Alan Verlander Resigns

[pierre]

Just to clarify
Verlander's primary focus will be on non-Gator Bowl events.. like college basketball tournaments, neutral site college football games (Notre Dame and Navy will finally be coming here the weekend before the Florida-Georgia game in 2015 or 2016-announcement is forthcoming, with another possible Florida State game not far behind), college baseball tournaments, possibly SEC women's basketball tournament, pro sports exhibition games and even things like large youth baseball/lacrosse/softball tournaments, etc.

Not having to spend so much time accomodating public records requests for every piece of scratch paper you ever threw away will probably allow him to be much more productive in bringing these types of things to the city.

SO basically he has the same job, but for a non-profit.

[fieldafm]

Pretty much.

[CityLife]

Will the city be filling his old position?

[fieldafm]

Supposedly yes.  I think Joel Lamp will be acting in Verlander's old position in the interim.

[mtraininjax]

SO basically he has the same job, but for a non-profit.

they are grooming him for Catlett's job as he loses his focus on working with the major conferences. Catlett is done. Put a fork in him. Give Verlander a year, then look for him to take the reigns, hopefully Catlett will not have relegated us to the level of the Armed Forces Bowl Game by then. Ugh!

[copperfiend]

SO basically he has the same job, but for a non-profit.

they are grooming him for Catlett's job as he loses his focus on working with the major conferences. Catlett is done. Put a fork in him. Give Verlander a year, then look for him to take the reigns, hopefully Catlett will not have relegated us to the level of the Armed Forces Bowl Game by then. Ugh!

I remember when the BCS started, Carlett went after being part of the rotation. There was even talk of it being the 5th BCS bowl. Once that did not happen, the Gator Bowl definitely got shuffled back to the middle-lower range of bowls. Hopefully Verlander can inject some life into it.

[tufsu1]

keep in mind that Jacksonville has applied to host the National Championship game in 2016 or 2017...the 2015 game will be held in Jerry's palace.

[mtraininjax]

The game is pretty much a disappointment, if you look at the views of the stands, yes it is raining, but almost no one in the 2nd deck and pretty sparse in the lower bowl. Only the sections with the bands seem to be great camera fodder.

I think the Jags, even at 4-12 pulled more fans per game than what we have here. Even with UGA as a team, not even they can draw enough fans. Disappointing!

[fsquid]

Bowl games are nothing but exhibition games the fleece the participating school.

[tufsu1]

neither UFA or Nebraska fans were excited about this game....for 3 reasons

1. Each had a disappointing season
2. They played each other last year in a bowl game
3. Each school has been to Jax recently

Fact is that aligning with the SEC and Big 10 means that the Gator Bowl basically gets the 5th or 6th place team in each league.  If they can't get a major sponsor and increase the payout significantly, this game will be relegated to 4th tier

[mtraininjax]

neither UFA or Nebraska fans were excited about this game....for 3 reasons

1. Each had a disappointing season
2. They played each other last year in a bowl game
3. Each school has been to Jax recently

Fact is that aligning with the SEC and Big 10 means that the Gator Bowl basically gets the 5th or 6th place team in each league.  If they can't get a major sponsor and increase the payout significantly, this game will be relegated to 4th tier

Believe me, I understand, I was on the GBA for a few years, I was there when then GBA president at the time picked Virginia and Texas Tech, and people hurled obscenities at me in the parking lot because they had stacks of tickets they could not even give away. The match-ups have really stunk for the last 10 years. I lay the whole mess at the top of the leadership of the Gator Bowl. They have been pushed out of the way for the likes of other cities and bowl games.  We are soon to be relegated to the likes of the Music City Bowl with mediocre teams. Sad fall from grace from what was a premier bowl game.

I hope Verlander can restore the shine.

[pierre]

I think the Jags, even at 4-12 pulled more fans per game than what we have here. Even with UGA as a team, not even they can draw enough fans. Disappointing!

The Jags got easily 10k more at games than the Gator Bowl. What a joke. I was not expecting a big crowd but I was stunned at how empty it was.

[pierre]

We are soon to be relegated to the likes of the Music City Bowl with mediocre teams. Sad fall from grace from what was a premier bowl game.

Aren't we already?

[civil42806]

We are soon to be relegated to the likes of the Music City Bowl with mediocre teams. Sad fall from grace from what was a premier bowl game.

Aren't we already?

The Gator Bowl is definitely a 3rd or 4th string bowl, thats hard to believe.  I remember when it was a major bowl just behind the big 4 (rose, sugar, cotton, orange).  Things change, but I was shocked to see the what everbank looked like at this game, not much point in having it if they can't do better.  They are going to have to greatly increase the payout and get higher ranked teams, be more selective on who they bring in, otherwise it will continue to slip.
'

[tufsu1]

This will change with the playoff, but right now...

Tier 1 are the BCS bowls (Rose, Sugar, Fiesta, Orange) 

Tier 2 includes Cotton, Chick-Fil-A, Outback, and Capital One Bowls

The Gator Bowl is at the top of the 3rd tier, but if they aren't careful, they will drop below the Belk Bowl, Music City Bowl, Liberty Bowl, etc.