(http://media.bizj.us/view/img/4175391/screen-shot-2014-10-27-at-95548-am*600xx839-559-0-35.png)
Former NBA players (from left to right) Sam Jones, Charles Barkley, Artis Gilmore, Robert Parish and WNBA player Tamika Catchings attend a reception at the Ritz Theatre in advance of Wednesday's preseason game.. Image courtesy of Jacksonville Business Journal.QuoteAn NBA exhibition game whose proceeds were slated to go to the city's military trust fund netted $1,462, according to city documents, with sponsorship dollars from Jacksonville's independent authorities stopping the event from losing money.
The Oct. 8 exhibition game at Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena between the Washington Wizards and New Orleans Pelicans cost $345,519.
Ticket sales generated $167,289, and sponsorships brought in $138,000, including $25,000 each from the Jacksonville Aviation Authority, Jacksonville Transportation Authority and JEA, the city-owned utility.
Full article: http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2014/10/29/with-ticket-sales-down-city-barely-breaks-even-on.html
What a shocker.
Really the game lost money if it wasn't for $75,000 of taxpayer money from other agencies.
I didn't even know there was one.
Did they do any advertising at all??
(http://i.imgur.com/lWz2Rnt.png)
I know google is finicky, but something should have popped up, no?
I went. Got to see Patric Young play the 4th quarter.
The city should have seen this coming from a mile away. I'm as big of an NBA fan as you're going to find and I'd love to see more basketball in Jacksonville, but if the best you can offer is a Wizards/Pelicans preseason game -- essential a scrimmage between two of the five least popular/interesting teams in the league (based on Google traffic), with no starter playing more than two quarters -- why even bother?
Any number of alternate teams would have sold the place out. Chicago. Cleveland. San Antonio. The Lakers or Clippers. Probably New York. Possibly Houston, Dallas, Golden State. Particularly against a team like Miami or Orlando that is actually relevant to Northeast Florida.
But Wizards/Pelicans, with an average ticket price of $30 per head? Jacksonville knows it deserves better than such table scraps.
Game was doomed from the start, and the mayor/city should have known better than to settle for such a lousy matchup just because it had the NBA name attached.
P.S. One of the line items for the game was:
NBA Legends Player Appearance Expenses - $22,910.30
Bob McAdoo, Robert Parish, Sam Jones and Artis Gilmore were the four legends who spoke around Jacksonville preceding the game and appeared during halftime at the arena.
Be curious to know whether the city paid Gilmore for the appearance, on top of the already questionable salary (I believe close to 100k annually for a part-time job) he receives as the city's "Sports Ambassador."
Quote from: FSBA on October 29, 2014, 08:40:33 AM
Really the game lost money if it wasn't for $75,000 of taxpayer money from other agencies.
Not to mention that it seems unlikely all those other agencies would have chosen to "sponsor" this event with such generous packages if it wasn't being pushed by the mayor.
I went and it was an ok experience. I thought a better idea would have been to have at least one "local" team - Miami, Orlando or Atlanta. But as another poster said - the Wizards/Pelicans really didn't offer any luster. But this was my first NBA game if you can call it that.
Although I don't know why, I was astonished at the final cost of the tickets. Bought two $14 tickets ($28 total) but with the fees it came to $51 total. That's criminal. This "fees" thing is getting way out of hand for these tickets. They all do it. Ticketmaster, Stub Hub, etc. I thought a preseason NBA game in the upper deck for $14 each was a decent price. Not so much for those same tickets at $25 each. The fees need to be more reasonable. But I know that's not going to happen.
Quote from: KenFSU on October 29, 2014, 10:32:31 AMBe curious to know whether the city paid Gilmore for the appearance, on top of the already questionable salary (I believe close to 100k annually for a part-time job) he receives as the city's "Sports Ambassador."
What?? Are you serious? I've never even heard of the guy.
I don't understand why Orlando does not do more to target our market. The way the Jaguars have reached out to markets just outside of Jacksonville. I think they are missing big time on it. They should play a preseason game here every year.
The game was on a weeknight with 2 marginal teams. Move it to a weekend night with some more interesting teams and the turnout will improve.
