by Fred Seely
Editorial Director
The final take from this year’s Gator Bowl week may be 15 percent higher than last year, says the city’s convention and visitors bureau director, and Gator Bowl president Rick Catlett was quick to disagree.
“How can we be 15 percent better when we filled the place last year, too?” he said. “I said a month ago that Jacksonville was getting another great new year’s present, and this was it.”
Semantics aside, the business all along the First Coast made everyone look good as fans from the competing teams — Maryland beat West Virginia, 41-7, in Thursday’s game at Alltel Stadium — booked every hotel room within 40 miles and almost drank the town dry. And that statement is almost literally true — for instance, the Adam’s Mark Hotel was scrambling for libations on New Year’s Eve to serve the crowd which overflowed the party areas.
“I think that the overall impact was that much higher than last year,” said Kitty Ratcliffe, director of Jacksonville & The Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau. “Fifteen percent more is certainly attainable. These people were here to have fun and party.”
Last year’s Notre Dame and N.C. State visitors — well, maybe Notre Dame — may have been a bit less uninhibited than this year’s bunch, which hit the town to party hearty. From the big throngs at Landing pep rallies to the 78,982 thunderstix-banging fans at Alltel Stadium, the fans basked in the warm weather and regaled in cell-calling home to talk about the temperature (A fan’s thermometer showed 78 degrees in the West stands at gametime. In Morgantown, W.Va., it was 57 and in College Park, Md., it was 58.)
“I think the city again showed that it can handle a big event,” said immediate past Gator Bowl Association chair Jim McCollum of BellSouth. “The Georgia-Florida game and now this. The National Football League shouldn’t have any concerns (about the Feb. 6, 2005 Super Bowl here.)”
City Council president Lad Daniels, representing the City government in the absence of Mayor John Peyton, who was vacationing in Arizona, said he, too, was impressed.
“It was fun being in the middle of things and I got to see what a great organization this is,” he said. “It’s becoming another Players Championship, with the structure and number of volunteers.” Daniels chaired The Players Championship in 1990.
“I listen to what people are saying and they seemed to have had a great time,” said Ratcliffe. “I parked at the Osborn Center and rode the shuttle bus to the game, and all I heard were positive comments from the other passengers.
“This is a huge event for the area.”
The “economic impact” figures are non-scientific but everyone felt it would exceed the usual estimate of between $55-56 million by the time dollars trickled through the various retail tills.
“I just have one thing to ask,” said Sea Turtle manager Rene Scheigg, who watched the game from a club seat. “Give me just a few more weekends like this each year.”
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It was Alltel’s first experience with thunderstix and they indeed are loud. They’re sausage-shaped balloons about a foot long than fans slap together, and both teams’ supporters had plenty, most emblazoned with advertising messages.
The stix were popularized two years ago in the World Series by the Anaheim Angels, but had never made their way here for Jaguars or college games.
The general consensus from local fans: the stix are best left behind.
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The announced attendance reflected tickets sold. There were plenty of empty seats in the stadium, though many ticketholders camped out in the Bud Zone sports bar.
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The security concerns produced extra evaluation of what fans carried into the stadium and the constant survelliance of a police helicopter, but no problems arose.
“I think the planning meant everything,” said GBA vice president Cheri O’Neill. “Everyone was on the same page. Everyone worked together to make sure the fans had a good, and safe, time here.”
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The elevator to the press box is held before the game for the coaches who will view the game from upstairs, so some of the media had a 10-minute wait.
They weren’t alone. Jaguars’ General Manager James “Shack” Harris was among those denied access to the elevator.