Jacksonville Super Bowl editorials

[vicupstate]

^And they seem to have done a good job, too!  I'm glad we could finally see a good article.  And I'm thankful that the columnist actually looked up the records for Waffle House and Hooters too, lol.  But here's some disheartening news:

Super Bowl Sidelines: The scarcity of local top-shelf hotel rooms is forcing some musical headliners into more humble accommodations than they

[JaxInvestor]

In Defense of Jacksonville

Friday, January 28, 2005

By John M. Crist - On Location

(from Chicago Sports Review)

The New England Patriots dismantled the Pittsburgh Steelers on Championship Sunday in an impressive 41-27 road victory that wasn

[JaxInvestor]

Why Jacksonville for Super Bowl XXXIX?

By Kent McDill Daily Herald Sports Writer

Posted Saturday, January 29, 2005

Associated Press

Luxury cruise liners will traverse the St. John's River this week in Jacksonville, Fla., serving as "hotel rooms" for many officials of the NFL, as well as key sponsors.

Jacksonville didn't have enough hotels on land to support the crowd that attends the Super Bowl each year, so they had to put hotels on water.

The question is therefore asked, as it has been asked since November 2000:

Why Jacksonville?

Why is the relatively small, unassuming community on the East Coast of Florida (they like to call it the First Coast) hosting the largest sports party of the year?

There is an answer, and the answer is Wayne Weaver, owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Weaver, who made his fortune selling women's shoes, is apparently a convincing man. In 1993, he convinced the NFL to give him a franchise for a team when nobody outside of Jacksonville could understand the decision, and then seven years later he convinced the NFL to give his town the opportunity to host the 2005 Super Bowl.

A spectacular presentation, with precise information on party preparation, made the other NFL owners overlook the inadequacies Jacksonville suffered in comparison to other cities that had hosted Super Bowls in the past.

Now it is time for Jacksonville to present its best face to a national audience that is still trying to figure out

[JaxInvestor]

Florida

[Urban_Legend]

I'm going to lose my mind if I hear

[bobliocatt]

DREW SHARP: Detroit will have the final laughs

BY DREW SHARP

FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

January 29, 2005

As you all well know, I always have embraced optimism.

There were those 15 minutes back in '77.

So, naturally, that places me in direct conflict with the pervasive enthusiasm sweeping through the chambers of power in Detroit. There's excitement because, beginning today, the city is officially in countdown mode.

One year from today, the Super Bowl pilgrimage to Detroit will start. The teams will arrive with appropriate fanfare, their fans and a national media contingent approaching this experience with all the zeal of a state-sponsored execution.

Political and business leaders understand that Super Bowl XL is the biggest promotional instrument Detroit has ever had in its grasp. The Super Bowl Host Committee has done a brilliant job in shaping a strategy that accentuates the many, though sometimes hidden, positives of our town.

But when you want a sense of the impending negativity from the media, who you gonna call?

I told the host committee that it isn't worth losing one second of sleep worrying about the inevitable drive-by assassinations of Detroit's image. Columnists already have charged the NFL with high treason for removing its grand spectacle from the Holy Trinity of Miami, New Orleans and southern California.

If you can't fight it, flaunt it.

Can't-win battles have shouldn't-care solutions. Levity along with an elephant's hide remains the best counterattack.

Detroit can't fall into the same trap as next week's host, Jacksonville, the second-smallest television market in the NFL. Only Green Bay is smaller.

Jacksonville is an easy target. It just might have the most Hooters restaurants per capita in the United States, which means it also has the largest concentration of silicone per capita.

So what? A little self-deprecation goes a long way toward deflecting criticism, mindless or otherwise.

Yet Jacksonville is taking the diatribes personally. The local paper's Web site keeps regular track of the acidic tomes, encouraging its readers to inundate the writers' e-mail with protests.

Like that's going to stop the whine fest when everybody gets to town next week, determined to expose every inadequacy, like not enough hotel rooms. The NFL had to bring in luxury cruise ships to compensate for the lack of accommodations.

Why fret over it? Jacksonville should just enjoy the fact that for the next week or so, it will be the epicenter of the sports universe.

And Detroit will get criticized even worse, so it might as well beat everybody to the punch line and move to more important business.

So here's my contribution to the cause -- the official Bash Detroit Super Bowl column. It's 12 months early, but why wait? I'll make it available to other newspapers so they can encourage their columnists to concentrate on other matters, something more relevant than whether each reporter coming to Detroit should have an accompanying police officer.

