ALLTEL Stadium
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Alltel Stadium is a football stadium located in downtown Jacksonville, Florida next to the St. Johns River. It is the home stadium facility of the Jacksonville Jaguars NFL franchise. The stadium sits on 10 acres (40,000 m²) of land and originally had a capacity of 73,000. Expansions over the next decade brought capacity to 76,877. However, because of sluggish sales, more than 9,000 seats were covered with tarps beginning with the 2005 season. The current capacity is 67,164. [1]
Alltel Stadium is used primarily as a football facility but does host other events including monster truck shows and concerts. It is also well-known for hosting college football, including "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party" each year between Florida and Georgia. The stadium is also the site of the annual Gator Bowl which currently pits teams from the Big East and Atlantic Coast Conference. In December 2005, Alltel Stadium hosted the first of two consecutive ACC football championship games.
The stadium, originally known as Jacksonville Municipal Stadium, was built on the foundation of the former Gator Bowl Stadium. Construction started January 3, 1994 and the new stadium opened on August 18, 1995. Total construction time was under 20 months and total cost was $134 million, $60 million of which was provided by the city of Jacksonville. The new stadium retained the west upper deck of the old Gator Bowl, which had been added in 1982.
Alltel Stadium's opening day was also the home debut of the Jaguars during the 1995-1996 NFL season. It was the first time that an expansion NFL team had played its first game in a brand new stadium. In 1997, the stadium changed its name to the current Alltel Stadium after naming rights were acquired by Alltel, a telecommunications company best known as a wireless carrier.
In 2005, the stadium hosted Super Bowl XXXIX in which the New England Patriots defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 24-21. In 2003 and 2004, $47 million in improvements to the stadium were implemented to prepare for the Super Bowl. These improvements included the addition of a unique sports bar in the south end zone called the "Bud Zone", a larger and wider scoreboard display, escalators in the north and south end zone, and a new "terrace suite" right above the "Bud Zone" in the south endzone.
Prior to the 2005 season, mainly due to low attendance figures and looming blackouts, Jacksonville Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver put in place a set of seat covers to reduce the seating capacity for Jaguars games. The covers were placed to block out 7 sections in the upper north endzone and 4 in each upper deck section, located on the corners of each. This brought the capacity down from 76,000 to 67,164 and the Jaguars haven't had a game blacked out since. For the Super Bowl, Florida-Georgia Game, and occasionally the Gator Bowl, temporary bleachers are put up in the South Endzone and the seat coverings are removed, raising capacity to over 84,000.
The stadium rights deal between Alltel, the city of Jacksonville and the Jaguars is not expected to be renewed. The current deal expires in early 2007 so it is likely that the name Alltel Stadium will no longer be used after the 2006 season.
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