The annual Florida-Georgia college football game will stay in Jacksonville "for at least the next five years," according to Alexa Epitropoulos of the JACKSONVILLE BUSINESS JOURNAL. The city has "signed a term sheet with the game for a five-year extension, with the option to start negotiating two years into the contract." Jacksonville's existing contract will "expire at the end of this football season." The schools under the new contract "will get $250,000." Previously, the schools "received a portion of ticket prices." Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry said that the improvements to EverBank Field "were a big incentive for the schools in renewing their contract" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 3/16). In Jacksonville, Gene Frenette in a front-page piece notes Curry was "initially hoping for a 10-year extension, but felt the city came away with a 'win' by being able to start the next round of contract extension talks much sooner." There had been "more concern than usual about extending this contract" because there was "little communication between the schools and members of former mayor Alvin Brown’s administration prior to Curry winning last year’s election." Another reason these negotiations took longer is the schools "wanted to see how the Jaguars’ planned renovations to EverBank Field club seat areas in the east and west stands might impact stadium capacity." The Jaguars are "reducing club seats from 11,000 to about 8,000 for NFL games, but the schools are adamant about capacity remaining at 82,917 for Florida-Georgia." The Jaguars and the city in a separate deal have "agreed to evenly split the costs for replacing the club seats in the east and west stands to accommodate the capacity for the Florida-Georgia game." Jaguars President Mark Lamping said, "The Florida-Georgia game is the single most important sporting event that happens in this community. That’s why we need to keep it here" (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 3/17).
