JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Securing the AFC South championship title isn’t the only thing that scores a boost of excitement in Jacksonville.
For Jacksonville businesses, especially downtown, packed crowds and vibrancy are the perfect recipe for booming sales, and that trend is expected to continue next weekend when the team takes on the Bills on home turf.
Many Jags fans already expressed their hopes for a Super Bowl title, but at this point, businesses were focusing on the playoffs.
“We’re definitely going to have a boom in business, for sure,” Tim Ryerson, kitchen manager at Pour Taproom, said, “Being that this is a new place downtown and it’s a mile from the stadium, we offer a lot of seating. So I’m sure it’s going to be through the roof.”
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The last time the Jags hosted a home playoff game was in 2023.
According to Visit Jacksonville’s event impact analysis, the single playoff game generated $16.3 million in total economic activity across Duval County, including $9.26 million in direct visitor spending.
Key impacts included:
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More than 70,000 total attendees, with over 21,000 overnight visitors
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10,818 hotel room nights, helping drive peak winter occupancy
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Nearly $4.9 million in personal income for local workers
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9,482 jobs supported when direct, indirect, and induced effects are combined
Local governments also benefited:
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$401,020 in total local tax revenue, including sales and bed taxes, with no hosting costs to the city
“Anytime there’s a special playoff game or any kind of special football sporting event here, it’s great for us to get tourists here,” Andrea Mestdagh of Visit Jacksonville said. “Especially when you’re playing someone like Buffalo, we’re kind of hoping that the fans will want to come down and get some warm weather.”
The last wildcard game at home was against the Chargers – we saw over 21,000 overnight visitors filling over 10,000 hotel rooms locally.
Mestdagh said in 2023, hotels were at 90% capacity.
“It’s a really big impact on a really slower time period in Jacksonville. A lot of people don’t travel after the holidays,” Mestdagh said.
Tim recognized the visible excitement and energy the big win brought to the city.
“Everybody’s fired up,” Ryerson said. “Like you hear people screaming ‘Duval’ down the block. You just see everybody kind of decked out and really embracing Jacksonville now and really falling into what’s been trying to get built the last 25-30 years.”
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