The host committee rejected my suggestion of providing all credentialed media with fake bulletproof ski vests as part of their "Welcome to Detroit" grab bags.

The committee is looking for ways to get reporters more involved in what Detroit is all about. How about holding a raffle? The winner gets a seat on the Detroit City Council and a firsthand look at how local government doesn't work. He or she can perfect the craft of demanding a pay increase for the skillfully executed art of doing diddly.

How about having a contest for the bloodiest hatchet job on the city? We could accept the three best entries, and I would happily offer my services as a judge. The winning columnist gets one of Kwame's SUV rejects. The first runner-up must cover a Lions game next season. The second runner-up must cover two.

Provide maps at the media headquarters to the most dilapidated neighborhoods with a list of names of the homeless to ensure accuracy. If the reporters get lost, tell them to follow the trail of chalk body outlines.

They're going to write about it anyway, so let's be cordial hosts and supply the poison to their pens.

And then when the deluge hits, the city just laughs it off.

Big deal. Fine, you got us. The schools are bankrupt. The politicians are adrift. The roads are swallowing 18-wheelers whole with potholes. The snow isn't shoveled. The neighborhoods are rotting, and the original five-year renaissance is beginning its third decade.

But the game is still coming along with the millions of dollars in tourism that come with it.

And that's the last and most enjoyable laugh of all.

Contact DREW SHARP at 313-223-4055 or [email protected].

Copyright

[JaxInvestor]

City is super in its own way

Posted January 30 2005

http://www.sun-sentinel.com

JACKSONVILLE

[JaxInvestor]

This Super Bowl trip won't be a day at the beach

By JOE BIDDLE

Staff Writer

I hate serving as the prophet of gloom, but I feel compelled to prepare you for the upcoming Super Bore XXXIX.

First of all, it's in Jacksonville. According to the maps, that's in Florida. You'll swear you're in South Georgia.

Jacksonville is the smallest market to host a Super Bowl. It is ill-prepared to handle a Super Bowl. There are not enough hotel rooms, so they brought in cruise ships and parked them.

Just what the doctor ordered, a floating Motel Six.

They have to house the Patriots in St. Augustine, not exactly a Jacksonville suburb, but sleepy enough that there will be no late-night temptations for players. They officially roll up the St. Augustine sidewalks at 9 p.m., although I hear they passed an ordinance for Super Bowl week which will allow them to wait until 10:30.

The NFL brass (read owners and chums) will be in faraway Amelia Island, beachside at the posh Ritz-Carlton. You need a second mortgage for a room service hamburger.

There are not enough restaurants to handle a Super Bowl crush. There are not enough rental cars. Traffic will be snarled, especially during the three days leading up to the game.

If you plan on attending the game be sure to secure lower bowl seats, as fans seated in the upper deck of Alltel Stadium may not see the game if the fog rolls in off the St. Johns River as it is prone to do.

Weather is a valid concern. Think it doesn't get cold in Jacksonville in February? Nothing like a crisp round of golf on Amelia Island's Ocean Course in 42-degree weather with a 15 mile per hour wind.

And, does it seem to you that the game will never get here? Two weeks between the conference championship games and the Super Bore is a lifetime.

I'm already weary of reading/hearing about the game. How many times will we be inundated with the story of the construction worker the Eagles signed?

It makes him sound like he was running a jackhammer some 20 stories high on a high rise. He was a project manager with recent NFL experience.

We now suffer two weeks of coaching clich

[JaxInvestor]

Is Jacksonville a place the NFL should be holding the Super Bowl?

By St Petersburg Times staff writers

Published January 30, 2005

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Granted, there are worse places to hold a Super Bowl: The Galapagos Islands, Cochabamba, Bolivia or the surface of Mars.

But the Super Bowl is meant for a super city, a metropolitan, cosmopolitan showcase of what the NFL can mean to a community. What the NFL means to Jacksonville is 10,000 empty seats a game, television blackouts and owner Wayne Weaver using the O-word (Orlando) out loud.

The big game should at least be in a place that can throw a cool party. Think New Orleans.

Or a place with nice weather. Think Pasadena, Calif.

Or a place with the decency to build a roof. Think Detroit in '06.

Jacksonville, this sleepy corner of northeastern Florida, fails at every turn. That St. Augustine tour works only so many times. The ocean's probably not an option. Your hotel room is in Savannah, Ga. Better hope Hooters has bar seating. It's going to be a long week.

