by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
It’s no secret Jacksonville is a football town. Annually, there are 10 Jaguars home games, the Florida-Georgia game and the Gator Bowl. Those dozen games draw hundreds of thousands of people and generate millions in economic impact.
But, what if Jacksonville hosted Wrestlemania one year? Or the Senior Bowl for six years? Or, served as a host city for the World Cup — arguably the biggest sporting event in the world every four years — in 2018 or 2022?
“An event like this would have a $100 million economic impact,” said Mike Bouda, director of sports and entertainment for the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission, talking about the World Cup.
Bouda is part of a team Jacksonville has assembled to help bring the World Cup here. The rest of the team includes officials from Visit Jacksonville and SMG, the company that manages the City’s sports and entertainment venues. Last week, the list of cities being considered was narrowed to 27 and Jacksonville is on that list. Hosting the World Cup is contingent on U.S. Soccer submitting an acceptable bid to FIFA, the governing body of world soccer. U.S. Soccer has until May of next year to submit its bid, which will be evaluated by FIFA’s 24-member Executive Committee. That evaluation includes studying the bids and conducting site visits.
The United States hosted the World Cup in 1994, but the closest matches were played in Orlando. Overall, 32 nations qualify for the World Cup — which is in South Africa next summer. Those teams are divided among eight, four-team groups that play a round-robin format. The top two teams in each group advance to the elimination stage.
“We would host 4-6 games in a 30-day period,” said Bouda. “Each team brings about 20,000 people with them. We also have to have a fan-fest for 30 consecutive days with TVs set up so people can watch the other games (going on in other cities). It’s enormous.”
Bouda said the stadium would need some renovations to accommodate a regulation, FIFA-approved field that’s 115 yards long and 74 yards wide. He said officials from U.S. Soccer are aware of the stadium issues and have been assured Jacksonville will make those renovations if selected as a host city.
The Senior Bowl — the college football all-star game played annually in Mobile, Ala. — is also on Bouda’s radar screen.
“We have a conference call with them (Senior Bowl officials) next week,” said Bouda, adding if Jacksonville doesn’t get the 2010 game he likes the city’s chances of landing a six-year contract after that. He also thinks Jacksonville would an ideal host. “We have a topflight stadium and Jacksonville is a huge college football town. It would be one more event where you could see the top college all-stars before the draft. I really believe we have an opportunity to move it to the next level.”
Bouda said the Senior Bowl is a week-long event that gets daily national TV coverage from the NFL Network and ESPN.
“There will be a lot of room nights,” he said.
Pro wrestling’s biggest event, Wrestlemania, may also be heading to Jacksonville. Bouda said he has been in contact with World Wrestling Entertainment officials about the prospect of hosting the event in the stadium in 2012 or 2013. The event could draw as many as 90,000 fans and includes a week’s worth of activities such as the WWE Hall of Fame induction and taping of “Monday Night Raw” in the Arena.
“Jacksonville is very supportive of wrestling and always has been,” he said.
Bouda isn’t the only one intrigued about the possibility of hosting three major sporting events over the next decade. Officials from Visit Jacksonville are working on all three prospects, as well.
“We do have a role. We are presenting Jacksonville’s message to the different sports groups,” said Visit Jacksonville’s Director of Corporate Communication Lyndsay Rossman. “We think these are great. Jacksonville is obviously a sports destination. There are different levels of impact and one of those is millions of dollars for the city. Money flows through the hotels and restaurants and out from there. Those events have a huge impact and that equates to jobs.”
Rossman also said the value of the exposure Jacksonville would receive from the events — and even just being mentioned constantly as a possible host — is immeasurable.
“Those are huge national and international events and mean great exposure,” she said. “Football, soccer and wrestling fans are all very passionate. They blog about it on the Internet and you read about the events in magazines. Jacksonville would have a huge presence in all of that.”
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