In case you missed it, last week Washington Post columnist Tony Kornheiser detailed what passes for high culture in Jacksonville Florida, notably Waffle House, Dairy Queen, Hooters, I-HOP, and Applebees. Understandably the locals were pissed, and a bit insecure…
Unfortunately the choice of Jacksonville and next years dreadfully scheduling of Detroit are giving hope to all manner of potentially inhospitable Super Bowl cities, such as Indianapolis.
The critics are asking, what’s so wrong with the Miami-New Orleans-San Diego rotation. What indeed…
Clarification: The term “inhospitable” should be read “potentially buried in 5 foot snow drifts.” Detroit and Indy qualify as potentially bone-chillingly cold in late January/early February. Just because the game would be in dome doesn’t mean fans wouldn’t freeze their ass off getting to the game.
There is NOTHING wrong with Waffle House! Open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Many late nights (or early mornings) were spent with friends at a Waffle House after a night of bar hopping…
Well league rules mandate that once every 10 years, the Super Bowl must be held in a Northern city, and since Ford Field is indoors, and one of the best stadiums in the US, Detroit gets the Super Bowl. Dreadful choice though? Come on Detroit is not that bad, give us some credit. We’re trying to revive our city and we have a great stadium and some of the best sports fans in the country! We have three great casinos, good restaurants, and plenty of stuff to do.
These sports commentators (these guys don’t deserve the title “reporter”) are whiners. Their blathersing about how hard it is to get a hotel room make for awful self-centered reading. I didn’t know a Super Bowl site should be picked because of how a cynical sports yapper thinks. All I care about is that the NFL puts on a a decent game in decent conditions so we can see who the best team in the league is. Tell Tony Kornheiser and his ilk to complain in private.
Perhaps if Jacksonville has the murder rate of Washington, DC, the Post would be happier?
And the only odd smell you’ll find at 1400 Adams Street is the smell of coffee from the nearly Maxwell House plant.
Jacksonville isn’t what he thinks of as Florida because most of the people there are actually from Florida. Unlike his beloved South Beach.
I’ve been to Washington. I’ve been to Jacksonville. Washington is Jacksonville’s 8th and Main, only city-wide.
If I’ve upset anyone from Washington, oh well. I’d go back to Washington on vacation again. But I’d move to Jacksonville.
Hell, I think I’ll go post this.
I lived in Jax for about 3.5 years. All the points made in the articles are spot-on, although it really doesn’t smell anymore. That’s just near the Maxwell House coffee plant downtown. The city has this amazing inferiority complex, the general sentiment when they got the Jags was “We’re a real city now!” In the Museum of Science and History, they have a freakin’ wing dedicated to the Jags. It’s almost scary. Other than that, the traffic is insane, but overall the place is just “nice.”
What’s Tony K.’s problem? Does he really think most people attending the Superbowl are looking for a little opera and escargot action on the side?
Hooters is not high culture? Seems that way to me,but I almost never eat snails.
Poor sportswriters. The free airfare, passes to the game, hotel room, and all the side “freebies” that come down the pike with parties and nightlife (while it might not be Bourbon St., certainly there are SOME places to get half-crocked in Jacksonville, right?) and whatnot, and they can’t be happy.
I had to laugh extra hard at ESPN’s expert chowder-fellation artist Bill Simmons’ whining about how “its so hard to get around, I had to pick one Super Bowl party to go to and stay there.” Poor guy picked the Maxim party. Meanwhile, his fellow ESPN-dot-commer Darren Roville wrote a full article comparing the Maxim party and the Playboy party, which went down on the same night. Dumbass Simmons COULD have made both parties, and even when he didn’t, he picked the wrong one. HA!
Reminds of the Jeff Foxworthy joke.
If you have a waffle house credit card….
You might be a redneck.
I musta’ missed the part where “culture” was a requirement as to amenities required by SuperBowl attendees, much less those on the field. Actually, I missed the part where amenities were mentioned at all, much less culture.
And here all along I thought it was all about the field, the arena, the players, the fans…I guess when you’re writing to the REST, it’s all about where you can buy Starbucks, or, not.