- BRANT JAMES

* * *

Jacksonville does not have skyscrapers, is not renowned for its arts, won't be mistaken as a gathering place for the world's beautiful people and definitely is not New York City.

That said, it does have a football stadium, its Jaguars play in the NFL and the city ain't so bad.

Of course, it's trendy to rip most host cities that aren't San Diego. Remember when the NCAA Final Four was held here? Remember the great Waffle House debate, as if the little breakfast joint made Tampa/St. Petersburg unfit to host a sporting event?

Don't buy it this time. Jacksonville has golf courses and beaches and plenty of restaurants (Egads! Chain restaurants?) for the corporate elite to enjoy .

Suck it up. Enjoy the sunshine. Sorry if it dips below 70.

And remember, Jacksonville isn't San Diego. Then again, it isn't Detroit, either.

Have fun next year.

- JOHN C. COTEY

[Urban_Legend]

You know, the Super Bowl was supposed to bring new life to the city, with a new sense of civic pride, but these articles are so disconcerting that I just can't take it anymore. What pray-tell is wrong with sharing the Super Bowl glory once in a while? I'm sick of the whole New Orleans/San Diego/South Florida deal! I'm glad the NFL is letting the underdogs host the game. But still, the general public probably won't get over their stereotypes.

I think that we were hoping for people to come to Jax and be impressed, and to change their opinions. But now I think they'll be just as disappointed as these articles state.

[JaxInvestor]

say what they want...say it was because the NFL owners liked Wayne Weaver, etc...the fact is, the NFL is a huge and prestigious organization and there is NO WAY they would've given it to us if they didn't think we could pull it off succesfully. and we are right now. and i think folks will not necessarily think we are the best place to live in the world, but we will definitely be on the map in the world's eyes after the game.

[vicupstate]

First, this was expected before Jax even won the bid for the SB. These sportswriters have dissed all the cities that hosted the SB outside the three in the rotation. Second, people that attend the game are going to make up their minds based on what they themselves experience, far more than what a sports writer writes. Unfortunately, those that DON'T attend will likely base more of the opinion of Jax on the these colmns.

The important thing is that the CEO bigshots that can actually bring a new business to town, actually like what they see. The Chamber seems to be very focused on that, so it should be fine. Also, the NFL owners and Commisioner and their ilk have the power to let Jax host again, this is an important group to impress as well obviously.

Who give a tinkers damn what some sportswriter thinks. Most people know they are paid to be smart alecks. And most people know that there are as many Hooters and Waffle Houses in big cities as there are in small hamlets.

[Captain Obvious]

Vicupstate brings up pretty much the most important point of all ... the CEO's.

It doesn't really matter what a bunch of sportswriters say about Jax, even if all their readers were to believe them. Jacksonville is not a tourist town, nor is it attempting to be a tourist town.

City leaders don't care one darn bit if the Superbowl exposure increases our tourism or not. They are interested in the business expansion opportunities, plain and simple.

[Fruit Cove]

off topic or not really. the new england patriots are practicing at my school for the entire week! (bartram trail high school). it was like fort knox today. there were atleast 40 cops no joke. a mobile command center and helicopters. i saw tom brady, troy brown, and david givens. it was sweet.

[Urban_Legend]

^Wow, that's pretty cool!

[93sportie]

Vicupstate brings up pretty much the most important point of all ... the CEO's.

It doesn't really matter what a bunch of sportswriters say about Jax, even if all their readers were to believe them. Jacksonville is not a tourist town, nor is it attempting to be a tourist town.

City leaders don't care one darn bit if the Superbowl exposure increases our tourism or not. They are interested in the business expansion opportunities, plain and simple.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Maybe they will let you get autographs later in the week.Hmmmmm a football signed by the Superbowl Champs,sweet,but put on EBAY,priceless.

[JaxInvestor]

Super Bowl spotlight shines on underdog Jacksonville

by Mike Lopresti (USA TODAY)

COWFORD, Fla.

[JaxInvestor]

Edwin Pope | Site of Super Bowl is not the problem

By EDWIN POPE

Miami Herald

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - To be honest, and this seems to be the place for it, I hardly ever expected that dateline to be joined with a Super Bowl. At the same time, I hereby disassociate myself from pundits who swung into bash-Jacksonville mode almost before Super Bowl XXIX week started.

These spoiled blabbermouths are threatening to ruin the Patriots-Eagles match before it kicks off. Hedonistic doesn't begin to describe them. Many of these Jax-killers are people who automatically hate any town whose every block fails to house a restaurant where you can spend $75 eating a meal in 20 minutes.

