For several weeks, WOKV has been investigating the increased cost of building the bleachers needed for the Florida/Georgia game after EverBank renovations.
City Council got a close look today, and members were not happy with the answer.
Part of the contract between the University of Florida, University of Georgia, and City of Jacksonville includes a requirement that the City have a certain number of seats available for the game- close to 83,000. Over the past several years, the City has spent about $280,000 to build the roughly 5,000 additional seats needed to meet those requirements.
That total is up to $1,645,734 in this budget proposal.
The City Council was told last year, when the renovations for EverBank were approved, that the City would need to build even more seating. About 7,000 seats were removed from EverBank in order to make room for the new North End Zone party deck and cabanas. At the time, it was believed the additional seating would cost several hundred thousand dollars.
WOKV’s investigation has uncovered that estimation did not, however, factor in that the City would be entering a new contract to build the seating. The contract the City was under was longstanding, and the rates for seating are now substantially higher.
I’ve received a copy of the bid which was approved by the City. It shows the City solicited five bids from various vendors, but only received one back- the one which was ultimately approved- from SGA Holdings, Inc. The contract will last five years, with the option to extend the deal twice for three years.
In addition to the base rate being higher than prior years and the need for about 12,000 more seats, the seats themselves will be nicer- some including cup holders and others wider than before.
This year specifically has a higher cost as well because of the tight timeline between a Jaguars game on October 26 and the FL/GA game November 1. Our records request shows $246,096 of the total $1,645,734 will be paid to accommodate overtime and other expenses for a gradual installation of the bleachers around Jags game.
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