street and go be a tourist in St. Augustine? That was the major problem, besides accomodations, there was nothing really to do around here that didn't require jumping in the car and trekking across town.

To say that the Super Bowl "establishment" thought Jacksonville was a total snooze-fest would be an understatement.  The Super Bowl is much more "event" than it is "football game".  While those who were fair in their review all agreed that Jacksonville put on a nice week and everyone was friendly and it was a nice place.. these people are used to South Beach and Burbon Street.  If asked "would you want to come back to Jacksonville for a Super Bowl if you had your choice" my guess is that 95% of them would say "not unless I had to".

[finehoe]

Jax's urban sprawl makes for Super tough week
Posted: Friday February 4, 2005 4:27PM; Updated: Friday February 4, 2005 4:44PM

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Despite rumors to the contrary, there is a downtown to this Super Bowl city. There is a here here.

Granted, it's not the hot spot that a lot of highfalutin northerners expect to find. And, yeah, maybe it takes a little work to hail a taxi around here. Or to find a good restaurant. Or, maybe, just to find downtown. (Hint: Look for the bigger buildings, the backwards-flowing river and a lot of bridges.)

A spruced-up downtown is here, all right, smack dab along the shores of the St. John's River. And to prove it, they shot off fireworks from a barge in the middle of the river Thursday night. A crowd watched from the riverbanks, one deep.

Yeah, it's been a rough start to Super Bowl week on Florida's First Coast.

Jacksonville, with a population around 1.2 million, is the smallest market ever to hold the Super Bowl. (NFL owners, who vote on who gets the big game, really, really like the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Wayne Weaver.) But, strangely, it's the largest area to ever host the game in simple terms of getting around. Jacksonville, at a Super-sized 840ish square miles, is the biggest city in the contiguous 48.

So it's not just downtown that Jacksonville is all about. It's Jacksonville Beach, about 12 miles or so to the east of downtown. It's the new Jacksonville Equestrian Center, way west of downtown, site of Friday's annual Commissioner's Bash (capitalized without authorization from the NFL). It's Little Talbot Island State Park way, way north of downtown, and it's even the Renaissance World Golf Village, the home this week of the Patriots, which is way, way, waaaay south. It's so far south it's actually in St. Augustine.

Figure this out: Jacksonville is the biggest U.S. city this side of Alaska and they can't get everybody staying within the city limits?

Actually, the main reason for that is that the downtown area, where Alltel Stadium is located, has a famous dearth of hotel rooms, necessitating the use this week of six cruise ships that will house somewhere around 7,600 people. Even the cruise ships aren't enough, though, so out-of-towners are staying all over Duval County and points beyond. That means a lot of driving and a lot of valuable drinking time wasted.

The city, the whole area -- practically all of Northeast Florida -- has been getting savaged in the national press because of the room thing and the driving thing and the lack of a central place for eating and drinking thing. Jacksonville, to be sure, is not on the Top 50 list of cosmopolitan areas. Folks crack wise about the smell (a coffee plant, river and paper mill mixture) and the location (it's barely Florida, after all). But to be fair, Jax is getting grief largely because of something it can't control.

The weather here, generally very nice at this time of year (average high, 67 degrees), has been brutal. Chilly, gray and rainy. It's definitely put a damper on things, crushing attendance at the riverside fireworks show Thursday night, the free concerts at the downtown baseball park and the NFL's interactive theme park, the NFL Experience.

Of course, a lot of the crankiness exhibited by the media comes because those highfalutin northerners are so high and falutin. The truth is, plenty of people already are having fun despite the layout and the downpours. In fact, some people who maybe shouldn't be having fun are having fun.

Eagles players Dhani Jones (snazzy in his bowtie) and Freddie Mitchell (snazzy himself in a useful wool cap) were seen Thursday night at a trendy nightclub called Endo Exo, which is in the "historic" (translate that as "old but trying to look cool") San Marco area of the city. That's just across the river from Alltel Stadium but a nice ride from the Eagles' hotel, the Sawgrass Marriott on Ponte Vedra Beach, just south of Jacksonville Beach.

Mitchell looked a little worried about being seen heading into a club just three nights before the big game -- until he spotted Jeff Lurie in the crowd.