This game fell subject to tough scheduling as Garth Brooks had the Arena booked solid.
Sponsor revenue was extremely encouraging.
At least it wasnt a debacle like the game on a carrier was at Mayport.
They should get this on the calendar sooner for next year. Along with NCAA playoffs in March, they would make great bookends.
Quote from: acme54321 on October 29, 2014, 12:30:28 PM
Quote from: KenFSU on October 29, 2014, 10:32:31 AMBe curious to know whether the city paid Gilmore for the appearance, on top of the already questionable salary (I believe close to 100k annually for a part-time job) he receives as the city's "Sports Ambassador."
What?? Are you serious? I've never even heard of the guy.
I could just as easily say What? Are you serious you have never heard of him? Just really says you are not a basketball fan or been around Jax for very long or a young one as his name is out there quite a bit. Or perhaps you just forget the sarcasm font.
Yeah totally serious. Your are right on both fronts though.
Either way, what are we paying him $100k for? That was my real issue.
^Artis Gilmore (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artis_Gilmore) is a basketball legend. He led JU to the NCAA championship game in 1970. He played 15 seasons in the ABA and NBA and is in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Definitely one of the greats.
However, no one knows (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artis_Gilmore) what he does as the "sports ambassador", or why Mayor Brown pays him $112,000 for this part time position.
Yea Artis Gilmore is a pretty big deal locally. Led JU to the NCAA title game in 1970 and was a star in the ABA and NBA.
Here's a good story about his role as sports ambassador
http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=540904
^ And here's a really great piece on that 1970 JU team:
http://grantland.com/features/how-jacksonville-earned-credit-card-paul-hemphill/
Quote from: pierre on October 29, 2014, 12:35:28 PM
I don't understand why Orlando does not do more to target our market. The way the Jaguars have reached out to markets just outside of Jacksonville. I think they are missing big time on it. They should play a preseason game here every year.
+100
Quote from: pierre on October 29, 2014, 12:35:28 PM
I don't understand why Orlando does not do more to target our market. The way the Jaguars have reached out to markets just outside of Jacksonville. I think they are missing big time on it. They should play a preseason game here every year.
Completely agree. You can leave Jacksonville and be inside the Amway Arena is less than two and a half hours. The Magic could definitely benefit from more aggressive marketing in Northeast Florida, particularly during stretches like this when they are in rebuilding mode. It wouldn't hurt to have some fans from Jacksonville making the trip over, and with the Magic's local television contract with FSN coming up for renewal soon, it wouldn't hurt to have some extra eyeballs watching either.
Once the London gig is up for the Jaguars, I would love to see us work out some kind of a friendly agreement where Orlando gets a Jaguars' preseason game, and we get three or four Magic preseason games. I'd even be perfectly happy trading a regular season game for a handful of regular season Magic games, assuming the NBA would approve it. It'd be a win-win, each team would gain valuable exposure in the opposite market, and if both sides are getting something out of it, you would probably avoid much of the paranoia about Orlando trying to poach the Jaguars, or vice versa.
The Magic organization seems largely pro-Jacksonville. They used to hold their training camp at UNF during the Dwight Howard era, and last year they held a preseason game here. The Magic have also expressed a strong desire to launch an NBA D-league affiliate in Jacksonville, though that will ultimately depend on when and if the D-league expands to the Southeast.
Given Mayor Brown's goal of bringing an NBA team to Jax, I would be willing to bet he has strategically avoided the Magic. If the Magic become "Jacksonville's team" and locals frequently travel there for games, there becomes even less local demand for an NBA team.
Jacksonville should not, repeat, should not try to host an NBA franchise.
If any town should get a franchise...it should be Seattle. They were robbed by Stern and should get a team back.
Quote from: spuwho on October 29, 2014, 09:40:56 PM
They were robbed by Stern and should get a team back.
Huh??? If you wanna blame someone for the Sonics leaving, blame the awful owner at the time, Mr Starbucks himself Howard Schultz. He sold the team directly to an OKC guy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Schultz
Yes Schultz sold them, but there was some influentual moving parts going on behind the scenes the Stern was fostering that facilitated the move.
