Greg McGarity, CEO, Gator Bowl Sports
Invest: spoke with Greg McGarity, CEO of Gator Bowl Sports, about the economic impact it has on the local community in Jacksonville, its year-long charitable contributions to the region, and how much future development depends on renovations to its stadium.
What has been the overall impact of Gator Bowl Sports in the past year?
In the past year, our game alone has had a direct impact of close to $10 million in the community, between lodging, transportation, food, and beverage. The year before that number was over $17 million. Those numbers show the impact we have on the Jacksonville community. That is just one game, three or four days a week. The rest would be through our charity’s arm, which has extended to probably eight different areas in the community. It isn’t a revenue generator, but it is a way for us to give back as a nonprofit. At the end of the day, we are just trying to make ends meet, but what we do most of the year has to do with charities. But for four to five days a year, we have a football game inserted there. It shows the impact the game has financially, but there is no way to estimate the dollar amount of our charitable efforts, other than in the time and energy spent doing good deeds for others.
Being in the nonprofit sector, in what ways do you adapt to the community’s needs?
A perfect example would be our diversity initiative that we have implemented to attract females into our population. About 18 months ago, we started an effort to attract women, and their number has grown from 0 to over 75 in that 18-month period. It has been tremendous, and it filled the void in the community concerning a way to connect female leaders with the community in our charitable efforts. That has been the biggest gap we have filled, as well as helping middle-school youngsters at job fairs, and by training them in financial literacy. We have taken a giant step to help that population, not to mention the disadvantaged and those with physical challenges. We try to do a few things well, instead of doing too much and diluting our impact. It shows in our membership retention and in how we are viewed in the community.
What is the strength of the local economy?
The strength is in the lodging and entertainment sector. Our sports sector has hosted several big-time concerts including George Strait this summer. There are probably 40 concerts that are held in the amphitheater behind the stadium. Our community is a generator that drives what happens downtown, because it is not a popular place right now, but we generate a tremendous number of patrons. The city is working on improving downtown, but we are doing what we can with our sports enterprise between our four to five facilities.
What legislation are you keeping any eye on that will impact your philanthropic community in Jacksonville?
There are some things that are really critical with everything centered around the renovation of the football stadium. If that doesn’t happen, it would be a big setback for Jacksonville and the community in general. All eyes are on the new stadium/facility, with hotels going up along the riverside, and a lot of things that are dependent on it being finished. If you don’t have the stadium, we lose the college footballer and big concerts, so everything pivots around that stadium deal. If it happens, Jacksonville, and especially the downtown area would explode.
How are changes in technology and innovation impacting your efforts?
Social media basically has a tremendous impact on everything that we do. We are in a paperless world now, so we depend on that and have had great success in implementing cashless sales and ticketless entry. Everything is online and easily transferable, but also, once people are in the stadium, the Jacksonville Jaguars have done a great job of keeping people up to speed about the game, and the game outside of the stadium. We have to have the bandwidth to allow people to watch other games, perhaps. The attention span of people is waning, and if you provide them access then they can manage watching three events at one time, while being present in the stadium. Every area in the stadium has the latest technology and we are fortunate, because people depend on it. If we aren’t versed or efficient in that area, it will hurt us financially, but also in retention.
What is your outlook for the near term, and what are your top priorities during that time?
For the next three to five years, it must be stadium expansion. If it all goes as planned, then it will be built about three years from now. That will really create some challenges for all of us to use the stadium, as we balance numerous teams and events while construction is ongoing. That is a good thing. The waters will be somewhat choppy over the next few years in the sports world, but if you look at it five years from now, we will be in a new stadium. From there, the sky’s the limit. The next three to six months will be critical to making sure the three- to five-year plan works, because if it doesn’t happen, then downtown would really continue to struggle. We can’t fathom the alternative because it is unacceptable. We are keeping our fingers crossed, and we have a lot to look forward to.
