by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Michael Kelly is poised to take over as the president and COO of Jacksonville’s Super Bowl Host Committee and Tuesday evening he and his main helpers met for the first time.
Kelly has been hired to lead the city’s biggest event ever: the 2005 Super Bowl. He flew up from Tampa Tuesday and saw 175 or so civic leaders, who make up the prestigious Host Committee, for the first time at an Alltel Stadium reception.
For the next five-plus weeks, Kelly will share his responsibilities with Mike Weinstein, who is officially stepping down June 30 to concentrate on running for mayor.
In Jacksonville, Kelly sees a town that presents him, the Host Committee and the NFL big challenges.
“Clearly, there are challenges and they are fairly obvious,” said Kelly. “The accommodations and how to overcome that are key. This is a great opportunity and the cruise ship process will start now. We will do everything we can now to get up to speed.
“One of the things we’ll do is work to make downtown a destination and develop a solid plan as to how to do that. There is not a permanent entertainment area like Ybor City [in Tampa] or Bourbon Street [in New Orleans].”
In addition to securing several cruise ships to serve as temporary, floating hotels, once on board, Kelly will also begin marketing the game locally. While the league will pump plenty of money into the event, Kelly said local corporations will have to contribute to the coffers to the tune of about $4 million. That may sound like a significant figure to ask local businesses to come up with, but considering Jacksonville is preparing for the 2005 game, it’s not much more than the $3.6 million Tampa businesses raised for the 2001 game.
“It’s certainly not unrealistic from a Host Committee standpoint,” said Kelly. “The first time in a market is unchartered territory, so were not sure what we’ll get.”
When a Super Bowl champion is crowned on Feb. 6, 2005, Mike Kelly will only be 34 years old. He’ll have run one Final Four, two Super Bowls and countless other college events. While there’s the distinct possibility that he could be forever courted by future Super Bowl hosting cities, Kelly said a nomadic lifestyle may not suit him one day.
“I don’t have any real desire to go from city to city,” said Kelly. “It has made sense family-wise so far. I’ve spent four years in Tampa and will spend three years in Jacksonville and that’s reasonable. I will remain involved in the sports industry business, but I don’t have one great plan.”
At 31, there is no way Kelly should have a resume dotted with big-time national sporting events.
In addition to organizing and director many Atlantic Coast Conference and NCAA events while working for Wake Forest University, Kelly has also been the executive director of college basketball’s biggest event and professional football’s world championship.
Kelly graduated from Wake Forest in 1992 with a degree in politics and St. Thomas University in Miami two years later with a master’s in sports administration. Almost immediately, Kelly put his degree to use. He returned to his alma mater’s athletic department and began getting involved in every ACC tournament from softball to basketball.
Through these events, Kelly became as familiar to NCAA officials and he was with them. His track record at Wake also spoke for itself and when the chance to run the NCAA Final Four in Tampa’s Tropicana Field arose, Kelly’s name found its way to a short list of candidates. Then 28, Kelly realized he couldn’t refuse what was potentially a one-time shot at running an event the size of the Final Four.
“The executive director position for the Final Four opened up and I submitted my information,” said Kelly, who was offered the job and took it with mild reservations. “The hardest part about the Final Four job was leaving my alma mater and a full-time job to take a 10 or 11-month job. I wasn’t really scared. It was a crossroads in my career and an opportunity that was too good to pass up.”