There were alternative groups that offered to buy the Sonics from Schultz and keep them in Seattle but there was some interference being run by Stern that made the OKC group the favored option.
It seems inconsistent that the Seattle City Council refused to subsidize a new BB arena when they gladly approved a new football and baseball stadium. The Sonics were profitable and Schultz did well. Just not as well as other owners in their more modern, more public paid arenas. Schultz needed a modern arena but was unwilling to put up enough capital to cover his share of the risk.
In walked an oilman who was willing to overpay for a franchise and provide large sponsorship dollars for a speculative arena being built in downtown OKC.
The rest is history.
Quote from: CityLife on October 29, 2014, 02:26:21 PM
Given Mayor Brown's goal of bringing an NBA team to Jax, I would be willing to bet he has strategically avoided the Magic. If the Magic become "Jacksonville's team" and locals frequently travel there for games, there becomes even less local demand for an NBA team.
It can be his goal all he wants but it is never going to happen. It would be better to try and embrace the Magic and become a secondary market for them.
^ ESPN did a great 30 for 30 on the Seattle robbery. One of the biggest sports tragedies of our lifetime. Pretty lame of Steve Ballmer also to fight so hard for an NBA return to Seattle, and then bail at the first chance to grossly overpay for the Clippers.
Seattle's best chance now at bringing the NBA back is to do the same thing to the Bucks that OKC did to them. When the Bucks were sold over the summer, the NBA put a clause in the contract that stated that if the Bucks don't have a new arena designed, built, and open by the start of the 2017 NBA season, the league can buy the team back for $575 million and sell to new ownership. As of now, Milwaukee doesn't even know where they would build a potential new arena.
The conspiracy theory is that NBA owners do not want a new arena built. When 2017 comes, they could buy the team for $575, sell it to an ownership group in Seattle (for an estimated $1.5 to 1.8 billion), and each walk away with over $30 million profit from the sale. Seattle would get its team back, the owners would have little blood on their own hands, and Milwaukee would be screwed.
Quote from: pierre on October 30, 2014, 09:20:31 AM
Quote from: CityLife on October 29, 2014, 02:26:21 PM
Given Mayor Brown's goal of bringing an NBA team to Jax, I would be willing to bet he has strategically avoided the Magic. If the Magic become "Jacksonville's team" and locals frequently travel there for games, there becomes even less local demand for an NBA team.
It can be his goal all he wants but it is never going to happen. It would be better to try and embrace the Magic and become a secondary market for them.
I was just pointing out that the Mayor has likely avoided embracing the Magic because its counter to his goal of bringing an NBA team here. I think most realistic people in town feel differently than the Mayor.
Doesn't the NBA have a "minor league"? We could start with one of those.
Quote from: urbanlibertarian on October 30, 2014, 11:30:55 AM
Doesn't the NBA have a "minor league"? We could start with one of those.
They do -- the NBA D-League -- but unfortunately, the D-League has no presence in the Southeast:
(http://www.seadubscentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/BvxrGQMIgAAz8Nj.jpg)
And not every NBA team has their own dedicated D-league team; several pro teams even share the same D-league affiliate.
Orlando's, by the way, is the Erie BayHawks in Erie, Pennsylvania.
I wonder if you could get the Magic, Heat, Hornets and Hawks to put teams in cities like Jacksonville, Birmingham and Knoxville
I seem to recall the mayor announced plans to bring a D-league team here affiliated with the Magic.
Quote from: funwithteeth on October 30, 2014, 01:29:18 PM
And not every NBA team has their own dedicated D-league team; several pro teams even share the same D-league affiliate.
Orlando's, by the way, is the Erie BayHawks in Erie, Pennsylvania.
The NBA has recently been trying to put an end to shared D-League affiliates, which could eventually open the door for a team in Jacksonville. New Orleans, Charlotte and Memphis all have D-League affiliates shared by two teams, so the hope is that maybe the league can convince two teams to branch off into Southeastern cities and join Jacksonville in a three-team division.
The Jacksonville Giants were actually formed with the five-year intent of becoming a single-team D-League for the Magic.
Would love to see that happen.