by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
When tickets to the Feb. 22 Rascal Flatts show at the Arena go on sale Saturday, Jacksonville Economic Development Commission Sports and Entertainment Coordinator Mike Bouda has an extra incentive for fans of both Rascal Flatts and baseball.
In a coordinated promotion, Bouda, SMG and the University of North Florida are working together to make sure the concert and the UNF/Mississippi State baseball game set for the same day at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville are both well-attended.
“If you show me a ticket to the Rascal Flatts concert, I’ll let you into the ballpark for five bucks,” said Bouda, adding the first pitch is set for 5 p.m., meaning the game may be over by the time concert fans would want to start heading into the Arena. “We want people to come in, get something to eat and drink and head over to the concert.”
The game is the season opener for both UNF and MSU. Tom Strother, assistant athletic director for media relations at UNF, said the school and its baseball coach, Dusty Rhodes, both support moving the game, the first in a three-game series, off campus.
“It’s a great event that we hope will draw attention to college baseball,” said Strother.
In the past, UNF has played the Jacksonville Suns in an exhibition game. Two years ago, UNF played Florida in a regular season game in front of about 6,000 fans. Strother said UNF and Rhodes — whom Strother said orchestrated this year’s game against Mississippi State in the Downtown ballpark — are open to playing three to four games a year off-campus.
“Anytime we can play Downtown is great. It’s a great park,” said Strother, adding the school is heavily promoting the game on campus through direct e-mails to students, signs and by visiting with various student groups.
Bouda said the game is part of a plan to play more college baseball in the Baseball Grounds. The Jacksonville Suns minor league team is the park’s primary tenant, and Bouda stressed the JEDC wouldn’t schedule anything that would interfere with a Suns home stand. However, he also stressed,the park is a City-owned facility and was designed and built with the intention of generating revenue from sources other than Suns baseball.
“We have the Florida/Florida State game in April and the ACC tournament in May,” said Bouda.
Last year, the Florida/Florida State game drew a capacity crowd of more than 12,000, and Bouda is looking for a similar crowd this year. The other issue regarding the $35 million park is how to better utilize it during the Suns’ off season, which runs approximately September through March.
“That’s a good question,” said Bouda. “It’s not quite big enough for a different kind of field and it’s hard to get any other baseball.”
Bouda did say the City is still looking to attract Major League Baseball spring training to Jacksonville. However, he said longstanding ties to various Florida cities and most teams’ desires for short commutes will make it hard to convince many teams to hold spring training in Jacksonville.
“It’s difficult to get teams to commit because they have contractual obligations to sites,” said Bouda. “We are still trying to get the Tampa Bay Devil Rays to play a three-game series here like they did last year in Orlando. I think that’s a viable option. It takes a lot of negotiating and it’s not something that happens overnight. It takes years.”