by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
The 2005 Super Bowl will pump millions of dollars into the local economy. It will also cost millions of dollars to host.
In an effort to assure they wake up Feb. 7, 2005 in the black, the Super Bowl Host Committee is exploring creative ways to generate revenue and involve residents of the First Coast area, many of whom won’t be going to the game or attending many of the exclusive events the week of the game.
Two of those ways are local corporate sponsorship — something every Super Bowl host city practices — and the sale of Host Committee memberships, a first for any host town. The membership club doesn’t assure members will be able to attend the game, but they will have an active role in many of the functions during game week.
One of the out-of-the-box ideas revolves around the sale of prepaid dinners on one of the cruise ships that will be docked on the St. Johns River from Metropolitan Park to Tallyrand. Host Committee officials realize the National Football League will have a great deal of control over who stays on which cruise ship. Like a typical cruise, many of the on-ship expenses are part of the package.
Mike Kelly, Host Committee president and COO, said he expects all the ships will have extra dinners packages.
“There will be a number of meals prepaid on each ship and they will certainly utilize some of them, but not all of them,” said Kelly. “We’d like to make the rest available to the residents of Jacksonville.”
At this point, there’s no way to determine how many may be available, but Kelly anticipates being able to sell them both to individuals and businesses.
“We’ll have to wait and see exactly who is assigned to the ships by the NFL,” he said.
With about 21 months left before the game, Kelly says preparations are about where he thought they’d be when he took the job about this time last year. Kelly, who ran the 2002 Super Bowl in Tampa, wanted to get three things — sponsorship, Host Committee membership and lodging — under control before the 18-month mark. Consider it done.
“The whole goal of the Host Committee was to stay on the time line we established,” said Kelly. “The Host Committee will be ready to get started once we get about 18 months out.”
By July or August, Kelly expects to have all the cruise ships under contract (several months ago, they secured the necessary hotel rooms, which will stretch from Daytona to Brunswick) which will allow him to slowly expand the Host Committee staff and start working on the specifics of Super Bowl week.
One of those specifics is vending and figuring out who can sell what and where. Unlike college football games where there’s a cottage industry, consisting of specialty T-shirts and other game-specific items, the NFL and the City will have tight control over Super Bowl-related merchandise.
“There’s a lot of interest in that and we get a lot of calls about that,” said Kelly. “We tell people to keep in touch with us until we get the details together. We keep a database of vendors who contact us.”
Kelly said about six months out, the City will have a clear understanding of the rules and regulations regarding temporary vending and vending licenses.
“It could be more restrictive in some areas of town, but there may be opportunities in other parts of town,” said Kelly.