If you were looking for a variety of Jaguar-themed bikinis, it would be hard to imagine a better place than the pools at EverBank Field during the team’s last home game, where the splishing and splashing commenced well before kickoff.
The two swimming pools have been the subject of much mocking in national media outlets. But on this sunny Northeast Florida afternoon, their mostly young, mostly fit and mostly photogenic occupants seemed to be having the last laugh as they floated high above the football field.
Meanwhile, waitresses in pink sports bras and abbreviated black shorts ferried frozen drinks, beers and snacks through the nearby crowd.
A DJ played music at ear-splitting levels.
Not far from some potted palm trees, women in white thigh-high boots danced in deliberate slow-motion atop raised platforms. If they’ve seen one grinning guy posing for a selfie in front of them, they’ve seen a thousand.
Looming over it all were the world’s largest high-definition video screens, divided into three images. At that moment they showcased Jaguar cheerleaders posing for their swimsuit calendar, in crystal clarity.
Sex appeal sells, that’s clear, especially up on the new Clevelander Deck at EverBank.
Indianapolis Colts fan Chris Plummer came up to the swimming pools before the Jags-Colts kickoff Sept. 21, just to check it out.
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“Better scenery than in Indy, for sure,” Plummer admitted.
The Colts’ stadium could use something like this, he said. “But it’d be an ice-skating rink there.”
Bingo.
Jaguars owner Shad Khan and team president Mark Lamping have stressed that they want — in fact, they need — to make the stadium a distinctive destination.
After all, in this short-attention era, where entertainment, or at least distraction, is available any time you want, teams try something that can compete with the pull of fans’ comfortable couches, large-screen TVs and social-media addictions.
That’s especially urgent when a team is a small-market franchise that’s had less than stellar on-field performance for season upon season.
Hence the giant video boards, which show game action and replays in impressive detail. Hence the NFL Redzone broadcast, showing action from other games, on two of the old scoreboards. Hence the expanded Wi-Fi. Hence the oft-repeated phrase of “enhancing the game-day experience.”
That all leads to the partnership, announced last month, with the Clevelander, the entertainment arm of a venerable Miami Beach hotel known for its party-happy attitude.
The north end zone pool and cabana area, which replaced 9,500 seats, is now called the Clevelander Deck.
“We want the game to be the focal point,” said Mike Palma, the Clevelander’s executive vice president of hospitality. “But we figured out a way to make it all blend together — the game, the entertainment, the vibe up here.”
Palma said his group saw the pool area as a way to promote its brand: It’s similar to a Clevelander section in the home field of the Miami Marlins baseball team, and part of the entertainment company’s effort to expand into sports.
“We think there’s a niche, a desire, a demand down the road from fans, from owners and operators of teams, to really drive fans to their games,” Palma said.
Each Jaguar home game, the Clevelander will fly up about 12 to 15 people — dancers, bartenders, waitresses and others — from South Florida.
They’ll supplement local hires — about 20 so far — in an effort to bring a South Beach vibe to that part of EverBank Field. That vibe is heavy on sex appeal.
On the Sunday against the Colts, that included women in Clevelander swimsuits and Clevelander cheerleader outfits up on the deck. And down in the concourses, fans could pose with three women — one on stilts — who wore Las Vegas showgirl-style outfits reminiscent of day-glo peacocks.
Back on the north end zone deck, Greg and Beth Verlinde were impressed. They’d come up from their regular seats to watch the game, and the festivities, from the shade of a potted palm.
“I tell you, it is just awesome, all-around,” he said.
Meanwhile, she said she appreciated the women who had been dancing while wearing giant golden wings. “But a couple of Chippendale dancers might even it out a little,” she joked. “That’s my suggestion for Shad Khan.”
While the pool enclosures, the poolside cabanas and the terrace area above that require special tickets, everything else up there is open to any ticket holder.
Chris Bryan and his wife Sarah were in the east pool in their swimsuits. They’d had a fine time, they said. “If you’re going to watch the Jags lose, you might as well do it from the pool,” he said. “This is the most enjoyable experience.”
Not everyone, however, was impressed. Two middle-aged women, who did not want their names used, thought it a bit much.
“Are we at a strip bar?” one asked as a golden-winged dancer slowly rotated her hips from atop a podium in the terrace area, above the pools.
“I’ve been a season ticket holder from the beginning,” her friend said, “but it makes me wonder what we’re transitioning to. I just don’t think it’s the place for it.”
Jaguars spokesman Dan Edwards said the team wants to provide for different groups of people in different parts of the stadium.
“As you introduce new elements there will be people who like them and people who don’t,” he said. “We’re trying to appeal to a broad spectrum of fans, not just hard-core football fans.”
Most sports franchises, he said, are listening to fans who don’t attend games and then finding out why. For many fans, the comforts of home are hard to leave.
“We’re doing something about those reasons,” he said. “They can still see the Red Zone, still get on their social media. They can engage with friends, whether it’s in the pools or in the cabanas or the Bud Zone.”
Edwards said the Clevelander Deck has had good reviews from fans, and both the cabana and terrace areas are just about sold out for the season.
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Other teams, too, are interested in the new features, and have asked for tours of the sections, Edwards said.
These days, if franchises don’t remain innovative, you run a very high risk, he said: “You fall behind.”
Kristi Sweeney, a University of North Florida assistant professor of sports management, saw possible problems in banking so heavily on sex appeal after much publicity about recent domestic violence problems.
“Given the current state of the NFL, I don’t know if that’s a strategic marketing move,” she said. “I say that because they’re in a fragile state right now … How women perceive that could be a potential risk.”
When it comes to football, Sweeney is something of a purist: She’d rather stay in her seat and watch the game.
In fact, she thinks the Jaguars might have too many attractions — the inside club-seating area, the Bud Zone and now the Clevelander Deck — that keep fans from their seats. That doesn’t look good on TV, particularly for a franchise that’s labeled as one with attendance issues, she said.
Sweeney, though, understands the reasons behind the changes.
“It’s 2014 and the consumer is just so much more sophisticated and the market’s more saturated. I do give the Jaguars credit: You do have to make changes to move forward,” she said.