When I read this I was pretty stunned.
With Florida such a football state and having so many publicly funded football stadiums, only 2 bid to host the playoffs under a new contract and one dropped out after and it wasnt Jacksonville.
Why the avoidance?
Per the Sun-Sentinel:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/highschool/os-orlando-fhsaa-championships-20160525-story.html (http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/highschool/os-orlando-fhsaa-championships-20160525-story.html)
The dust has yet to settle on where the high school football state championship games will be played in the coming years.
The City of Orlando is back in the running as potential hosts after the Florida High School Athletic Association and City of Daytona Beach failed to come to terms on a three-year agreement.
Daytona Beach won the preliminary bidding process in early April and planned to return the games to Daytona Beach Municipal Stadium for the first time since 1996.
"The 30-day negotiating window between the Florida High School Athletic Association and the City of Daytona Beach regarding the hosting of the 2016 FHSAA Football State Championships ended without both sides coming to an agreement," the FHSAA said in a statement released Wednesday morning.
"The failure to reach a deal was a result of both sides not agreeing to the legal wording in portions of the contract, as well as unforeseen overhead expenses realized by the host once the negotiation process began."
The FHSAA said its 30-day negotiation period with the Central Florida Sports Commission will begin soon.
Orlando and Daytona Beach were the lone provider of bids to host the eight state championship games, which have been played at Camping World Stadium, formerly known as the Orlando Citrus Bowl, since 2007.
Daytona Beach Municipal Stadium has hosted the games six times, in 1989-90 and 1993-96.
An FHSAA representative said in April that a scheduling conflict in 2018 and the potential for another conflict in dates later this year was a factor in Orlando losing a narrow bidding process.
Because of those conflicts, the state finals could switch from being played over two separate weekends to taking part over a stretch of three days.
State title games in 2016 are scheduled for either Dec. 8-10 or Dec. 2-3 and Dec. 9-10.
Jacksonville doesn't have a stadium that would be a good fit for this.
I heard from someone privy that Jacksonville could not host this year (as you can see there are Jags home games both of those weekends) and prior to the schedule coming out the Jags could not request those weekends off because they had reached their allotment of requests (due to FL-GA, Navy-ND, and the bye week after London). Supposedly, the Sports Council is indeed working on getting in on future years.
I would be interested in knowing what these " unforseen overhead expenses" are.
It has a very NFL overtone to it.
Most are held at college stadiums in this country. If the NFL team plays with fieldturf, then those are usually used.
Quote from: pierre on May 27, 2016, 02:44:47 PM
Jacksonville doesn't have a stadium that would be a good fit for this.
They have been doing it in Orlando at the citrus bowl, so why not Everbank?
Everbank has a NFL team playing in it. The schedules probably don't align.
Quote from: thelakelander on June 13, 2016, 08:34:10 AM
Everbank has a NFL team playing in it. The schedules probably don't align.
Georgia championships are at the Georgia Dome. Pennsylvania at Heinz Field, Indiana at whatever they call the one in Indy, New Jersey plays 8 of theirs in Metlife.