A.G. Gancarski
Two bills related to sports and entertainment cleared the Jacksonville City Council Finance Committee on Wednesday.
The first bill would increase city-imposed ticket surcharges for the Veterans Memorial Arena, the Baseball Grounds of Jax, and the Times Union Center for the Performing Arts, while adding surcharges for events at the under construction amphitheater and flex field at the stadium.
The bill had its first hearing in Neighborhoods, Community Investments, and Services, where it was deferred because of objections by the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra; they noted that since they are in the middle of the season, that would affect season subscriptions.
Those concerns have been worked out, though Councilman Bill Gulliford noted that the symphony president has a $5 million laundry list of needed capital improvements to address the “deterioration” of the T-U Center. Other venues have their own needs.
The money from this surcharge hike will go to infrastructural improvements, and is a necessary revenue stream especially in light of long-term debt-financed stadium improvements by the last two mayoral administrations.
City CFO Mike Weinstein referred to a “comfort level” among stakeholders that the funds would be allocated as earmarked, with funds siloed for the venues in a “joint effort between the tenant and the city.”
As it stands, the bill has to be heard again by NCIS in January, though it is possible that could be overridden for a hearing by the full council next week at the last meeting of the year.
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The second relevant bill to sports and entertainment that cleared Finance.: a contractually-required installation of temporary club seats for this month’s TaxSlayer Bowl.
This will cost $415,000.
Though the stadium likely won’t fill up, the club seats are the premium inventory, and desired by the participating conferences for revenue enhancement and prestige.
The city is obligated to fulfill the contractual rider for club seats installation through 2019, and future negotiations will avoid such a guarantee.
Councilman Aaron Bowman bemoaned the likelihood of “a lot of club seats” that the city paid to install, but won’t be filled by the lackluster Georgia Tech/Kentucky matchup on the morning of New Year’s Eve.
This would have been in budget, said CFO Weinstein, but the exact cost of installation of the temporary club seats was unknown in the summer.
Notable: Councilman Greg Anderson, on the TaxSlayer Bowl selection committee, predicts a “great turnout” for this matchup.
Time will tell on that.
But the seats will be installed nonetheless.
