Alan Verlander to announce tomorrow that Davis Cup is coming to Jax

[fsquid]

doesn't look like it had good attendance based on what I've seen on TV out here in LA

[copperfiend]

I don't think it was an easy sell, especially being on Super Bowl weekend. I remember 20 years ago or so, the Davis Cup finals were in Tampa. Andre Agassi was on that team and was a huge draw. In the 80's you had McEnroe and Connors playing. There are just no stars on the US team right now.

[fsquid]

good point

[tufsu1]

I heard the city has lost so much $ on these events (especially Fl-Gtown bball game) that theres no $ to pay for the Fsu-Fl baseball game

[fsquid]

the city pays for college baseball???

[copperfiend]

I don't think the city lost money on the carrier basketball game.

[fsujax]

oh the one event that draws thousands and sells out and now the City can't afford it. Great logic.

[tufsu1]

the city pays for college baseball???

they pay for the teams' travel costs and such

[KenFSU]

I don't think it was an easy sell, especially being on Super Bowl weekend. I remember 20 years ago or so, the Davis Cup finals were in Tampa. Andre Agassi was on that team and was a huge draw. In the 80's you had McEnroe and Connors playing. There are just no stars on the US team right now.

Three days of indoor tennis, with no mainstream stars and NFL-level ticket prices, on Superbowl weekend, in a market without a proven track record of supporting tennis, probably did about as well as I would have guessed for Jacksonville. We went on Saturday, and I'd guess the crowd to be somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000. Triple that, and you're probably looking at around 12,000-14,000 in attendance for the three-day event. In a market this size, with the above stated conditions, I'm not really sure how much more you can realistically expect. I'm really happy Brown brought the Davis Cup here, but it probably is an event better suited for a bigger market with a higher concentration of tennis fans. I'm not sure how much difference lower ticket prices would have made, but I've noticed that Jacksonville is super sensitive to ticket prices relative other markets.

[Tacachale]

Sounds about right. With those prices and no big stars on a beautiful Super Bowl weekend - I don't know what else could have been done there. I'm not sure where you're going to find a "concentration of tennis fans" though. It would absolutely suck if this stuff affected the Florida-FSU baseball game.

[copperfiend]

Maybe it was just bad luck for the city being on SB weekend against a mediocre opponent. But the next round is in early April and is going to be in Boise. The US opponent will be Serbia, and Djokovic is expected to play. That would have been a much bigger draw here.

[duvaldude08]

It had more so to do with the match. One of my managers at work is an advid tennis player and going games world wide, and she did not go. One problem was she just wanted to go to one match, but the tickets were not sold per match and she was not paying for all three to just go to one. Then also she stated she didnt want to see the men, and that brazil wasnt a very attractive match up.

[duvaldude08]

I don't think it was an easy sell, especially being on Super Bowl weekend. I remember 20 years ago or so, the Davis Cup finals were in Tampa. Andre Agassi was on that team and was a huge draw. In the 80's you had McEnroe and Connors playing. There are just no stars on the US team right now.

Three days of indoor tennis, with no mainstream stars and NFL-level ticket prices, on Superbowl weekend, in a market without a proven track record of supporting tennis, probably did about as well as I would have guessed for Jacksonville. We went on Saturday, and I'd guess the crowd to be somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000. Triple that, and you're probably looking at around 12,000-14,000 in attendance for the three-day event. In a market this size, with the above stated conditions, I'm not really sure how much more you can realistically expect. I'm really happy Brown brought the Davis Cup here, but it probably is an event better suited for a bigger market with a higher concentration of tennis fans. I'm not sure how much difference lower ticket prices would have made, but I've noticed that Jacksonville is super sensitive to ticket prices relative other markets.

The ticket prices and the match-ups were an issue.