by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
For the first time since the late 1980s, the Jacksonville Suns will host the Southern League all-star game, which is scheduled for July 8.
Suns owner and general manager, Peter Bragan Jr., said he started inquiring about the game shortly after the Better Jacksonville Plan was passed and progress was made, assuring the new $34 million ball park was going to be built.
“I asked for it back in 2001 when I knew [the baseball park] was coming,” said Bragan, adding the last time Jacksonville had the game was in his second or third year of owning the team. “Nobody else jumped up and down and so I said, ‘I’ll take it.’ Chattanooga gets the game in 2004 and we have not done 2005 yet.”
According to Bragan, there’s no set rotation for the game, but the 10 Southern League cities don’t battle each other for the game every year, either.
“Some years it’s a struggle to get a city to take interest in the game,” explained Bragan. “There’s some cost associated with hosting the game.”
To host the game, the Suns will have to pick up two major costs — a game day banquet and the travel expenses of the players selected for the game. Bragan said he’s already worked out a budget for this season’s game that covers everything.
“You basically have to commit about $16,000 to the game. That’s $1,500 for the other teams and about $2,500 for the league officials to travel to the game,” said Bragan.
For the Southern League, awarding the 2003 game to Jacksonville made perfect sense considering the Suns will play in the league’s newest and nicest park this season.
“We are extremely excited to play our eighth consecutive Southern League all-star game in the city of Jacksonville in July,” said Lori Webb, director of administration for the Southern League. Webb noted that this game isn’t the eighth in a row for Jacksonville, but that the league didn’t play an all-star game nine years ago. “The local fans have an opportunity to see the future stars of Major League Baseball and the Suns will be able to show off the newest, state-of-the-art facility in the Southern League.”
Bragan said he expects to make money on the game despite having to spend so much in expenses up front. The combination of having a new park and a couple of game ideas has Bragan convinced the game will be both a financial and promotional success.
“I think we can make money on it because it’s our first year in the big ball park,” said Bragan. “I think we can raise ticket prices a couple of dollars higher and nobody will say anything.”
Besides the new park, Bragan said other factors are working in the Suns favor to attract a large crowd. Namely, it will be the only game in town at the time. With the Jacksonville Tomcats of the Af2 league folding, the old coliseum should be in the process of being demolished in early July. That will assure, unlike the last time the Suns hosted the all-star game, that the game is only event downtown that night.
“The last time we hosted the game, Led Zeppelin played in the old coliseum that night. There were only 2,100 people at the ball park,” said Bragan. “There was terrible communication with the people at the City.”
Although Webb said the Southern League tries hard to make sure each city gets to host the game on a rotating basis, there are circumstances that would allow one city to host the game twice within a nine-year period. A new ball park will certainly help Jacksonville’s cause, but Bragan indicated he’ll take a wait-and-see attitude.
“We’ll see how this first one goes,” said Bragan. “It’s a lot of extra work for our staff. You have to pick up all the players at the airport. It’s not like during the season when they come in on a bus. But I’m working on something really special and at this point I can’t say what it is.”