I remember taking someone from Long Island to an early morning breakfast of pancakes at the IHOP (not in Jacksonville, however), after working all night, and watching the horror on his face when I actually ordered pancakes. With blueberry syrup. Oh, and it was drip coffee. Probably Folgers out of a can.
I like my Starbucks French Roast as well as anyone (and I just bought another large bag o’ the nuts yesterday) but the snobbery ought to be held out for things like moby music.
Argh, the guy wants “a permanent stay in the Big Easy” so, fine, but whattheheck does that have to do with the SuperBowl?
And, if he thinks Jacksonville is “smelly,” then they guy just does not take in breaths while in “the Big Easy,” which is, coupled with Manhattan, the most stinky and bad smelling metropolis I…have…ever…visited.
And, what’s with the smell issue anyway? Not like football players have that minty freshness about them, nor most if not all of the fans after about ten minutes in the sun.
Hmm, yep we’re all hicks down here in Florida. Next we’ll elect a mayor who smokes crack. And when he gets caught we’ll expect him to state “the bitch set me up!”.
Speaking as a North Louisianan, no one here cares if the Super Bowl ever comes back. Damn game screws up the state for two whole weeks. You couldn’t melt me down and POUR me into New Orleans when the Super Bowl is in town.
Um, have you ever been to Indianapolis? We have been called many things, but inhospitable isn’t one of them.
Indianapolis has hosted more pre-Olympic competitions than any other city in the US. We are permanent home to the NCAA and have hosted the Final Four more times than any other city. We hosted the 1987 Pan American games. And, Indianapolis is home to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd largest single sporting events in the WORLD – the Indianapolis 500, The Brickyard 400, and the Formula One race, each of which has a live audience of between 200 and 300,000 people.
Considering the MILLIONS of sports fans we entertain every single year, having the Super Bowl in Indianapolis would be something of a yawner.
Superbowl should be played in following order:
1. Defending champions home field
2. Team with best regular season record if defending champion doesn’t qualify for bye.
And critics can go cry somewhere else. I don’t give a damn if there is 10 feet of snow on the ground, this is football.
Please leave DC out of any discussion on hosting a Super Bowl, unless, of course, the Redskins are playing.
And we certainly don’t need any Olympic games here, either.
Listen to Vie… if Indy is more than willing to host either or both, have at ’em.
Dennis,
And I suppose you could care less about the billions that pour into the state when the Superbowl comes to New Orleans? At any rate, what are you bitching about? Screws up the state for two weeks? A Superbowl is less hassle than Mardi Gras, I can tell you that much. I had no trouble getting around town during the ’02 Bowl, even with the extra security. You want to talk about screwed up traffic? I live a block off the parade route & work the graveyard shift. I’m gonna have some real fun trying to get home tomorrow morning…
Indianapolis has a terrific downtown. It’s all been revitalized, it has great shopping and restaurants, it’s clean and it’s pretty safe. I understand you are talking about what the weather would be like, but I wanted to pass on that the downtown area all around the RCA Dome and Indy Convention Center is wonderful.
I lived in Washington DC for 15 years and just moved to JAX in June of this year. Would NEVER move back. We may not be as sophisticated as DC, but are asshole quotient is near zero too.
For a better look at JAX, check me out at:
JAX is purdy.
Granted, our downtown is smaller than Tysons Corner, but we ain’t got no traffic either…..
And while in Jacksonville, dont miss the Freebird. A bar built in tribute to Lynard Sknyard. Featuring giant dixie flag and huge mural of the band. Bring your own girls too as it’s a military town and the ratio is like 100 to 1.
Luke Duke
I was born in raised in New York, the cultural capital of the planet. I love New York (it’s home after all), but I’ve been in Jacksonville for 20 years. There are plenty of great restaurants (recommended: Clarks Fish Camp), beautiful beaches, a great river for you fishermen, golf up the wazoo, 10 months of great weather, pro football, minor league baseball, great schools, no income tax, houses you can actually afford, low unemployment, no income tax, great people, no income tax.
The people who came down for the game had a great time and the city went all out to make people welcome. What appears to be an inferiority complex is just a decent city with decent people who are tired of getting slammed by people like Kornheiser, especially when most of them never darkened the door until last Wednesday.
I know people had a great time here. My advantage is that I get to stay after everyone else leaves.