It's now been 10 years since Jacksonville hosted the Super Bowl.
While I was here in Jax for the event, I was really to young to soak any of it in. I was curious to those who were present in Jax for the event some memories or stories you have. What did we do right? What went horribly wrong, etc.
Thanks!
Wow, it's already been a decade? Time flies. To me our greatest mishap was not properly utilizing the momentum of hosting to event to push a legacy project into reality. Most cities have utilized big events like this to build something that enhances the event experience but remains for residents to enjoy after the week long circus has ended. Houston built a starter LRT system in time for their game. Detroit built Campus Martius Park in time for their hosting of the event. We lighted a few bridges and repaved several streets. Bad move on our part. DT momentum soon died afterwards.
It was fun seeing all the people downtown and the lights on the bridges, including the Main St Bridge....now only half-assed lit...surprised any of them are still on. Agree with Lake, huge missed opportunity to push a legacy project.
Quote from: thelakelander on January 27, 2015, 05:48:49 PM
Wow, it's already been a decade? Time flies. To me our greatest mishap was not properly utilizing the momentum of hosting to event to push a legacy project into reality. Most cities have utilized big events like this to build something that enhances the event experience but remains for residents to enjoy after the week long circus has ended. Houston built a starter LRT system in time for their game. Detroit built Campus Martius Park in time for their hosting of the event. We lighted a few bridges and repaved several streets. Bad move on our part. DT momentum soon died afterwards.
The Super Bowl here reminded me of the circus. Everything came into town and looked good at the time. A day after it was over, you'd barely know it had been here.
I agree, it was a circus that set up their tent and then left town.
We made the mistake of trying (repeat "trying") to walk through the Landing the night before.
My wife loved the tours and free breakfast on the cruise ships docked here. While the press kind of mocked it, I thought it was a great idea. Too bad we couldn't get a permanent downtown cruise terminal out of the deal.
The hotels in and around the area loved it, but I talked to a few restaurant owners and they said it was a minor blip on the sales charts. Why? I asked. Simply put, all of the events around town were catered. No one went out, everything was brought to them basically.
People I knew at AT&T (Bell South) were stationed at different locations throughout the area to either supervise VIP events with video feeds or at the CO's in case of a unwanted event.
JEA had trucks driving up and down the ROW's for their high power lines making sure no one was messing with them.
The Philly fans complained the most about the accommodations.
We should really bid on the game for 2019 and/or 2020.
Quote from: Downtown Osprey on January 27, 2015, 05:19:42 PM
It's now been 10 years since Jacksonville hosted the Super Bowl.
While I was here in Jax for the event, I was really to young to soak any of it in. I was curious to those who were present in Jax for the event some memories or stories you have. What did we do right? What went horribly wrong, etc.
Thanks!
We took advantage of some of the Super Bowl activities. We did the cruise ship tour and meal and loved it. The views of the city from that angle and height were so cool. A lot of watercraft activity. Steve Nichols was the Waterways Coordinator for COJ at the time
Another activity that we experimented with was the recent opening of the Northbank Riverwalk and we parked around riverside near RAM and walked to the Landing. before we got to the Landing they were setting up for a party at the Times Union Center and people were walking in both directions. Then we went over the Main St. bridge and just walked everywhere.
So anyway it's getting later. Fireworks were scheduled later. This was early in Super Bowl week and people may recall the weather wasn't Jax Chamber, JEA Buildin, DCPS Teachin, JEDC Spacin. It was Northeasterin nasty. Overcast, at times a drizzle, a damp cold. So we have been walking for hours and it is time to make it back to our car near RAM. We walk over the Main St. bridge go through the Landing and when we get to the Times Union the Riverwalk has been shut down. Your kidding! Private Party! I see then council member Elaine Brown far in the group. Elaine correct me if I'm wrong on this. So anyway how do you get back to the Riverwalk?
We go back to the Landing now mind you it's late in the afternoon we have been having a good time up until this point. It is getting dark. a cold dampness with a slight drizzle and some wind. We get up to Bay St. Traffic is building and there are cones and barricades everywhere. Construction will never stop. Again where do you reconnect with our Riverwalk?
