by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
On any home game Saturday, more than 90,000 fans pack the stadiums in Gainesville and Athens. So when both the University of Florida and Georgia bring their following legions to Jacksonville and its 80,000 seat Alltel Stadium, an annual mad dash for tickets ensues.
Desperate souls clad in their school colors have wandered A. Philip Randolph Boulevard and Talleyrand Avenue all week holding signs pleading for tickets. On the Internet, ticket brokers such as the Ticket Spot.com are asking as much as $500 for the $32 general admission seats.
In a definite seller’s market, City Hall uses its cache of 600 tickets to solidify past relationships and encourage new ones. Some prominent private businesses also use the tickets to network with potential clients.
Mayor’s office spokesperson Heather Murphy said City Hall buys and sells the tickets at face value. The mayor’s office distributes 450 of the tickets to City employees, friends of the mayor and possible business partners. She said former mayors John Delaney and Jake Godbold bought dozens of tickets this year.
Murphy said the tickets are distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis. Requests for the tickets usually start about two months before the game and continue until kickoff.
Special Events Director Theresa O’Donnell Price called the game “the premier rivalry game in college football.” The game draws national attention to Jacksonville and draws phone calls to O’Donnell Price’s office from ticket seekers.
“Because we are putting on the game, people just assume we have tickets when we don’t necessarily have them,” she said. “Maybe this year people are getting two tickets where in past years they got four.,”
JEDC Sports and Entertainment director Mike Sullivan said the JEDC’s tickets are primarily used for sponsors of City events, including the Florida-Georgia game, or to try to attract future sponsors.
Alternatively, Sullivan said the tickets are traded to companies such as Coca-Cola and Budweiser in exchange for their products.
As the premier sporting event in Jacksonville, Sullivan said the tickets are a tool the JEDC uses in its mission to bolster the local economy by attracting sporting and entertainment events. This year, for instance, Sullivan said he offered tickets to several National Basketball League team officials in an attempt to draw the teams to the new Veterans Memorial Arena for an exhibition game. Sullivan said he had not heard back from the unnamed teams as of Wednesday.
Sullivan said the JEDC in past years has used the tickets to recruit businesses to the City.
The game also serves as a valuable networking tool for Jacksonville’s business community.
Bank of America CEO Mac Holley said his corporate territory covers both North Florida and South Georgia, so he fields requests from fans from both schools.
“A majority of our tickets go to Florida fans, but I cover South Georgia, so I get a few Georgia fans ,” said Holley.
Holley said all of Bank of America’s tickets are on the Florida side of the field, but he said he’s never had a Georgia fan turn a ticket down.
“People are happy just to get the tickets,” he said.
Holley said the game and its surroundings portrays Jacksonville in an exciting light to those looking to do business, or relocate, to the City.
“It’s a very positive thing that we’re able to host this game. It has a huge direct impact on the economy here, but maybe a bigger indirect impact,” said Holley. “For some people, the game might be their first time in Jacksonville.They see the fun and the excitement and they recognize how much the City has to offer. It’s a draw when they’re considering the next place they want to live.”