by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
In light of football season – in particular college football season – the Rotary Club of Jacksonville invited Gator Bowl Association (GBA) President Rick Catlett to address its meeting Monday.
Catlett became GBA president 15 years ago following a career as a senior assistant to mayors Jake Godbold and Tommy Hazouri and another career as executive director of Touchdown Jacksonville!, the initiative that was successful in bringing the NFL to Jacksonville. He shared with the Rotary members how the GBA began and has grown as well as why there is more to the Gator Bowl than a college football game on New Year’s Day.
“People think that because I have worked for the government and now I have an office in Jacksonville Municipal Stadium that I still work for the government. Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said. “In fact, the Gator Bowl started with a small group of local businessmen who saw what other cities were able to do with New Year’s Day college football games and believed we could do the same thing here.”
As soon as World War II ended, he said the Rose Bowl was bringing people and their money to California the week after Christmas. It was traditionally a slow time for business across the country and Jacksonville was no exception. It worked in California and it has worked here, Catlett added.
He also pointed out the Gator Bowl is America’s fifth-oldest college bowl game and was the first bowl game televised coast-to-coast.
“We believe college athletics is one of the best things Jacksonville could be involved in and we (the GBA) have been at the forefront in bringing major college athletic events to Jacksonville for economic development. It’s all about bringing people to Jacksonville,” added Catlett. “We bring a lot of people to town. They spend a lot of money and then they go home. We don’t have to build schools or roads for them.”
Catlett said when he took over as the GBA’s top executive in 1993, “There were 11 people involved in the Gator Bowl. Now we have 223 committee members and 750 volunteers. In addition to our major national sponsors like Konica-Minolta, we also have 92 local corporate sponsors who will contribute $1.2 million this year.”
Catlett pointed out with a guaranteed pay out of $5.5 million to the teams participating this year, it will take more than corporate support on the national and local levels to continue to make the game a success.
“We need people to buy tickets,” he said, then added since the game will be nationally televised on CBS, “Nothing hurts our community like not having a full stadium on New Year’s Day.”
In addition to the Gator Bowl game, the GBA is also bringing Florida State University to Jacksonville Municipal Stadium to play the University of Colorado Sept. 27. Catlett predicted there will be 55,000 fans in the stands that day but cautioned, “If we are going to be able to continue to bring more college football to Jacksonville it has to be successful at the box office and it has to be successful for the community.”
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