by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Although it’s about two and a half years down the road, the City will start preparing now to host 300 of the nation’s top sports executives.
No, these are not the Super Bowl folks. That will be a year later.
In April 2004, Jacksonville will host the annual Sports Symposium. The City was awarded the event at last week’s semiannual meeting of the National Association of Sports Commissions in Salt Lake City. Being awarded the event is not only significant for Jacksonville, but for the state of Florida.
“With a record number of applicants, this year’s site selection committee had a tough decision to make,” said Don Schumacher, the executive director of the NASC. “Fifty cities placed a bid for either 2004 or 2005 and when the votes were cast, Jacksonville placed first for both years. This will be NASC’s first symposium in Florida, and we could not be happier that we are going to Jacksonville.”
The three-day symposium will cover everything from event procurement to the economic impact a large-scale sporting event has on a community. Event safety and promotion as well as the recruitment of volunteers — a key to the success of any big event — are also on the agenda.
Mike Sullivan, the director of the Sports and Entertainment Board, a division of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission, says Jacksonville was awarded the symposium based on both what the city has to offer now, but also on what is planned for the future.
“Number one, they have never been to Florida,” said Sullivan. “Jacksonville is one of the hot spots for sports in the country. We have the NFL and the new facilities that are coming. It’s a place people want to come to. Outside of Jacksonville, we have a great reputation.”
By 2004, both the new $125 million arena and the new $25 million baseball park are scheduled to be complete. That, coupled with the 2005 Super Bowl just nine months later, will make Jacksonville a city with three essentially brand new sports facilities.
(There are over $40 million worth of renovations planned for Alltel Stadium in time for Jacksonville to host the 2005 Super Bowl.)
“It’s working out great,” said Sullivan. “The Super Bowl will be just down the road and the arena and baseball park will be done. The town will have some really nice facilities and is continuing to improve. As Jacksonville grows, it will continue to improve.”
With well over 300 sports executives from all over the country coming to town, one would figure plenty of them would want to bring an event to Jacksonville. Sullivan said a few will see what they like enough to come back while others will refer Jacksonville to other sports event planners.
“Usually if you get one or two events, that’s good,” said Sullivan, adding that many of those coming to town will actually be direct competition, albeit friendly, to Jacksonville. “The offshoot is that you will get a few more events down the road. All of them will see what we’ve got here.”
While the symposium might create some economic benefits down the road, it will have an immediate impact in 2004. Having 300-400 people in town for three days will be a boost for local hotels and merchants.
“The conference will bring more than 300 sports executives from around the country to view our city first-hand,” said Sullivan. “The event will account for more than 900 room nights, positively impacting our local economy.”
Jacksonville got the bid despite not having any representatives present for the vote. Sullivan said officials from the NASC knew and understood why Jacksonville wasn’t in attendance.
“They knew we had the Florida-Georgia game last week,” he said. “We put the bid in for the symposium about three months ago.”
Portland will host the 2005 symposium despite Jacksonville being the leading vote getter for both 2004 and 2005.
“They were not going to give it to the same city two years in a row,” said Sullivan.