City wants ACC to stay

[thelakelander]

By BOB THOMAS,
The Times-Union

Representatives from Jacksonville, Tampa and Charlotte, N.C., made their final pitches Tuesday in Raleigh, N.C., to land the Atlantic Coast Conference football championship game from 2008 to 2010.

A vote on the future championship site, or sites, by ACC athletic directors likely will take place during their scheduled Nov. 30 meeting in Jacksonville, one day before the city plays host to its third title game.

Each city was allotted 15 minutes for a presentation, followed by a 30-minute session for answering questions from athletic directors or school representatives and ACC officials. League commissioner John Swofford was in attendance at the event, held in the Vaughn Towers suites at N.C. State's Carter-Finley Stadium.

The Jacksonville group, headed by Gator Bowl president Rick Catlett and including Erik Dellenback and Ken Tonning, was the second to present, following Charlotte.

As the host of the first two ACC championship games, Jacksonville's presentation focused on changes in marketing strategy, where there has been added emphasis on targeting the corporate community in an effort to boost ticket sales.

"The challenges we had last year are the reason we're standing here," said Catlett, referring to the announced crowd of 62,850 that turned out for the Wake Forest-Georgia Tech title game. The drop in attendance from the inaugural title game between Florida State and Virginia Tech led to a financial shortfall of nearly $1 million.

"We just played to our strengths," Catlett said. "We just talked about our city and our ability to run major football events. ...

"We believe our strong points are clearly [that] we have already operated two of them to the highest level [and] that we have a full-time professional staff that does nothing but run college football games. We wrote the book. The operational manual was put together by our staff with the help of [the ACC] staff. There's no learning curve, and we've got one of the finest football facilities in America."

However, Catlett is objective enough to know that high marks for putting on a good show might not win the vote.

"It really just boils down to one simple thing: Do they want to find one permanent site for the game, and if the do, is that in the state of Florida with all that Florida has to offer from recruits to everything else? Or, is it [being in] the footprint in Charlotte?" he said. "If they want to find a permanent site, then they'll have three years vested [in Jacksonville]. Why not continue to try and grow it there?"

Charlotte is banking on its centrality and political clout, built on a long relationship with the ACC, to carry its bid.

"Obviously we feel that Charlotte is in a great location for the game because it's so close to so many ACC schools, right in the heart of ACC territory," said Ken Haines, the head of longtime ACC television partner Raycom, who was part of Charlotte's presentation. "Obviously it would be easier for fans - on most occasions - easier to get to Charlotte, based on who's in it."

Their group is headed by Tim Newman from the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority and Tim Newman and also includes John Richardson, whose family owns and operates Bank of America Stadium. Jeff Beaver of the Charlotte Sports Commission and local businessman Johnny Harris were part of the presentation group.

Jeff Adams and Rob Higgins of the Tampa Sports Commission, were joined by Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Ronde Barber, a Virginia graduate, who enthusiastically supported the bid to bring the game to Raymond James Stadium.

Whether or not ACC athletic directors elect to give one group a three-year deal, which was Swofford's initial desire, or consider alternating sites of that same time period remains to be seen.

When asked what Jacksonville must do in order to remain the home to the game, Catlett didn't hesitate.

"We just have to prove to them that there is going to be an adequate number of people in the stadium," he said.

With the presentations done and the vote likely to place prior to the Dec. 1 game, Catlett still believes Jacksonville has the opportunity to make a persuasive final pitch to the ACC.

"I'm absolutely convinced that when [the ACC athletic directors] arrive in Jacksonville Thursday evening, if I can walk into the reception and tell them we've sold 65,000 tickets - and they're open-minded about that - there's no doubt that would affect the vote," Catlett said.

This story can be found on Jacksonville.com at http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/111407/spl_217545301.shtml.

[Jason]

I really hope that they can pull it off and keep the game here.  The three years already vested would go to waste if the game is moved.  The biggest problem to overcome is to sell the matchups, no matter where the game is played.  The will always be attendance fluxuations based on the teams playing.  Jax does great with the Gator Bowl as well as the other "neutral site" games that have been played here so why not allow a group that is already doing a fantastic job filling the seats do what they do best?

[raheem942]

what other city can do it like we do and  it basicly tradition now........espacially now acc teams our comeptting in the bcs polls this season......they usally suck im a sec fan myself

[thelakelander]

So we're getting Boston College instead of Clemson.  Not looking good.

[reednavy]

No city would really do good with BC in it, unless your Boston. They've been fair the past few years, just this year, with all the oddness this year has had, BC rocketed to number 2, then fell hard, as many have. BC really isn't too well-known, or well-supported outside of New England. now, VT, they are well known for their program, so we'd definetly see alot of VT fans. We all know what ACC stands for( Almost Comeptetive Conference) 

[thelakelander]

How does Virginia travel?  If they beat VT this Saturday, they'll be on their way to Jax.

[Traveller]

Virginia fan here.  In the past dozen or so years, I've been to three of Virginia's bowl games and attended road games at Michigan, Maryland, Pittsburgh, Clemson, UNC, NC State, and FSU.  In each case, our fan base traveled as well as any other ACC team with the possible exceptions of Clemson and Virginia Tech (although query how well the latter traveled prior to 1995).  Unfortunately, our perceived lousy traveling reputation results in our team getting stuck in lousy bowls, which perpetuates the reputation.  No one travels well to Boise, but we showed plenty well in Atlanta, Charlotte, and Nashville.

Trust me, UVA fans are excited about this season and will fill Jacksonville Municipal Stadium if given the opportunity.  It will mean a chance to see Chris Long in his 2nd-to-last game in a Virginia uniform, and hopefully Virginia's first conference title in 12 years.  Go Hoos!

[tufsu1]

from what I hear, the host committee would be happy with either UVA or Va Tech....but they were really rooting for Clemson....apparently they expect only about 5,000 BC fans to buy tickets

[fsujax]

Bad news for Jax since Clemson lost.

[copperfiend]

I think Matt Ryan put the nail in the coffin for the city to continue hosting the ACC Championship Game. Clemson would have brought tens of thousands of fans with open wallets. BC won't. They better hope like hell that Va Tech wins or it will be a repeat of last year.

[raheem942]

yea the acc as a coference is a failuer .......lets try to renovate the gator bowl and get some good teams to play........ like actually ranked teams

[gatorback]

no the acc should stay here. just need to promote it better.

[tufsu1]

that ship sailed a few weeks ago....the ACC title game is gone...oh and by the way raheem, both teams that played in the game this year were ranked in the Top 15

[Ocklawaha]

Isn't there a stadium in Waycross?

Ocklawaha

[gatorback]

I don't know if there's a stadium in Waycross but there is one hell of a water port up there.  We blew that one.