Jacksonville 'confident' Florida/Georgia will continue on the First Coast

It's been a First Coast tradition since 1933, but this weekend's Florida/Georgia football game is the second to last one under the current contract between the City, University of Florida, and University of Georgia.

That’s something Jacksonville officials have known for some time. They’re working to make sure the tradition continues.

“It’s staying in Jacksonville, we’re going to make sure of that,” says Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry.

Curry says some of his first calls when he took office earlier this year were to the Athletic Directors of UF and UGA. Since then, he’s continued to work on the City’s relationships with the schools while making the case for keeping the game here.

Continually hosting the neutral site game is not just a tradition, but a big boost for the City’s profile, according to Jacksonville’s Sports and Entertainment Officer Dave Herrell.

“The economic development that it brings, the quality of life impact that it produces, and then the brand acceleration for us is off the charts in terms of putting Jacksonville on a national stage,” Herrell says.

Annually, the game is estimated to have an economic impact of tens of millions of dollars, according to prior surveys by the City and Visit Jacksonville.

The City does plug hundreds of thousands of dollars in to the game each year, a cost that is heavily contingent on the temporary bleacher construction that takes place every year. Jacksonville is contractually obligated to provide more seats than EverBank Field has for the game, so bleachers are constructed in various places for the one weekend.

That cost jumped substantially following the renovations at EverBank, which included removing even more seats to create pools and cabana decks. The City’s contract with the vendor adding in the seats also ended that year, and the new contract was agreed upon at a higher rate.

Herrell says all the ongoing work at the stadium is not a concern when it comes to renegotiating this game. He believes the City has time and again proven that it can handle not just this game, but other “mega-events”.

“It’s such an iconic event, everyone loves it, it’s in our DNA,” he says.

Now, it just comes down to execution.

“I’m confident we’re going to come out with a solid contract that will extend in to the future,” Curry says.

A decision on the contract is expected in the coming weeks.

You can find all the information you need about this weekend's Florida/Georgia game- from events around the game to parking information and safety zones on the official event website.