by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
The Florida Gators are in Minneapolis, Minn. playing for the right to go to the Final Four and 49 of the top 50 golfers in the world are in Ponte Vedra for The Players Championship.
It’s a great time to be a sports fan in Jacksonville, but a very hectic time if you cover sports for a living. All three TV stations in town and the Florida Times-Union are taking different approaches to both events, with the singular goal of providing the best coverage possible.
“We are using our CBS affiliate in Minneapolis for what we need to get on the Gators,” said Lynn Heider, news director at Ch. 30/47, the local Fox and CBS affiliate. “We gave some thought to attending the basketball game, but the golf tournament is in our backyard.”
Heider said her station devoted many of its resources to covering last week’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament first round games in Veterans Memorial Arena. The decision to forego sending a crew to cover the Gators isn’t a slight to the team, but rather a decision based on the resources Ch. 30/47 has that can be tapped.
“CBS will put the game footage and interview footage on satellite,” said Heider, explaining that if the golf tournament was any other weekend, a Ch. 30/47 crew would be headed to Minneapolis. “We hired an extra photographer for the week for the golf tournament and both of our full-time sports reporters/anchors — Dennis Evans and Lee Gordon — will be at the tournament.”
The Times-Union is sending Gator beat writer Mike DiRocco and columnist Mike Freeman to cover the Gators while many others, including reporters from other departments, will stay and cover The Players.
“It did not create a real dilemma. We have been going through this for years,” said Mike Richey, managing editor for the Times-Union. “We have a special section each day for The Players Championship and the sports front will be the Gators. Four years ago the Gators went to the Final Four and we had to cover both.”
The paper won’t send a photographer to Minneapolis and will rely instead on wire photos. In addition to a full complement of sports writers, the Times-Union will also send six photographers a day — three each in the morning and afternoon — to the golf tournament as well as Judy Wells, who writes her daily “Wells Watch” column.
The Times-Union’s biggest issue may be Friday night. The Gators don’t tip-off until 9:40 and while the Friday Players round will be long over, the outcome of the Gators game won’t be known until nearly midnight.
“We will not cover the Gators like Florida fans are used to,” explained Richey. “It’ll be kind of a slam dunk, we’ll print who won and have more coverage Sunday.”
The other dilemma for the Times-Union may come Sunday afternoon and it revolves around a big ‘What if’ as what if the Gators advance to the Final Four and one of golf’s big names — or a local — wins The Players Championship?
“We will have a conversation about what is the bigger sports story and what about (page) A-1,” said Richey.
Gannett-owned Ch. 12/25 isn’t sending anyone to Minneapolis and will instead rely on other stations within the Gannett family for game footage and interviews. News Director Mike McCormick said several Gannett stations relied heavily on his station for coverage of last week’s games and the favor is being returned this weekend.
“Gannett owns the No. 1 station in Minneapolis, so the way we are looking at it, with all that’s going on here, those crews are working for us,” said McCormick. “I look at it as if they are working for us this week.”
The station is also airing a half-hour special Friday night that will focus on Jacksonville University’s run to the Final Four in 1969 and how it affected Jacksonville at the time. McCormick said the city had just voted to become consolidated a year earlier and it was an interesting time to be here. The special, he says, relates how the JU run helped the image of the city.
Golf will also get plenty of attention from Ch. 12/25. The station plans to send seven anchors, reporters and photographers to cover the event daily and will also run a Players Championship special Friday night.
Local independent Ch. 4 is sending sports reporter/anchor Sean Woodland and producer Matt Kingston to cover the Gators. News director Mo Ruddy-Baker said the station had been preparing to cover both and sending a crew to Minneapolis was a no-brainer.
“This is a Gator town,” she said. “There was no doubt we were going to cover them.”
Ruddy-Baker said the station plans to have 10 reporters/anchors and photojournalists covering The Players Championship Thursday and Friday with nearly that many working on the weekend.
“We are also airing 15-minute specials through Sunday that will cover both the sports and the human interest side of the tournament,” said Ruddy-Baker.