I happen to be a Waffle House man, and one of my main interests just now includes trying to find the closest one among the total of seven in Jacksonville.

Another complaint from all those sissies with the computers involves the weather.

Yes, Jacksonville can drop into the low 30s, but anyone who grouses about that could not possibly have been at one of those earliest Super Bowls played at New Orleans' all-outdoors Tulane Stadium before the Superdome finally rescued us.

They must not have stayed in the ``main'' hotel, then called the Roosevelt. Its windows wouldn't close even when it was freezing outside, and its heating apparatus worked about two hours a day while all the customers were in the French Quarter.

Also, today's bellyachers couldn't have been among the thousands falling on their duffs on the ice outside the Pontiac Silverdome in '82.

By the way, we're going back to Detroit next year, before returning to Miami in '07.

Here, meanwhile, we luxuriate in a view of the St. Johns River beside ALLTELL Stadium, and every citizen seems devoted to satisfying every visitor. But they just can't placate Jax-bashers obsessed by the notion that this is the smallest site for any Super Bowl yet.

Wrong.

In sheer size, Jacksonville is the largest city in the United States, at 840 square miles, and 1.2 million folks like it enough to live here.

I would be lying if I said I knew exactly why the 39th Super Bowl was assigned here.

We know why Detroit gets Super Bowls; next year will be its second. It's payback to the automobile industry that spends huge advertising dollars with the National Football League.

We know why Miami and San Diego and Pasadena go Super so often - blessed sunshine, although it still puzzles me how the NFL can't find a bus driver who knows his way back to L.A. from the Rose Bowl after the games.

Maybe the nearest thing to a true explanation of why the Super Bowl was invited here is that some revenue would help pay for improvements to the stadium. But plenty of other stadiums could stand a touch-up, and they will be empty Sunday.

Anyway, now that game is in place in Jacksonville, there's no reasonable point in crying about it. The only real shortage is in big-grand-hotel space, and Jax is meeting that beef by parking people on cruise ships.

Face value of tickets for this Super Bowl is $500 to $600.

Anyone who can afford that can spring for a pretty spiffy stateroom.

That's not to mention fat cats who are snapping up Internet offers of up to $168,000 for a game-day luxury suite for 10.

Somebody must think Jacksonville's not too bad.

[satalac]

i don't see why people don't believe that jacksonville isn't a good place for the superbowl. it's got a great climate in late jan-early feb. it's definatly got football fans. and it has great facilities. jacksonville kinda fits in with the lower markets such and indy and nashville, but i think it can still play with the big boys. good luck jacksonville and don't listen to these critics!

[Fruit Cove]

all the sports shows broadcasting out of downtown are commenting on how cold it is while im wearing shorts to school? and theyre from up north, sounds more like just bashing.

[bobliocatt]

The hosts of the Best Damn Sports Show, at the Landing, did nothing but praise the city on their show yesterday. It looked like they had a pretty decent crowd cheering them on as well.

[bobliocatt]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/orl-...ports-headlines

Jacksonville gets a facelift

The people of Jacksonville stave off critics as they do their jobs and watch their city prepare for the world

By Jeff Darlington

Sentinel Staff Writer

February 1, 2005

JACKSONVILLE -- The back of his red coat hangs down to his knees, the way a cape would flow toward the ground in a slight breeze.

As Derick Powe approaches the door of a silver Cadillac Escalade, he swiftly unleashes his most powerful weapon: a smile.

"Welcome to Jacksonville," says Powe, a doorman at the Adam's Mark Hotel in the heart of downtown. "We're glad you came."

Welcome to Jacksonville, where your typical crime-fighting super-heroes certainly don't exist but where mild-mannered Super Bowl heroes such as Powe instead are fighting in the name of their underdog city.

Many (all?) critics don't believe Jacksonville can be ready for America's biggest sporting event. Powe, 35, and plenty of other everyday folks are aiming to prove otherwise.

"It's obvious people think we can't handle it," he said. "But I think we can. I think this will be a monumental step in helping this city."

That's partly why Powe is working two jobs. In addition to his gig with a construction company helping to set up several tents to be used for numerous NFL events, he also works as a doorman at one of the city's only major hotels -- a job he landed two weeks ago because the Adam's Mark needed help.

Last Tuesday, for instance, juggling his two Super Bowl-oriented jobs, Powe worked from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.

There's just one problem: What happens when the fans leave?

