The turnout for the Gator Bowl was pretty great this year, but the Gator Bowl Association feels it could have been even better if the city had installed the extra 2,000 seats they were contracted for.
The association is getting $334,725 back for the loss in revenue. However, it’s a deal that’s worked out for both the city and the association, according to Gator Bowl Sports President, Rick Catlett.
“The reimbursement was less than the city would have had to have paid to put the seats in," Catlett says. "It was a net gain to the city to not have to put them in and we broke even with the exact revenue we would have gotten by having those seats to sell.”
The additional seats were to be temporarily installed at TIAA Bank Field to accommodate additional fans during the game. However, with less than a week's turnaround between the last Jaguars game and the Gator Bowl, the seats couldn’t be put in.
“Well we were going to lose 300 and something thousand dollars, that’s how I felt, which is not a good thing," Catlett says.
The association says it lost out on extra ticket sales, parking, concessions and merchandise revenue. But most importantly, it now has to win back ticket holders for this year’s game.
“Our patrons were disappointed because we had to move people’s seats that had been buying club seats from us for years.”
The city and the association worked together to figure out the total cost of the reimbursement. Catlett says this wasn’t a money grab by the Gator Bowl at all.
The Gator Bowl Association is a not-for-profit organization. The money from the reimbursement will go to pay the two teams – the Tennessee Vols and the Indiana Hoosiers- that played in the Gator Bowl.