With the start of the college football bowl season a little more than a month away, the Meninak Club of Jacksonville welcomed Gator Bowl Association President and CEO Rick Catlett to provide an update on the progress of Jacksonville’s Jan. 2 game.
Catlett informed Meninak members during a Monday lunch meeting that the 2011 Gator Bowl Team Selection Committee was beginning to review teams that it might invite to Jacksonville to compete for the Gator Bowl trophy.
“On our board, teams we will be selecting from, it will be one of these teams, from the Big Ten: Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Nebraska or Wisconsin,” said Catlett.
“From the SEC side, you can discount the first three teams because they are either going to be in BCS or higher bowls than us, Alabama, LSU, Arkansas, Auburn, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida or South Carolina.”
CBS Sports is predicting Ohio State and Florida. ESPN is predicting Ohio State and Florida and Nebraska and Florida.
Catlett explained how, from a business sense, the Gators might not be the best choice to fulfill the Gator Bowl’s mission.
“I can tell you right now because of what our purpose is, all you Gator fans don’t get mad at me because I am a hard-core Gator fan, our job is to bring 30,000 people here and have them spend the night for two and a half nights, spend a lot of money and go home. Gator fans are going to come in the day of the game, go to the game and go home,” said Catlett.
“If you are sitting there with an Auburn, Tennessee or a Florida on your board, you almost owe it to what your cause is and what your mission statement is not to take the Gators,” said Catlett.
That doesn’t mean Catlett doesn’t want to see the Orange and Blue in Jacksonville on Jan. 2.
“I’ll tell you that I have one vote, and I’m going to vote for the Gators. We just have to get them eligible first,” said Catlett.
The selection committee has 11 members and it meets four times prior to selection Sunday, which is the day after the championship games for all Division I conferences and the day when bowls announce the teams they will invite to play at their venues.
The Gator Bowl Association’s mission is to provide “Northeast Florida with the very best in college athletics and related activities in order to maximize positive impact on the area’s economy, national image and community pride.”
The association claims to bring in an average of $16 million in direct spending to the local economy from Dec. 25-Jan. 1 each year.
Fans attending the 2012 Gator Bowl will have an extra day to contribute to the local economy because of a rule established by the Rose Bowl at the beginning of bowl play.
“It’s a tradition that bowls are not played on Sunday,” said Catlett, providing a history lesson on college bowls.
That extra day also means an extra day for businesses in Jacksonville to make money and Catlett talked about the path of money flowing into the community from the annual game.
“If you truly believe that the only economic impact of the Gator Bowl is on restaurants, shops, bars and hotels, let me explain that to you,” he said.
“There are 42,000 people that work for the hospitality industry in Jacksonville. About half of those are part-time employees. If the Gator Bowl game is not in Jacksonville from Dec. 25-Jan. 1, then most of those employees are not working during that week,” said Catlett.
“Because the hotels are full, because the restaurants are full, because the bars are full, those people are working. Not only are they working, it’s a holiday season, so they are earning time-and-a-half,” he said.
“Each and every one of those people lives in our community, and when they make that money, what do they do with money? They are spending it back into our community.”
The chairman of the Gator Bowl Committee said Wednesday afternoon that the group has not discussed the developments at Penn State and whether those would cause the Gator Bowl to remove Penn State from consideration for an invitation to the Jan. 2 bowl.
Coach Joe Paterno was fired late Wednesday after sex abuse allegations against an assistant coach.
“We don’t have any idea whether or not Penn State will be in our mix. I don’t foresee any need or reason to discuss the issue, it’s a Penn State matter,” Catlett said Wednesday.
“They have to deal with it the way they want to. At the end of the year, when we look at the teams that are available to us, that’s when we start discussing a number of issues: size of stadium, the last time they went to a bowl game and things to that nature. For us to comment one way or the other right now would certainly be inappropriate,” he said.
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