The temporary bars and restaurants will be turned back into warehouses. The cruise ships serving as hotels will sail back to sea. And people such as Powe, who earned extra work at the hand of the big game, might be out of an extra paycheck, too.

So it begs the question: Can a city become super simply by playing host to the Super Bowl?

"This isn't simply about a football game for us," Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton said. "It's also about the continued development of the city. We'll work extremely hard to make sure that's a success."

More than a week before the big game, Jacksonville already has taken its share of shots for its underwhelming reputation.

"What's that smell?" said one headline in last week's Washington Post. "Jacksonville."

"Have you ever been to Tampa? It's heaven, if you like Waffle Houses," Post columnist Tony Kornheiser wrote. "Jacksonville makes Tampa look like Paris!"

And that's before Kornheiser arrived in town.

"Jacksonville hasn't been heard of as a major city," taxi driver Jimmy Jackson said. "It's not like New York or Chicago, so people like that Kornheiser guy feel the need to knock it down."

That has become the goal -- finding a way to at least make Jacksonville appear as well-equipped to handle the Super Bowl as any of the country's established cities.

In the past month, several popular restaurants, including Hooters and Southend Brewery, have added dozens staff members solely to handle the anticipated crowds. Along Jacksonville's outskirts, including its popular beach area, businesses are blocking off streets to provide additional entertainment and nightlife. Temporary bars make up for a shortage of social scenes downtown.

On the St. Johns River, the most water taxis in city history will be running from one side of town to the other; that's an attempt to keep patrons from becoming jammed in one particular area. Five cruise ships will line the river in order to meet the NFL's mandated minimum of 17,000 available hotel rooms.

As of last week, the final touches still were to be finished as construction sites remained throughout the city.

"I wouldn't say anything bad, but it seems like they've got a long way to go to finishing a lot of things," said Roger Whitworth, a hot dog vendor downtown.

"It's good for the city for one reason: Everything is getting cleaned up and repaired. It's going to be a new city once everybody leaves.

"They're doing things they wouldn't normally do, so we'll be a better city for it."

Extra trees have been planted. The Super Bowl signs have been hung. Now, there's only one thing left.

So welcome to Jacksonville, where the hype will become reality during the next five days. Welcome to Jacksonville, where people such as Powe are trying to turn this underdog into a Super City -- even if only for one week.

"Ready or not," Powe said, "here they come."

Jeff Darlington can be reached at [email protected].

[JaxInvestor]

http://www.courierpostonline.com/news/sports/s020105k.htm

COLUMN BY CHUCK DARROW: Jacksonville is surprisingly nice

Tuesday, February 1, 2005

Detroit with palm trees it is not

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Move over, Philadelphia. There's a new whipping boy in town. It's name is Jacksonville.

It seems that one of the unintended byproducts of this town's winning bid to host Super Bowl XXXIX is the opportunity for the national media to take as many potshots as possible at this sprawling Northern Florida burg.

Washington Post columnist Tony Kornheiser got things rolling last week with a vitriol-dripping column in which he proclaimed, among other things, "Jacksonville makes Tampa look like Paris!" He obviously forgot he works in a town built on a swamp and run by corporate lobbyists and their lackeys in Congress.

And according to Haddon Township's Sal Paolantonio, an ESPN NFL analyst, Jacksonville consists of "really, really, really nice people in a really, really, really crappy place."

Things have gotten so out of hand already that local columnists are using their spaces to defend the city against the slings and arrows of the snotty out-of-town press.

And well they should, for Jacksonville has turned out to be quite a pleasant surprise for at least one visitor who, prior to his Sunday arrival, assumed the town was little more than Detroit with palm trees.

But I was wrong. Jacksonville is a delightful and lively place, filled with a surprising number of things to see and do, and places to go. Kornheiser, whose exalted position apparently bestows upon him the kind of infallibility usually found in Rome, couldn't be more wrong. I've been to Tampa twice in the past 12 months. There is no comparison.

Jacksonville is Paris - and Madrid, Amsterdam and London - compared to that ugly, lifeless city. The Jacksonville Landing, located on the north bank of the St. John's River, is a smaller, less-flamboyant version of Baltimore's Inner Harbor. San Marco is a cool little district filled with upscale shops (including the so amazing it should be illegal Peterbrooke Chocolatier) and restaurants. And those in charge of making sure visitors are entertained seem to have done a fine job, given the amount of free and ticketed events scheduled between now and Sunday.