"As long as my owner's here," Mitchell told a reporter, "we'll be all right."

Meanwhile, at Plush, a nightclub just east of downtown, several football greats (John Elway and Lawrence Taylor among them) braved the chilly weather for a party.

Lots of celebrities are already in town or are rumored to be heading this way. Snoop Dogg, Chris Rock, Jennifer Aniston, Adam Sandler, John Travolta, P. Diddy, Puff Daddy, Sean Combs (just seeing if you're paying attention).

And this weekend, all the big parties are happening. Saturday night alone, there's the Playboy Party (bunnies!), the Maxim Party (babes in skimpy clothing!) and the Sports Illustrated Super Swimsuit Model Party (Peter King!).

Remember, it's not as if this town doesn't know how to get down and dirty. This is the site of the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, a little annual football game and binge-drinking showdown between the football teams from Florida and Georgia and their fans.

All that said, it's true that Jacksonville will not go down as he best site the Super Bowl has ever seen. But with a little break from the weather this weekend, a few more drinks, a decent game and a good halftime show, it won't be the worst. The halftime show, featuring Paul McCartney, might actually provide something truly memorable.

"We're going to play NAKED!" McCartney told reporters Thursday.

Wow. If that happens, people will remember Jacksonville for a long, long time.

[finehoe]

^^That's from Sports Illustrated, btw.

[reednavy]

I'm not saying people didn't have fun, but not having enough to do at a central location can really hurt our image and the amount of money will people to spend on food, beverages, etc. because they're paying for gas to get around town.

We honestly don't deserve another SB before we get our downtown's shit together.

[mtraininjax]

Soldier Field only holds 61,500, was updated in 2003, 7 years ago. Uh, I don't think the owners would go for that smallish stadium. Jax can handle a lot more and did for SB 39. FedEx field was opened in 1997, and sits as ranked 28 out of 32 stadiums for the NFL experience per SI. Buffalo is a joke, forget it.

I agree, we need our downtown SPIFF together before we get another crack. The Hyatt needs a lot more rooms to offer a credible solution.

[duvaldude08]

Jax's urban sprawl makes for Super tough week
Posted: Friday February 4, 2005 4:27PM; Updated: Friday February 4, 2005 4:44PM

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Despite rumors to the contrary, there is a downtown to this Super Bowl city. There is a here here.

Granted, it's not the hot spot that a lot of highfalutin northerners expect to find. And, yeah, maybe it takes a little work to hail a taxi around here. Or to find a good restaurant. Or, maybe, just to find downtown. (Hint: Look for the bigger buildings, the backwards-flowing river and a lot of bridges.)

A spruced-up downtown is here, all right, smack dab along the shores of the St. John's River. And to prove it, they shot off fireworks from a barge in the middle of the river Thursday night. A crowd watched from the riverbanks, one deep.

Yeah, it's been a rough start to Super Bowl week on Florida's First Coast.

Jacksonville, with a population around 1.2 million, is the smallest market ever to hold the Super Bowl. (NFL owners, who vote on who gets the big game, really, really like the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Wayne Weaver.) But, strangely, it's the largest area to ever host the game in simple terms of getting around. Jacksonville, at a Super-sized 840ish square miles, is the biggest city in the contiguous 48.

So it's not just downtown that Jacksonville is all about. It's Jacksonville Beach, about 12 miles or so to the east of downtown. It's the new Jacksonville Equestrian Center, way west of downtown, site of Friday's annual Commissioner's Bash (capitalized without authorization from the NFL). It's Little Talbot Island State Park way, way north of downtown, and it's even the Renaissance World Golf Village, the home this week of the Patriots, which is way, way, waaaay south. It's so far south it's actually in St. Augustine.

Figure this out: Jacksonville is the biggest U.S. city this side of Alaska and they can't get everybody staying within the city limits?

Actually, the main reason for that is that the downtown area, where Alltel Stadium is located, has a famous dearth of hotel rooms, necessitating the use this week of six cruise ships that will house somewhere around 7,600 people. Even the cruise ships aren't enough, though, so out-of-towners are staying all over Duval County and points beyond. That means a lot of driving and a lot of valuable drinking time wasted.