We are now walking the bridge to Riverside Ave. and climbing over walls and more barricades. The Fun factor has diminished. We get to the Haskell company and the security guard stops us and we tell him that the Riverwalk has been shut down at the Times Union Center and we point to the Riverwalk and we just want to get back to it. He grants us permission and we cut through. Our shoes are now muddy and wet but we have been reunited with the Riverwalk. We get back to the car and just passed on the fireworks.
The lighting of the bridges was very positive as was the cruise ship experience.
The biggest negative is the SUPER restriction to access to our St. Johns River our American Heritage River a FEDERAL Initiative. Why is this allowed to continue to happen?
My biggest story is that a friend got my sister and me gigs checking in folks at the Maxim party held at the Cummer the night before the game. Not something I'd ever do, but I needed the money, and we got to go in and get free drinks after our shift. Saw lots of people who were apparently a thing at the time.
We had to try at the time, and hosting the Super Bowl is probably an even bigger accomplishment than being awarded an NFL expansion franchise in 1993, but that still doesn't mean it was a good idea. The three most important things you need to host an event like the Super Bowl are hotels, reliable mass transportation, and world-class nightlife. Jacksonville was woefully behind the regular rotation of Super Bowl cities in all three regards. We had to bring in cruise ships to house visitors (spoiler: much of the economic windfall sailed away after the game), cabs were impossible to come by, and the night-life was hollow and phony.
It shouldn't have come as a major shock then when the world quickly discovered that the Emperor wasn't wearing any clothes.
For all the very valid complaints about entitled sportswriters being critical of Jacksonville, the fact remains that people paid tens of thousands of dollars to attend the Super Bowl, and with that investment, they expect a certain type of experience that Jacksonville -- bless its heart -- simply cannot provide organically.
We got crucified in the mass media, and even the positive write-ups were in the spirit of "How Cute! Small market tried really hard!"
The news-cycle is short and most people barely remember that the Super Bowl was ever held in Jacksonville, but to me, the real tragedy of it all is the opportunity cost. So much time, money, and effort went into this planning this single game at a time when the economy was absolutely banging. To think what could have come from that energy had we put it toward actually trying to become something rather than playing dress-up for a week.
It's also worth noting how sad it is that for all the years of planning and tens of millions of dollars that went into making Super Bowl XXXIX the perfect marketing tool for Jacksonville, we seem to find so many creative ways to trash our reputation for free, whether it be the bigoted courthouse wedding nonsense, the human rights ordinance, Clay Yarborough's porn, etc.
Hindsight's 20/20 though, and who knows, maybe with better weather the press would have been better.
Realistically, when the economy took a nosedive in 2007, we lost the opportunity to ever be able to say with certainty what kind of an impact Super Bowl XXXIX had on the area.
In my opinion though, we should stay as far away from the host city discussion as possible until we get our house in order. Take all those resources and instead focus them on building up our core, enhancing the night life, putting the mass transit in place, improving our infrastructure, creating day-to-day demand for additional hotel beds, and pushing all of the small-minded, backwoods trash out of our city government.
That way, when the game does come back to Jacksonville in a decade or two, we'll be ready to deliver a beautiful "fuck you" to the doubters.
I was a Super Bowl volunteer. I was assigned to the tug-of-war at the NFL Experience which was on the Southbank side of the river near Channel 4 I believe.
I remember the volunteer "manager" corps was staffed with misanthropic, frustrated carnival boss-man types. The one I directly worked for owned some kind of "jumpy-house" business. I'll assume he was pulled from his bed and made to work the event against his will. He didn't grasp the idea that being a volunteer should at least be a little fun. What a fun day of listening to him say he wouldn't hire people like us to shovel the shit out of his septic tank. Yeah, ten years later, fuck that guy.
As for the rest of the Super Bowl Experience, I remember some Philly fans flooding their hotel room on purpose and we had a great time down at Pete's Bar where the Superbowl wasn't.
I had a good time with friends and then things went back to normal. I miss the video lights on the MSB the most.