Perhaps best of all, Jacksonville residents appear to be brimming with Southern hospitality and charm. They are warm, friendly and quite proud of their hometown, although they have no qualms about pointing out its shortcomings.ADVERTISEMENT - CLICK TO ENLARGE OR VISIT WEBSITE

So, Kornheiser, Paolantonio and the rest of the Jacksonville bashers can just blow it out their ears. This is one happening little town, meteorologically speaking. In case you're headed down here this week, be advised Jacksonville, though part of Florida, is hardly Miami or Ft. Lauderdale. Through Friday, the temperature isn't expected to get much above 60 degrees. And rain is expected to come in late Wednesday and linger through early Friday. The weekend outlook is better - early predictions call for dry, breezy weather with a high near of 64. On the air

WIP (610-AM) sports-talker Howard Eskin is broadcasting all week from Radio Row inside the off-limits-to-the-uncredentialed Super Bowl Media Center. But a couple of high-profile TV shows are come-one, come-all affairs.

Fox Sport's Best Damn Sports Show Period tapes daily through Friday from 1 to 5 p.m. at the plaza at The Jacksonville Landing. And ESPN's coverage is based at Friendship Fountain Park.

[JaxInvestor]

Don't blame hillbillies for NFL's largesse

signonsandiego.com

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.

[JaxInvestor]

http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/...onvillepro.html

Jacksonville proving itself

City eager to show it is Super Bowl worthy

By MARTIN FRANK / The News Journal

02/01/2005JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The perceived shortcomings are everywhere. That Jacksonville is too small to host a Super Bowl, there aren't enough hotel rooms, the climate isn't tropical enough, the area isn't sophisticated enough.

But look closer and it's easy to see how Jacksonville has overcome all of that to host Super Bowl XXXIX on Sunday between the Eagles and the New England Patriots.

"We just have a history of accomplishing the impossible," said Heather Surface, the director of communications for the Jacksonville Host Committee. "People kept saying there's no way we would get a football team [the Jacksonville Jaguars in 1995], and we got one. People kept saying there's no way we would be awarded this game, and we got it.

"We just think big and find a way to get it done."

Here's one example: The NFL requires 17,000 hotel rooms, which was about 3,500 more than what Jacksonville had to offer. The problem was solved by docking five cruise ships along the St. Johns River, which flows through the middle of the city.

Picture cruise ships docked along the Christina River in Wilmington for a much smaller version of a Super Bowl held at Frawley Stadium, and you get the idea.

Then picture the entire city of Wilmington, including Frawley Stadium, getting a facelift, and getting it done quickly.

Jacksonville is the second-smallest NFL market with 830,000 people in the county, and a total of 1.2 million in the region. Yet, Surface said the city has raised more than double the amount of money of any other Super Bowl host city.

"We turned a negative into a positive and then used that to our advantage," Surface said. "I really believe that Jacksonville can serve as a role model to any city out there about having a goal and getting it done."

Now, the residents and merchants are waiting to reap the benefits from an estimated 130,000 visitors who will descend upon the area this week. And they're hoping to reap the long-term benefits from nearly 800 million people from 200 countries who are expected to watch the game on television, and possibly vacation here someday.

Maybe they'll return to take in the pristine beaches, play the golf courses, and walk along the Riverwalk.

For now, area businesses will gladly take the barrage of Eagles and Patriots fans in the coming days.

The Eagles saw some of this Sunday when they were met at their hotel by a throng of fans. But Ervey Lozano, who runs the Steakfinger Station food stand at The Jacksonville Landing downtown, said fans must have spent Monday on the golf courses, because he hasn't seen too many supporters of either team.

"I don't care who wins, as long as a lot of people come and spend money," he said. "We've been waiting a long time for this, and we're ready."

They're ready partly because of 9,000 volunteers whom visitors will notice as soon as they step off their planes, and everywhere they go downtown.

"We might not be the biggest city that has hosted a Super Bowl," said volunteer Earl Harden, "but we want to be the friendliest city to host a Super Bowl. This is going to be so great for our image."

It's an image that often has been disparaged, especially recently by some national media members.

But Tim Spenard of Woodbine, Ga., which is about 20 minutes away, said this week will disprove all of the myths about Jacksonville being a small-time, unsophisticated city.

"I think the people who say bad things about us have never been here," Spenard said. "We're determined to show that Jacksonville is a nice, friendly city that doesn't have the negative attitudes of some of your bigger cities.

"People who live around here know what we have and understand the kind of homey feeling we have for a big city.

"You'll see."