A.G. Gancarski
A few things are certainties in the Bold New City of the South. One of them is that football (with the exception of the gone and mostly forgotten ACC Championship Game) is a consistent draw. The other is that Jacksonville is as strong a military town as any in the country. When you can make Jacksonville’s love of football and its military tradition converge, you’ve hit the sweet spot of promotion. And when you can add two of the most well-traveled and beloved colleges in the country, you have almost a guaranteed winned.
So it goes with the Wednesday announcement of the Navy/Notre Dame football game to be held at EverBank Field in 2016. Local notables and assorted media members packed the suite where the presser took place, and why not? It was a day of local celebration.
Hosting the event: Rick Catlett of the Jax Sports Council, whose pronouncement spoke to the importance of the event. “What’s happening today is an indication of the future,” Catlett said, placing the event in the spectrum of other big games, such as the Gator/TaxSlayer Bowl and other neutral site games.
This was, claimed Catlett, an opportunity to “build on what we already have,” a sports landscape built on big events, in which football plays an “awfully key role.” He introduced the Athletic Director of the Naval Academy, Chet Gladchuk, who acknowledged the “enthusiasm that came out of the community” as “extraordinary,” before turning to Mayor Lenny Curry and saying that this event couldn’t have happened without him.
Whether the event is in Jacksonville or not, it’s big. The longest running intersectional game, since 1927, according to Gladchuk, suffused by a “tremendous respect” on both sides. An “ongoing series that will never end.”
He promised that Navy partisans would come out in droves, and that it “won’t be just a game,” but will be a “wonderful event.”
Catlett introduced Curry soon thereafter, referring to the mayor as Jacksonville’s “new quarterback,” an introduction that made the mayor note that he never even got to play QB in practice. That said, anyone who knows Curry knows he is a serious football fan, and his remarks addressed that, as well as the importance of the event.
Curry said it was “special” to have the event in “this military town,” and he cited Navy/Notre Dame as an “opportunity to showcase the city on a national stage.”
The “honor and integrity” of the schools, meanwhile, is in full alignment with the values of Jacksonville, Curry said.
After the event, Curry spoke with reporters.
The city’s investment in the game, the mayor said, would be capped out at $325,000, but they would “watch expenses.”
Asked about CAO Sam Mousa‘s tough questioning about the Sports Entertainment budget last month, Curry cautioned not to read too much into that. He cited it as a “return to budget discipline” that applied to all departments.
His commitment, in terms of sports entertainment and other aspects, involves finding “good leaders” and putting the “right people into place” to run their departments.
