by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
If you’re going to pack up an entire football team including players, coaches and staff and carry everything they need for more than a week’s stay and a New Year’s Day football game in a city about 600 miles away from home, you need a plan.
When the prospect of coming to Jacksonville Municipal Stadium to play in the Konica Minolta Gator Bowl was facing the University of Virginia Cavaliers, they called the Omni Hotel. By the time the team arrived, the entire building had been transformed into their home away from home complete with team meeting rooms and training facilities, UVa decor throughout and more than 300 guest rooms for coaches, players, parents and fans.
Wendy Priesand, director of sales and marketing for the Omni, said having the team check in for an extended stay that began Christmas Day and won’t end until they return to campus Jan. 2 offered a unique opportunity to provide an experience for them that they don’t usually find when they play a road game.
“It allows the staff to celebrate the event,” she said referring to the banners and flags that decorate the lobby and front desk area as well as the team T-shirts worn by the hotel’s staff.
Being able to set up the entire football operation under one roof also affords the coaching staff a level of convenience a team usually doesn’t experience even at a bowl game.
“It allows the coaches and players to concentrate on all the things they have to do,” Priesand. “We converted all of our second-floor meeting rooms into training rooms and meeting rooms. We even set up a video arcade so the players can just leave their rooms and come downstairs when they have some free time and want to unwind. The advantage of having totally flexible meeting space is you can create whatever you need.”
As unique as the experience of taking over an entire Downtown hotel for a week is for the Cavaliers, it’s also a first for the hotel, said Conference Services Manager Bryan Ayer.
“I’ve worked here at the Omni for 20 years, but this week is special,” said Ayer. “We have a full house of players, staff, coaches and families. Having everyone staying here allows us to focus on one goal, to provide them the Omni experience when it comes to service, comfort and convenience.”
The staff has also arranged for privacy during team meetings, round-the-clock security for playbooks and communications and even special entrances and exits for use only by the players and coaches.
The hotel is serving breakfast, lunch and dinner for the team and staff in a private dining room upstairs and Ayer said stocking up for a football team is unlike any other group.
“We brought in five pallets – big pallets – of Gatorade and bottled water,” he said.
Booking an entire college football team and its staff, plus college administrators, family members and hundreds of fans will prove to be one of the year’s high points, according to Priesand.
“The Gator Bowl is our very good friend. This time of year if it weren’t for the game, we’d be empty this week except for New Year’s Eve,” she said.