Jacksonville University and the University of North Florida compete Sept. 23, 2023, at Southern Oak Stadium. | Official Florida FC
Published on May 8, 2024 at 5:11 pm
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A new organization, the Jacksonville Sports Foundation, has been created to attract all types of sporting events to all areas of Jacksonville.
The foundation was announced Wednesday during a news conference at Jacksonville City Hall. At the same time, officials announced that the Atlantic Sun Conference will move its headquarters from Atlanta to Jacksonville by the beginning of September.
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The ASUN consists of 12 universities across eight states in the southeastern U.S., including Jacksonville University and the University of North Florida. It offers 10 men’s and 12 women’s NCAA Division I sports.
Michael Corrigan, ipresident of Visit Jacksonville, said the goal of the new Jacksonville Sports Foundation is to bring sports championships to the city.
“There’s incredible opportunities. We have an incredible infrastructure,” Corrigan said. “We have the nation’s largest park system, all these assets that we have, and we just need the right organization to organize all of these assets and present them to the sporting community for them to be eager to come to Jacksonville.”
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Corrigan said he envisions seeing sports in all parts of the city, from the newly renovated J.P. Small Park Stadium to EverBank Stadium.
The new organization will be independent of Visit Jacksonville and other city government entities, but it will work together with those groups to bring events to town, Corrigan said.
As of now, it’s unclear how much of an economic impact the new organization will provide for the community. Officials did say the sports economy brought $178 million in economic impact for Jacksonville in 2023.
So far the Jacksonville Sports Foundation has no employees. The next steps for the organization are to create a board of directors and find volunteers.
For more information, go to Jacksonvillesportsfoundation.com.
Atlantic Sun Conference
Jeff Bacon, commissioner of the ASUN, said the cost of living in Atlanta was too high for employees and made it difficult to attract new talent. The conference also did not stick out in the collegiate sports landscape there, he said.
Bacon called Jacksonville a growing city with much to offer.
“We really felt here we had our own presence,” Bacon said. “The opportunity to be the only Division I conference office in the state of Florida is really attractive. That played a big part. The affordability of the city, the convenience of the airports, the access to our schools, it really fell into place.”
The conference considered six other markets. The new headquarters will be south of the St Johns Town Center area. Fifteen employees will be making the move.
The conference is not receiving tax incentives to move its headquarters.
