by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Plans to move the press box at Alltel Stadium from the west stands to the north end zone have been shelved.
Bill Prescott, vice president/chief financial officer for the Jacksonville Jaguars, said the decision to leave the press box where it is was made a few months ago.
“Right now, it’s not part of our construction plans,” said Prescott. “We have looked at the time schedule and some of the economics. That’s the one piece we can do now or later. The south end zone renovations have to be done now, but the press box relocation and conversion can be put aside.”
Prescott said the decision was made during the summer after team officials adopted a wait-and-see attitude regarding the renovations and addition of almost 700 suite seats in the south end zone. Plans also call for a huge sports bar and permanent terrace seating.
“In terms of sales, we want to bring on the south end zone and see how it does,” said Prescott. “It doesn’t have to happen now for two reasons. One, economically it doesn’t make sense and, two, we want to make sure the building isn’t under construction during the Super Bowl.”
City Council recently approved $40 million worth of renovations to Alltel Stadium — $28 million of which is coming from the team with the City providing the other $12 million. According to terms of the new lease agreement between the City, the University of Georgia and the University of Florida, $7 million of the City’s contribution is going to improvements directly affecting the Georgia-Florida game.
Prescott said plans to relocate the press box and convert the old press box into luxury suites haven’t been scrapped altogether, it’s just not at the top of the priority list. The decision also, Prescott said, has no bearing on the 2005 Super Bowl.
“We can do this in the next two or three years,” said Prescott. “It’s not all that critical in terms of the Super Bowl. The press box in the north end zone was basically going to be a duplicate of what we have now. No stadium’s press box is capable of handling a Super Bowl. It’s not economically feasible.”
According to Super Bowl Host Committee CEO Michael Kelly, about 3,500 members of the media are expected for the 2005 Super Bowl.
While the team would like to make the change for the stadium’s long term benefit, moving the press box in no way affects the 2005 Super Bowl or the NFL’s decision to award Jacksonville the game.
“We won the bid with the press box we have today,” said Heather Surface, director of communications for the Super Bowl Host Committee. “What we will do is create temporary work stations to meet the needs of the media. We need about 20,000 square feet of space for post game interviews and we’ll put that in the south end zone.”
Prescott added the decision may ultimately save both the team and the City money.
“If we decide not to go ahead with the plans, the City’s contribution and our contribution will go down proportionally,” said Prescott, adding there was no way at this time to determine how much each would save in the long run.
In the meantime, construction in the south end zone is going well. Prescott said the work is actually ahead of schedule, but will soon go on hiatus.
“Right now, we are putting it back together,” said Prescott. “We will be out of there in about a week and we will not get back in until a month later. We are ahead of schedule in some places like the escalator towers. There’s a lot of work going on, but fans will not see much until the November games. We are scheduled to bring the south end zone on line by late July.”
Two other major projects are planned for the stadium, one of which may not happen. Prescott said the team still plans to build a large tunnel in the southeast corner of the stadium that will give concert and other event crews easier access to the field. However, the team may not move its practice fields to the north end zone. Plans were to begin relocating the team’s three practice fields to the former home of Wolfson Park once the Greater Jacksonville Agricultural Fair ends later this month.
“It will not happen that soon,” said Prescott. “We are still talking to the City and we aren’t sure yet. If we do move them, we have to start not much later than early 2003. It takes about three months to grow the fields.”