Superbowl week 2005
It started off with me turning on a hotel TV in Stamford, CT which showed the ESPN analyst sarcastically announcing "Broadcasting to you live from sunny Jacksonville, Florida!" You could see their breath, it was overcast and drizzling. I flew back to Jax later that day.
I was single and lived in 11E back then. Met a girl at Sherwoods and walked across the Main street bridge with the cruise ships dotting the river ( and we actually walked down the center of the span, it was closed off to vehicle traffic that week) and then into the carnival atmosphere of Bay st which, looked way worse than it does today. I remember one temporary bar actually having haystacks and buckets of bottled beer. (maybe it wasn't hay, might be a false memory)
This girl I had met at Sherwoods had just moved from a small town in South Carolina, worked at the Charthouse and was amazed at how busy Jacksonville was. She met a ton of celebrities working the Charthouse that weekend. Chris Rock & Owen Wilson are the only one that I can recall, but there were others.
We watched the Superbowl in the lobby of the Crown Plaza, I was rooting for the Eagles since they were the underdog. After they lost I remember the Eagles fans were pissed. They were almost about to riot, knocking over a few porta-porties, but it didn't get too out of hand.
Then after the Superbowl packed up, downtown emptied out, insanely fast. The girl I had just met said "what happened, where did everything go, why is it so dead now? I said "Welcome to the real Jacksonville, pal!"
And no this isn't a love story, I had actually forgotten I met someone randomly at a bar that weekend which was a bit out of character, but c'mon. The Superbowl was in town. It was magical and going to transform Jacksonville into a world class city like New York or Tokyo! :D
Aside from my little story there, I remember downtown being fairly busy but it didn't seem busier than Florida Georgia weekend.
I remember Burrito Gallery was under construction but not fully open yet. I don't think Marks or Dive bar or even TSI had opened yet.
London bridge was my stomping grounds back in those days & I remember the Patriot and Eagles fans walking by outfront and asking where all the bars are at. I said "here, this is a bar!" Then they said "no no, i mean like a strip" I told them to try the beaches, because there really weren't any nightlife districts in the urban core at the time, save one or two bars in San Marco or 5 points. I had trouble understanding how they couldn't enjoy my beloved London Bridge.
I think the urban core has improved a lot in terms of nightlife and eating options since 2005, so a superbowl towards the end of this decade shouldn't be out of the question.
I was in college when the game was here. We had a group of about a dozen of us that volunteered for the pregame and halftime show. We were part of the crowd on the field for both parts. We got to watch Paul McCartney, Earth Wind and Fire and The Black Eyes Peas rehearse the week before the game and then perform the night of. It was really one of the coolest things I have gotten a chance to do. During one of the rehearsals in the stadium I also got the chance to briefly meet former President George HW Bush. We also got to see some of the "celebs" at the game like Owen Wilson and Cedric the Entertainer. That week was great.
But I agree with most that the lack of a legacy project is a huge disappointment. We really do not have much to show for hosting.
I had moved DT 2 years before the SB. I took the week off and volunteered to work for the host committee. I spent the first 4 days of that week manning an info booth in the Hyatt (may have still been the Adams Mark then). Game day I was out by the river at Metro Park helping people coming by bus from the cruise ships find their way to the stadium. That week long party DT was a blast!
Vintage Burrito Gallery
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v712/93sportie/newpicsoldputer019.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/93sportie/media/newpicsoldputer019.jpg.html)
It was still AdamsMark
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v712/93sportie/newpicsoldputer039.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/93sportie/media/newpicsoldputer039.jpg.html)
At least the weather Game Day turned out nice.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v712/93sportie/newpicsoldputer066.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/93sportie/media/newpicsoldputer066.jpg.html)
Quote from: KenFSU on January 27, 2015, 11:48:50 PM
In my opinion though, we should stay as far away from the host city discussion as possible until we get our house in order. Take all those resources and instead focus them on building up our core, enhancing the night life, putting the mass transit in place, improving our infrastructure, creating day-to-day demand for additional hotel beds, and pushing all of the small-minded, backwoods trash out of our city government.
That way, when the game does come back to Jacksonville in a decade or two, we'll be ready to deliver a beautiful "fuck you" to the doubters.
