Jaguars amphitheater, flex field construction to begin next month

[thelakelander]

^It won't be central but it's a better space for parkland than Metropolitan Park is.  Anyway, I'd be against the Shipyards becoming a Jacksonville styled public park, which is essentially throwing down some grass, a few trees and benches and not maintaining any of it.  If a public park is the answer, it needs to include a mix of uses, activities, etc. and stimulate economic development in and around it. If we can't get that right, might as well pave it and turn it into another shipping terminal or maritime related industrial use. At least then, it will be placed back on the tax rolls and actually stimulate a few private sector jobs.

[tufsu1]

I don't understand why the project would NOT be subject to DDRB review. By virtue of being located where it is, it should be reviewed. 

you already know the answer to this

[tufsu1]

Corporate welfare debate aside, anyone else think that a land swap actually makes a lot of sense? Open Met Park to development (from whoever), and designate a portion of the Shipyards property as parkland.

that's the plan, but nobody at City Hall will say it / show it publicly.

[Tacachale]

It could make a lot of sense on several levels to do a land swap between Metro Park and the Shipyards. Metro Park is due for a major renovation, and is an ideal location for sports complex-related development, but not for a park. The Shipyards is better located, but the cleanup makes it more difficult to develop, though not necessarily harder to use as a park. It actually has some features that could make for an awesome park, especially if they reopen the piers that are there. It's crazy to me that there's no where to fish or go out over water anywhere downtown. They could also partition parts of the Shipyards and plan the park around the new development.

[JaGoaT]

If the land switch really happens next step would be to move the jail

[martt12]

It would be a glorious day if officials finally go forward with moving the Jail.... I'd love something like a World of Maxwell house but I know that's dreaming to big for Jax right now...

[finehoe]

I'd love something like a World of Maxwell house but I know that's dreaming to big for Jax right now...

Maxwell House employs approximately the same number of people that the Jaguars do.  Why can't we give them millions of taxpayer dollars to create such a  place?  If one business near the stadium can get such funds, why not MH as well?  It's only fair.  And it certainly would be an unique attraction.  Every city of a certain size has a NFL team and/or an amphitheater.  How many have a coffee world?

[blizz01]

Yeah - kids will love coffee world.

[Houseboat Mike]

I'd love something like a World of Maxwell house but I know that's dreaming to big for Jax right now...

Maxwell House employs approximately the same number of people that the Jaguars do.  Why can't we give them millions of taxpayer dollars to create such a  place?  If one business near the stadium can get such funds, why not MH as well?  It's only fair.  And it certainly would be an unique attraction.  Every city of a certain size has a NFL team and/or an amphitheater.  How many have a coffee world?

we did....back when it was us vs. Philly on which plant they would close.

[finehoe]

we did....back when it was us vs. Philly on which plant they would close.

I don't believe Maxwell House ever had a plant in Philadelphia.

[KenFSU]

we did....back when it was us vs. Philly on which plant they would close.

I don't believe Maxwell House ever had a plant in Philadelphia.

Hoboken.

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/20/nyregion/workers-mourn-maxwell-house-s-last-drop.html

[KenFSU]

Looking at the renders again, what I'm having a hard time grasping is this:

If the goal, per Lamping, is a completely interconnected venue, where festival guests, for example, could move from flex space to amphitheater, right into the heart of the stadium, why does the flex field open up directly onto the stage of the amphitheater. Seems strange to me. So you're saying that, on game day, people will be flowing through the flex field into the stadium via the amphitheater stage? Also, from the amphitheater perspective, how will an open 50' x 60' foot panel affect acoustics? Will people just randomly walk onto stage from the flex field during performances? Where will bands hang their backdrops/banners? Or will it just be closed most of the time during concerts?

[lastdaysoffla]

It's probably been said but, Daily's Place is such a terrible name.


Speaking of Maxwell House, where are they when these naming rights opportunities show up? Maxwell House Stadium or Maxwell Field.

We could call the stadium the House instead of the Bank.

[Chuck McCue]

1970 called they want the old Benjamin Moore plant back! How many times will Jacksonville trip over it's own dick #shipyards #courthouse #stadium And to think Sham Con who supposedly is "All In" does not even live here, he lives in Naples and why dosent he bring his bumper factory here? The citizens have been hoodwinked ...AGAIN!

[RattlerGator]

Looking at the renders again, what I'm having a hard time grasping is this:

If the goal, per Lamping, is a completely interconnected venue, where festival guests, for example, could move from flex space to amphitheater, right into the heart of the stadium, why does the flex field open up directly onto the stage of the amphitheater. Seems strange to me. So you're saying that, on game day, people will be flowing through the flex field into the stadium via the amphitheater stage? Also, from the amphitheater perspective, how will an open 50' x 60' foot panel affect acoustics? Will people just randomly walk onto stage from the flex field during performances? Where will bands hang their backdrops/banners? Or will it just be closed most of the time during concerts?

To me, Ken, the beauty of the place is the utility it offers. You ask a question that seems to presume something of a hard and fixed set-up even though you ask will it be most closed. So, yes: I suspect it will likely be closed most of the time.

http://www.jaguars.com/news/article-PressRelease/City-of-Jacksonville-and-Jaguars-break-ground-on-Daily's-Place/e6de2fec-393c-4d6d-bef6-8589b6b76a61

Flanked on the north and south side by massive hangar doors, the facility can be used independently or opened up to the amphitheater via a sliding door behind the stage that measures approximately 53 feet tall by 60 feet wide.

Like a convention center space that allows for multiple configurations, the amphitheater and the adjacent Exhibit Hall are going to see some very creative future uses. Again, if you don't see that's what the flex field actually is, you're missing a large part of what is happening.

To address another comment in the thread: we aren't slaves on this board, are we? This is an opinion board, right? Thus, there's no need to slurp the narrow perspective of the partisans, I presume.

I think the Jaguars already see a particularly creative solution that could never have been accomplished by the bitch-and-moan crowd and are years down the road with preliminary plans on what they hope to do. So, too, is Mayor Curry more than likely. We've only seen the beginning stage.

Hopefully that's not too nutty, cheesy or wholly uninformed for the blind partisans that tried to crap on this significant announcement but you just never know. They've shamefully presumed the stupidity of not only an entrepreneurial billionaire but a successful executive with stints in St. Louis and New York City with major sports enterprises. But, goo lawd, goo lawd ha' mercy, it didn't get reviewed by the DDRB !!! (and I thank whatever powers may be that it didn't have to survive that nonsense)

Let the record reflect that they (the Jaguars) are rather smartly addressing a significant hole in the Jacksonville urban core and preparing to prove some folks quite wrong in at least one (and likely more) of their hasty assessments.

If, however, your mind can only process things in a binary way and can only view support for this worthy project in black and white terms that only allow support to be dismissively cast as worship, then for your limited and apparently necessary benefit I will gladly worship Shad Khan and Mark Lamping as opposed to the nattering nabobs of negativism.

All Hail King Shad! Giving the people, and not the select few, what they want. What a concept.