A big bump in the bill for an annual tradition in Jacksonville- one the City now says it’s working to change.
WOKV told you in August that the City of Jacksonville saw a big rise in the amount it paid for temporary seating for the annual Florida/Georgia Classic football game. This was driven in large part by an increase in the number of seats which needed to be installed - the City is required to provide around 83,000 seats for the game. Previously, that meant building about 5,000 seats each year at EverBank, but following recent renovations that required removing some of the seating at the stadium, this year, it meant building about 13,000 in total.
Another big reason for the spike is that it marked the beginning of a new contract- the prior one for the City had rates which had been locked in for years. Additionally, only one bid was submitted for the project, and there was overtime in order to make construction fit with the NFL schedule.
In all, the bill went from $269,379.00 for the 2013 game to $1,645,7034.45 in 2014.
“[Seating] Certainly was the big number year-over-year,” says Jacksonville’s Sports and Entertainment Officer Dave Herrell.
That cost increase was the driving force behind the amount of your tax dollars the City of Jacksonville budgeted for the game more than tripling: $530,000 in 2013 to $1,813,383.45 in 2014.
“We’ll continue to invest in the game,” Herrell says.
A newly compiled cost breakdown of the game obtained by WOKV shows there were some gains made this year over last, like an increase in the number of sponsorship dollars which came in. Additionally, the accounting shows the game ended $334,168.81 in the black overall, which is an increase over 2013’s $256,804.20. That was, in part, boosted by a Tourist Development Council grant the game was awarded this year worth $45,266.80. It’s an annual application which Herrell says they plan to submit again.
But Herrell says they are always looking at where we can find more savings.
“We always want to be prudent in terms of the financial decisions that we’re making,” he says.
Documents obtained by WOKV show the current temporary seating contract is a five year commitment, with the option to extend two additional three year terms. There is a clause in the contract, however, which allows the City to terminate “for convenience” at any point. That means the City can give the contractor written notice at any time for any reason ending the contract, and they would only be responsible to pay for services already rendered. Herrell says they are exploring re-bidding the contract.
“See if maybe we could mitigate that expenditure and get out in front of it,” he says.
While the City had initially solicited five bids for this seating contract, only one was returned. Herrell says he’s hopeful they could get more competitive offers this time around.
Although these cost savings are being explored, Herrell says the contractor which was used- SGA Holdings, Inc.- met all of their expectations with this highly skilled work.
Despite the bill on the City continuing to climb, there are economic benefits impacting the greater area which Herrell says warrant the investment.
“$32 million economic impact and 6.3 million people watching the game on a national television broadcast- that is a great brand opportunity,” he says.
The most recent Visit Jacksonville survey also showed 132,000 out of town visitors came to town for multiple days.
“It’s absolutely one of the most important things that we do,” Herrell says.
One question outstanding right now is whether we could actually see the stadium seating bill rise once again. The Jacksonville Jaguars are currently bidding for state money to fund renovations of the Club Level, which under their current plan, would mean removing more seats at EverBank Field. While the team plans to front the money needed for the renovations and get reimbursed by the state- if approved- the Jaguars President tells us they would expect the City to pay to put in any temporary seating as needed.
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