TL;DR - Rather than beg your high-maintenance, gold-digging ex to come back; hit the gym, see a dentist and get an income that doesn't require you to look at the balance on an ATM receipt. When you see her on the street 15 years later, let her make the first move.
that's cute...but that's not how Super Bowl bidding works. We can hit the gym as much as we want (and we should) but we won't ever get them to make the first move.
anyway, it's all about baby steps and hitting smaller milestones that will get us where we want to be in the long run. Things like the World Games which Birmingham, AL will host in 2021.
^^^+100
Quote from: 02roadking on January 28, 2015, 11:15:28 AM
At least the weather Game Day turned out nice.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v712/93sportie/newpicsoldputer066.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/93sportie/media/newpicsoldputer066.jpg.html)
Ok, my memory must've failed me when i said it didn't seem busier than FL/GA weekend. in this image it certainty looks way busier than the average FLA/GA event .
Quote from: ProjectMaximus on January 28, 2015, 12:33:11 PM
that's cute...but that's not how Super Bowl bidding works. We can hit the gym as much as we want (and we should) but we won't ever get them to make the first move.
Which brings us to the question, why bother?
Quotenumerous economists have looked in vain for any evidence that Super Bowl host cities strike it rich.
http://fair.org/home/the-super-bowl-windfall-myth/
Quotethe nation's sports economists, who say the actual number is a fair bit lower. Like, maybe, zero. "There still remains no ex post evidence of an economic impact," says University of South Florida professor Philip Porter, almost audibly sighing over email since, as someone who's been studying this topic for more than a decade, he gets the same question every year at this time. "Super Bowl attendees simply don't buy much that the local economy sells."
http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/66544296/
QuoteThe mayor of Glendale, Ariz., the host of Super Bowl XLIX, expects his city will lose money staging the game. "I totally believe we will lose money on this," mayor Jerry Weiers told ESPN's Mina Kimes.
http://www.si.com/nfl/2015/01/20/super-bowl-xlix-glendale-mayor-lose-money
Quote from: ProjectMaximus on January 28, 2015, 12:33:11 PM
that's cute...but that's not how Super Bowl bidding works. We can hit the gym as much as we want (and we should) but we won't ever get them to make the first move.
anyway, it's all about baby steps and hitting smaller milestones that will get us where we want to be in the long run. Things like the World Games which Birmingham, AL will host in 2021.
I understand that's not how it works. Even LA can't get the NFL to make a move, per se, but we should at least do the other stuff regardless.
We were awarded a pity party. To use another analogy, essentially, we were "Carrie" and the Superbowl was our prom. Difference is, we never made it out of the gym. It burned down around us.
Quote from: Non-RedNeck Westsider on January 28, 2015, 03:08:08 PM
Quote from: ProjectMaximus on January 28, 2015, 12:33:11 PM
that's cute...but that's not how Super Bowl bidding works. We can hit the gym as much as we want (and we should) but we won't ever get them to make the first move.
anyway, it's all about baby steps and hitting smaller milestones that will get us where we want to be in the long run. Things like the World Games which Birmingham, AL will host in 2021.
I understand that's not how it works. Even LA can't get the NFL to make a move, per se, but we should at least do the other stuff regardless.
We were awarded a pity party. To use another analogy, essentially, we were "Carrie" and the Superbowl was our prom. Difference is, we never made it out of the gym. It burned down around us.
I used to think that until the NFL started awarding Super Bowls to cold weather cities. Turns out the warm weather Super Bowl was just a Rozelle/Tagliabue thing so the owners could get together and play golf.
Quote from: finehoe on January 28, 2015, 01:40:20 PM
Which brings us to the question, why bother?
Quotenumerous economists have looked in vain for any evidence that Super Bowl host cities strike it rich.
http://fair.org/home/the-super-bowl-windfall-myth/
With great fanfare,I was involved with Jax Super Bowl boating activities downtown,temporary docks,all to put Jacksonville on the "Yachting" map.What a waste of time.
Driving home from Downtown at the height of Super Bowl activity,I will never forget the image of The Brick in Avondale- one customer at the bar.