JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville Icemen will faceoff against their rival, the Florida Everblades on Wednesday night, marking the first major event to happen near the RISE Doro apartments after a massive fire destroyed the building on Sunday.
The team said to expect traffic delays as patrons work to avoid road closures.
A. Philip Randolph from Duval Street to Bay Street will be closed. Portions of E. Adams Steet are also closed from behind the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp Stadium to behind the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. The arena parking garage is also closed.
Alternate parking is available at Lot J, P and Z, as well as the Jacksonville Fairgrounds. Street parking is also accessible north of Duval Street.
The team is grateful for everyone coming out to the game and said they're looking at this rivalry game as a way to bring people together after a difficult few days.
"It's going to be a fun night and in despite of the unfortunate incident with the fire and it's tough on everybody to see that," said Alex Reed, director of communication and broadcasting for the Jacksonville Icemen. "But I think it's going to give everybody a little bit of just something else to think about downtown that hey, there's still some fun still good stuff happening in downtown."
Fans who got to the arena early said they did not have any safety concerns and were able to find parking quickly because they planned ahead.
"I actually checked the First Coast News app and the Icemen came out and gave us a heads up. We found parking right over there in lot Z," Jeffrey Maynard, a long time Icemen fan, said.
The puck drops at 7 p.m.
JSO anticipates the same parking setup for Friday's game against the Atlanta Gladiators.