by Kent Jennings Brockwell
Staff Writer
While landing a Super Bowl was difficult, getting the city ready for the big game hasn’t been easy either, said Super Bowl Host Committee co-chair Peter Rummell.
Speaking at the Jacksonville Bar Association’s October luncheon Tuesday at the Omni, Rummell said the overall process for bringing the Super Bowl to Jacksonville has taken a lot of unseen work.
“It was a lot harder than it looked from the outside,” he said.
Rummell told the JBA the Host Committee has amassed more than 9,000 volunteers, all of whom know there is no chance of getting a ticket to the game as compensation for their work.
Besides the thousands of volunteer hours that have been put into the event, Rummell said more than $10 million has been raised by the Host Committee, nearly doubling the previous amount raised by a host committee.
Rummell said the amount of effort and money that has been put into the overall effort has been outstanding considering Jacksonville is the smallest city to ever host the game.
“By getting the Super Bowl, Jacksonville becomes part of a special list of cities,” he said.
Rummell said there is a good chance Jacksonville could host a future game.
“If we do it well, we will get it back again,” he said. “I really wish that Detroit had gotten it before us because anything we do will look great compared to Detroit.”
Rummell said some of the biggest problems have been coordinating the cruise ships for lodging and entertainment. Outside of that, the problems have been relatively minor.
“There were fewer big issues than I thought there would be,” he said.