The city, the whole area -- practically all of Northeast Florida -- has been getting savaged in the national press because of the room thing and the driving thing and the lack of a central place for eating and drinking thing. Jacksonville, to be sure, is not on the Top 50 list of cosmopolitan areas. Folks crack wise about the smell (a coffee plant, river and paper mill mixture) and the location (it's barely Florida, after all). But to be fair, Jax is getting grief largely because of something it can't control.

The weather here, generally very nice at this time of year (average high, 67 degrees), has been brutal. Chilly, gray and rainy. It's definitely put a damper on things, crushing attendance at the riverside fireworks show Thursday night, the free concerts at the downtown baseball park and the NFL's interactive theme park, the NFL Experience.

Of course, a lot of the crankiness exhibited by the media comes because those highfalutin northerners are so high and falutin. The truth is, plenty of people already are having fun despite the layout and the downpours. In fact, some people who maybe shouldn't be having fun are having fun.

Eagles players Dhani Jones (snazzy in his bowtie) and Freddie Mitchell (snazzy himself in a useful wool cap) were seen Thursday night at a trendy nightclub called Endo Exo, which is in the "historic" (translate that as "old but trying to look cool") San Marco area of the city. That's just across the river from Alltel Stadium but a nice ride from the Eagles' hotel, the Sawgrass Marriott on Ponte Vedra Beach, just south of Jacksonville Beach.

Mitchell looked a little worried about being seen heading into a club just three nights before the big game -- until he spotted Jeff Lurie in the crowd.

"As long as my owner's here," Mitchell told a reporter, "we'll be all right."

Meanwhile, at Plush, a nightclub just east of downtown, several football greats (John Elway and Lawrence Taylor among them) braved the chilly weather for a party.

Lots of celebrities are already in town or are rumored to be heading this way. Snoop Dogg, Chris Rock, Jennifer Aniston, Adam Sandler, John Travolta, P. Diddy, Puff Daddy, Sean Combs (just seeing if you're paying attention).

And this weekend, all the big parties are happening. Saturday night alone, there's the Playboy Party (bunnies!), the Maxim Party (babes in skimpy clothing!) and the Sports Illustrated Super Swimsuit Model Party (Peter King!).

Remember, it's not as if this town doesn't know how to get down and dirty. This is the site of the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, a little annual football game and binge-drinking showdown between the football teams from Florida and Georgia and their fans.

All that said, it's true that Jacksonville will not go down as he best site the Super Bowl has ever seen. But with a little break from the weather this weekend, a few more drinks, a decent game and a good halftime show, it won't be the worst. The halftime show, featuring Paul McCartney, might actually provide something truly memorable.

"We're going to play NAKED!" McCartney told reporters Thursday.

Wow. If that happens, people will remember Jacksonville for a long, long time.

I really do think our logistics made it bad, and the hotel room thing. If everything was centrally located downtown and we had ample hotel rooms we would be fine. But with the party scence progressing downtown and the boom of hotels that has popped up over the past 6 years, we'll be ready for another within the next 5-10 years.

[mtraininjax]

If Miami gets a new stadium, we will be screwed here, as there will be no reason to hold it here in Jax, as Miami has a lot more for NFL execs to do.

[duvaldude08]

FYi- The year after the SB was here, it was held in Tampa and they did not have ample hotel space. People were staying in orlando, kissimee and tampa metro area. So thats show's the NFL grants the SB to whom they want, regardless of circumstances.

And I have an idea for Mayor Johnny boy, instead using that money to spruce up metro park, why not demolish it and just build some hotel's on that whole strip near the stadium so we can get another SB? 

[Keith-N-Jax]

We were lucky to get the first one, and don't deserve another one with downtown still pretty much unchanged since 2005. Hard to believe the NFL tells other cities they need a dome then give NJ/NY a super bowl. I hope its -7 and a blizzard.

[Keith-N-Jax]

Doesn't matter if Miami gets a new stadium, we had our shot and really didn't feed off the momentum after the SB. Both Miami and Tampa have more to their DT than Jax. We may not even have an NFL in a few yrs.