by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
In order to successfully host a Super Bowl, thousand of volunteers are needed to staff the many committees and sub-committees the Jacksonville Super Bowl Host Committee will create. A vast majority of those committees will be staffed by thousands of unpaid volunteers, working countless hours to assure Jacksonville puts on a good show for the Feb. 6, 2005 Super Bowl.
However, leading each of the five major committees are local professionals who have been tabbed by the Host Committee for a variety of reasons. When they went looking for someone to head the logistics and operations committee, they didn’t have to go far. To say tabbing Al Kinard was a no-brainer may be a bit of an understatement. After all, all Kinard has on his resume is years as Public Works director, dozens of Georgia-Florida games and plenty of Gator Bowl and Jacksonville Jaguars games.
Today, Kinard is an engineer and director if infrastructure improvement at Bessent, Hammack & Ruckman, Inc. and spends about half his time with BHR and the other half working for the Host Committee where he’s creating the initial traffic plan that will allow 100,000 people in planes, boats, trolleys, taxis, limos, cars and on foot to get around Jacksonville and Alltel Stadium in an efficient manner during Super Bowl week.
Kinard, who retired from the City after 38 years following the 2001 Georgia-Florida game, went to work with BHR for two reasons: he’s an engineer by nature and the company already had “stock” in the stadium.
“This company did all the infrastructure work around the stadium, including the roads,” said Kinard. “If I’m to run the traffic and make the Super Bowl a success, it made sense to come over here [to BHR].”
With less than two years until the game, Kinard may have the most difficult and complicated job of all the committee chairs. Between the St. Johns River, National Football League input and regulations pertaining to who can go where and the fact that fans attending the game will be staying anywhere from Daytona to Savannah, Kinard will have his hands full assuring everyone gets where they want to be when they want to be there.
“While the river may be our greatest asset, when you look at the vehicular access to the stadium, it’s an obstacle to traffic,” explained Kinard. “It restricts what you can do.”
Helping Kinard will be 10 sub-committees and thousands of people. And maps, lots of maps. Maps of downtown taken by satellite with lots of lines drawn on them. Lines that can, and will, be moved many times over. Lines delineating NFL-required perimeters around the stadium and potential traffic patterns.
Today, there is a wall-sized map of the Northbank and Southbank on the wall in a conference room at BHR. Every time Kinard looks at it, he sees a new way to draw the lines. He changes them almost weekly, knowing the NFL has the last say.
Kinard says within the next year he’ll submit his final plan to the NFL and concentrate on implementing the plan. His ideas include possibly rerouting Tallyrand Avenue and using ferry boats borrowed from Mayport in an effort to reduce river traffic.
“We may use one their smallest ferry boats which don’t allow cars,” said Kinard. “They can take up to 400 people per trip whereas the river taxis can handle 12-48. Maybe we’ll use two ferries leaving every 15 minutes.”
Getting fans across the river will be important. Super Bowl officials estimate that over 100,000 people will come to town for the game, creating a potential log jam downtown every day for almost a week. With the NFL Experience slated to be on the Southbank and the stadium and the Landing on the Northbank, getting people across the river efficiently will be paramount.
Moving folks downtown will be tricky, too. In addition to those in town for the game, downtown will be busy enough with regular workers and curious onlookers. Kinard said he’s been to Daytona recently to look at the tram system they employ during race weeks that
gets hundreds of people from outlying parking lots to the Speedway quickly.
“I want to use that system here,” said Kinard. “It’s similar to what they use at Disney, but much faster.”
Kinard said the use and deployment of law enforcement officials will also be key.
“I do not have a number in mind for how many we’ll need. I think we have enough, they’ll just have to work a little extra that week,” he said. “We’ll bring State Troopers, Marine Patrol officers and officers from other State agencies. I think it would be easy to get some help from other parts of the state, especially the surrounding counties.”
Kinard plans to attend next year’s Super Bowl in Houston, another town hosting its first championship game. By 2005, Kinard will have been to three Super Bowls and have a pretty good grasp of the event and its enormity. He doesn’t think the same can be said about the average resident Jacksonville.
“I think most of the people involved in the Super Bowl Host Committee know what it’s about,” said Kinard. “I don’t know if this community knows. I don’t think they know how big it is and the impact it will have on this city.”