I was having lunch with one of my co-workers who is close with the some of the members on the council and he basically said Jax is last on the totem pole with it comes to selection to host major sporting events, but that they had to start somewhere so they chose the Womens NCAA BB tournament.
He said the order of cities goes like Miami-Tampa, St. Pete-Orlando-Fort Lauderdale-Jacksonville.
One of the things he said is holding Jax back is the lack of Hotels downtown.
Quote:I was having lunch with one of my co-workers who is close with the some of the members on the council and he basically said Jax is last on the totem pole with it comes to selection to host major sporting events, but that they had to start somewhere so they chose the Womens NCAA BB tournament.
He said the order of cities goes like Miami-Tampa, St. Pete-Orlando-Fort Lauderdale-Jacksonville.
One of the things he said is holding Jax back is the lack of Hotels downtown.
Jacksonville has to add big business and good entertainment venues downtown so that we can build more hotels. Without that we are stuck.
NCAA conference tournaments are great, but Brown and Verlander had a bigger vision. It doesn't seem to be happening the way they wanted.
Quote:I'm sure they'd beg to differ...
Have you ever seen the scores of the NCAA Women's braket? Until you get to the Final 4, teams are blowing their opponents out by ~ 20points. There is such a huge disparity in women's basketball.
Here are the winners of the Elite 8
*UCONN by 19
*Texas A&M by 19
*Notre Dame by 17
*Baylor by 18
http://www.ncaa.com/interactive-bracket/...l-women/d1
Quote:I was having lunch with one of my co-workers who is close with the some of the members on the council and he basically said Jax is last on the totem pole with it comes to selection to host major sporting events, but that they had to start somewhere so they chose the Womens NCAA BB tournament.
He said the order of cities goes like Miami-Tampa, St. Pete-Orlando-Fort Lauderdale-Jacksonville.
One of the things he said is holding Jax back is the lack of Hotels downtown.
That makes sense.
... i'm just bummed because i really want another ncaa regular season football game back here like we had with FSU vs Colorado a few years ago.
Quote:Jacksonville has to add big business and good entertainment venues downtown so that we can build more hotels. Without that we are stuck.
NCAA conference tournaments are great, but Brown and Verlander had a bigger vision. It doesn't seem to be happening the way they wanted.
As I understand it FBC owns a lot of real estate downtown and for some reason they will never allow the area to flourish like you suggest.
Quote:As I understand it FBC owns a lot of real estate downtown and for some reason they will never allow the area to flourish like you suggest.
I don't think their influence is nearly what it used to be. Their current pastor seems more interested in expanding into the suburbs than dominate downtown.
They own several city blocks but they are really on the northwest corner of downtown. I don't think their presence is holding back development.
Quote:I don't think their influence is nearly what it used to be. Their current pastor seems more interested in expanding into the suburbs than dominate downtown.
They own several city blocks but they are really on the northwest corner of downtown. I don't think their presence is holding back development.
Yeah, they can have that part of the city. The part that needs developed is all the empty land along the riverfront. People would flock down there if they had a reason to go.
The new Landing should be really nice, and it's a good start.
Quote:
Yeah, they can have that part of the city. The part that needs developed is all the empty land along the riverfront. People would flock down there if they had a reason to go.
The new Landing should be really nice, and it's a good start.
And recent news gives us at least a sliver of hope. The Shipyards potentially being developed. A developer has recently talked about finishing the Berkman II.
I hope something actually gets done with the Landing. That should essentially be the "town square" of downtown.
