A.G. Gancarski
On Thursday, the office of Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry took its annual romp through budgets of venues managed by SMG.
SMG, which saw its contract renewed for five more years this week via the Jacksonville City Council, manages Jacksonville sports and entertainment facilities.
Highlights? For masochists and budget obsessives, they are below. The struggle, as ever, between SMG asks and what the city seeks to provide.
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As ever, the most interesting parts of these hearings — the enhancement requests.
Changes are on the way for management of city events, and those changes illuminate the symbiosis between the city and Shad Khan.
Chief Administrative Officer Sam Mousa noted, in request for a seemingly quotidian FTE request for a SMG housekeeping supervisor, that the city is negotiating a deal with Bold Events — a Jaguars subsidiary — for managing city events at the flex field and the amphitheater.
Such events could include gameday concerts at the amphitheater.
This led to an interesting exchange, with SMG balking at new information being provided.
“The gameplan is Bold Events is going to manage our events,” Mousa said, everything from finding artists to promoting the events. “I don’t see you working for us under that scenario. You’d be working for Bold Events.”
Other expenses are incurred due to the integration of the stadium and the amphitheater, such as an additional $100,000 in the SMG budget for security.
SMG expressed concerns regarding the Jaguars covering overhead on Bold Events also; Mousa wanted to ensure that SMG had separate books, so that no “commingling” of revenue streams existed.
“It’s going to be a heck of an auditing process,” CFO Mike Weinstein mused, with the City Council auditor.
Eventually, discussion revealed that there was one set of books, coded by SMG to carve out and track budget line items and expenditures.
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Among other fun facts: the lack of Jacksonville Armada rentals at the Baseball Grounds cost the city $91,000 in revenue.
Sod at EverBank Field: $600,000 a year typically. The NFL is issuing more exacting guidelines, however, and the cost of high-level sod is going to cost more — $725,000 a year.
The plan is to assume the whole field, and not just the center of the pitch, will have to be resodded.
The last time the Jaguars resodded the whole field: during the playoffs in the late 1990s.
Mousa offered to do the resodding himself, if the playoffs were an actuality instead of a sepia-tinged memory.
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Mousa, as happens yearly, pushed back against SMG’s budget requests on line item after line item, with SMG maintaining a $556,000 deficit exists between budget and actual spending on equipment, including food service equipment.
Mousa’s take: “you’re looking to rob Peter to pay Paul.”
SMG, meanwhile, said their budgetary projections are realistic, with “risk” involved.
“We’re giving you $3.4M more in surcharge,” Mousa said, “to help you get through the routine. Capital repairs and maintenance. I find this hard to bump this up another $1.7M to add to $3.4M.”
Eventually, Mousa offered to hold that number in abeyance.
Mousa noted, later on, that $4.3M is budgeted for maintenance and repairs for the stadium.
Regarding debt service, $19.3M is budgeted, from a variety of subfunds including Better Jacksonville Plan funding.
