by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
The City sent its own scouting contingent to last week’s NCAA basketball subregional tournament in Orlando, but little attention was paid to the competition on the court.
While college and NBA scouts charted every layup, no-look pass and blocked shot, Mike Sullivan, the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission’s sports and entertainment director, was busy studying scoreboards, parking lots and locker room layouts. Like Orlando this year, Jacksonville will host in 2006 the opening rounds of a tournament so frenetic it is commonly known as March Madness, and Sullivan wanted to ensure the City will be ready.
Sullivan’s work actually began Wednesday, a day before play started. He sat in on media briefings, television planning sessions, even the coaches’ press conferences. Sullivan said he wanted to observe every angle of Orlando’s preparation.
“Some of the NCAA’s rules and regulations are pretty finite: how many chairs you can have on the benches and that kind of stuff,” said Sullivan. “Otherwise, I just observed how they handled all the logistics.”
Sullivan judges Jacksonville “pretty much ready” to host the games. He said the past experience in hosting events like the Gator Bowl and the Florida/Georgia game had prepared City planners to put on a national sporting event.
Bringing the NCAAs to Jacksonville became a reality when the paint dried on the new Veterans Memorial Arena. There was “no way” the tournament would have come to the old structure, said Sullivan.
The City began lobbying the NCAA when the new arena was still a pile of bricks and mortar. Using architectural renderings as its centerpiece, the City won NCAA approval before the arena was finished.
“They don’t usually do that, but after they visited the site, they felt confident we’d have everything in place,” said Sullivan.
The subregionals should attract a diverse crowd to the arena. The City will host eight schools and fans from across the country. Even if the games sell out as they often do, Sullivan said the impact on the Sports Complex will be minimal compared to the tailgating free-for-all that surrounds Florida/Georgia.
“The only time we have issues with parking are for sold out games at the stadium,” said Sullivan. “We have plenty enough parking to handle full crowds at the arena.”
A tournament spokesperson said the tournament judges prospective sites on seating — the NCAA requires 12,000 — hotel rooms and airport access. Sullivan said the City would surpass the organization’s expectations.
The 16,000-seat arena, he said, was a better venue than counterparts in Orlando and Tampa, which hosted a 2002 subregional.
“We’ve got a newer building than either of those places. We think we’ve got everything and more than the NCAA expects,” said Sullivan.
The tournament has become synonymous with excitement on the floor, however it’s the people filling the stands that will likely give Jacksonville proprietors reason to cheer.
The NCAA projects the four-day event can draw from 10,000 to 20,000 out-of-town visitors to a host city. Those fans fill restaurants, bars and hotel rooms. The Dallas Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, estimated a 2002 subregional drew 10,000 visitors who spent more than $12 million. The total economic impact was estimated at $36 million.
By 2006 Sullivan said he was confident that downtown would offer enough entertainment options to keep those fans busy between games.
“The NCAA looks at your hotels and restaurants when they’re deciding where to go. They knew if we’re hosting the Super Bowl, we’d have to have that taken care of.”
Add to the tourist dollars the marketing value of CBS broadcasting the city’s showplace arena into living rooms across the country, and it’s evident why Sullivan wants to make Jacksonville a regular part in the NCAA’s rotation.
He said he would continue to lobby the NCAA to come back to Jacksonville. “If they have a good experience, they’ll come back.” Sullivan said the City could host the event every three or four years.