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Behind the Scenes: How the Florida State/Boise State football at TIAA Bank Field Got Done

The 2019 neutral site game is a home game for FSU

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - This week Jacksonville’s worst-kept secret was a 2019 college football matchup on Labor Day weekend between Florida State and Boise State at TIAA Bank Field.

First Coast News initially reported the neutral-site game was a possibility in July 2016; as part of a two-game deal with Boise State. (FSU is the home team in 2019 and will travel to Boise, Idaho in 2020.) This 2019 matchup between FSU and Boise State has been in the works since then, according to officials. The game was announced officially on Wednesday. Boise State let the cat out of the bag early by announcing the game on its website.

Gator Bowl Sports President and CEO Rick Catlett called it a tough negotiation that began with a lunch.

“[FSU President John] Thrasher called me up and said come have lunch with me," Catlett said. "I went over there [to Tallahassee] and he said, ‘I want to play in Jacksonville.’ Stan Wilcox, the athletic director, was there and he looked at Stan and said, ‘You and Rick go make that happen.' I came back and told [Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry] and he said, ‘let’s do it.”

It took about 12 months to get the deal done, according to Catlett. He says the game has been in discussions for a while but the opponent wasn’t always Boise State. (The Palm Beach Post reported the initial opponent was Auburn.)

“When we started in 2016, we were talking about [FSU] playing someone else and things changed which moved us from 2018 to 2019,” Catlett said. “Unfortunately, you can’t shake someone’s hand and go do something like this when millions of dollars are involved so you get the lawyers and all the details surrounding the game."

Boise State was natural opponent for the Seminoles to face in Jacksonville because their fans travel well and they are a historically-good opponent. Catlett says he expects at least 15,000 fans Boise State fans to make the trip east. TIAA Bank Field will have 68,000 seats available, Catlett said.

"I told [FSU chairman Ed Burr] and [FSU athletic director Stan Wilcox], well I didn’t tell, I asked, but is there any way we could get a game in Jacksonville before I left the presidency of FSU,” Thrasher said. He is also a Jacksonville native and former state legislator for northeast Florida. “We could not be prouder to come back to Jacksonville.”

Neutral-site college football games like this are very common, especially on Labor Day weekend, which serves as an unofficial kickoff celebration. And the games are not cheap.

Currently, Dallas, Orlando and Atlanta host kickoff classics every year and both teams receive millions of dollars.

“There is big money in all this stuff. You got to make sure we don’t screw this up so it affects the economic impact of [Jacksonville],” Catlett said. “For a game in Dallas, they are paying those teams five million dollars a piece. We have no commitment to Florida State other than they will get the ticket revenue. They will get a share of concessions and parking. It is a pretty straightforward contract that will allow the city to make some money and give Florida State a good payday.”

A good payday for FSU could peak other teams interest in playing in Jacksonville. The other potential attraction: stadium-area improvements around TIAA Bank Field.

If Lot J and the Shipyards are developed as proposed by the Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan, Curry believes the improvements around the stadium will help increase the city’s chances at hosting future neutral site games.

"When you look at the private capital that will be invested in and around this area over the next decade, we don't know exactly what it will mean for games like this, but it should have significant meaning," Curry said.

"It certainly means we are back in the [conversation for hosting] the national championship," Catlett said.

And before you laugh, Atlanta hosted the 2018 college football national championship and the attendance was 77,430. The 2017 national championship in Tampa was attended by 74,512 people. TIAA Bank Field has a maximum capacity when expandable to 84,000, according to Catlett.

“We would love to have [a second neutral site game] every year,” Curry said. “These folks have conference games to worry about and there is a money factor so there is competition. It is not an easy thing.”

But who is paying for that money factor in this game?

Financial terms of the deal were not immediately available.

First Coast News submitted a public records request related to the FSU/Boise State game but was told by email from City of Jacksonville Assistant General Counsel Craig Feiser that public records would not come from their office and they would need to come from the JaxSports Council office. That happened despite Curry stating the records did exist and his office would be more than willing to provide them.

“We can get you details and there are definitely incentives that are a part of this,” Curry said.

First Coast News then asked Curry specifically if the incentives were from the city and related to this game.

“Absolutely," he said. "Look, this will drive economic development. We can get you those numbers. We measure all this stuff. We invest in these big-time events in partnership with others and that drives sales tax, that drives the bed tax and that drives revenue.”

Wednesday evening, the Mayor's Chief of Staff Brian Hughes reached out to First Coast News.

He says the city will only be on the hook for operating the stadium on game day for "not less than $350,000 and not anymore than $400,000." The stadium is owned by the city of Jacksonville. Hughes says the city will get a portion of parking revenue therefore cutting down on taxpayer's expense.

"We are comfortable with the operation expense because of comparable agreements such as the Florida-Georgia game and the Navy-Notre Dame game," said Hughes.

Hughes says the city will provide the numbers for the city's involvement.

The financials behind the high profile games have a great impact in Jacksonville, where the city already pays the Florida Gators and Georgia Bulldogs $250,000 annually for participating in the Florida/Georgia game. Each school also receives ticket revenue, according to a contract between the universities and city.

Catlett said for Jacksonville to become a regular in hosting a Labor Day weekend neutral site game, a large sponsor is needed such as Chick-Fil-A in Atlanta. Catlett does say JaxSports is having discussions about hosting other college football teams.

“We have a neutral site game here every year. It’s called Georgia-Florida," Catlett said. "We would like to host FSU every four or five years. We are talking to UCF and we are talking to USF. We are talking to a lot of schools about coming here. You want someone that is the local natural draw and then you want somebody from another part of the country that can bring fans.”

Kickoff time and television network details have yet to be determined.

Stay with First Coast News for more on this story. Contact the reporter at mahead@firstcoastnews.com

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