Today on Hard In The Paint we take an unusual turn as we look at the city of Tallahassee, Florida and what’s holding her back from taking her rightful place amongst the “Big Cities” of America. Leggo!!!!
First let me say that I believe Tallahassee, Florida is a great place to raise a family. I’ve been here since 1994 and it really is a town with that down home feeling…well almost that down home feeling Is say almost because people can still look at you and not speak, lol. I remember when I first got here; there was only one Urban radio station…96.1. Heck, there wasn’t even an overpass. Coming from places such as Memphis, Tennessee and Atlanta Georgia…I was like, huh? All that has changed though. At one point there were 3 Urban radio stations, 96.1, 102.3 and if I’m not mistaken…100.7. Well, 100.7 has since become a talk radio station but there’s still the two r
Kids can go to various high schools and get a great education. I mean there’s Florida High, FAMU High, Leon High, Lincoln High, Godby High, Rickard’s High, North Florida Christian High, Lawton High, Maclay High, SAIL High, Woodland High, John Paul II Cat-holic High, Community Christian High and Atlantis Academy High. Phew…those are a lot of high schools and Tallahassee has the room for it. If that isn’t enough, there are 3 main colleges here, such as Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, Florida State University and Tallahassee Community College. Then there are the other colleges such as Keiser, Saint Leo, ITT, Flagler, Embry and Barry University.
By now you’re probably starting to wonder what I’m getting at. Well, just bare with me here. Of course you can’t have all this education unless you’re a pretty important city and well…Tallahassee, is an important city. It’s the capital of Florida and with such prestige comes well…a certain status. A status that Tallahassee is still trying to achieve in…2013. Let’s go by the numbers and do some comparisons to other famous cities in and near Florida.
First let’s acknowledge that Tallahassee, Florida with a landmass of 100.3 square miles is home to the Florida State Seminoles. Jacksonville, Florida with a landmass of 747 square miles is home to the University of North Florida and the Jacksonville Jaguars. Orlando, Florida with a landmass of 102.4 square miles is home to the University of Central Florida Golden Knights, the Orlando Magic of the NBA, Universal Studios and Disney World. Tampa with a landmass of 112.1 square miles is home to the University of South Florida Bulls, the MLB’s Rays, the NHL’s Lightning, NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Bush Gardens Amusement Park. Miami with a landmass of 35.68 square miles is home to the University of Miami Hurricanes, MLB’s Miami Marlins, NHL’s Florida Panthers, NFL’s Miami Dolphins and the NBA’s Miami Heat. Valdosta, Georgia with a landmass of 30.3 square miles is home to Wild Adventures Amusement Park. Last but not least, Atlanta, Georgia with a landmass of 131.8 square feet is home to the Georgia Tech University Yellow Jackets, Six Flags Over Georgia Amusement Park, MLB’s Atlanta Braves, NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons.
Phew. Anyone notice anything? How about this…Atlanta is the capital of Georgia. Notice how many attractions they have? Notice how many attractions Tallahassee, doesn’t have? With as much landmass at it has, it is almost inconceivable that Tallahassee does not have a major sports franchise, let alone an amusement park to call its very own. To be perfectly honest, such commercial restaurants like Dave and Busters, Joe’s Crab Shack and The Cheesecake Factory don’t even exist in Tallahassee, Florida. It has often been said that to make money, you first have to spend money and well, I’ve spoken to some officials here in Tallahassee and their main concern is for the city to make money. Well I say to you this, being the center of agriculture and trade is all fine and dandy but you gotta step your game up if you want to generate big boy money.
Admittedly, getting a pro team here is out of the question for now because we don’t have the population nor the revenue to maintain one. I say we because I reside here in Tallahassee but what we can do is move in an amusement park. A “Wild Adventures” of its very own would be a nice play to start. Wild Adventures is an inexpensive amusement park to get started and then see about getting your very own comparable “Bush Gardens” style amusement park here. If Orlando is big enough to maintain 2 amusement parks, so is Tallahassee. Bringing in restaurants that people would otherwise have to go out of town to eat at is a start in itself. All you need now are outlet stores to keep people from a going out of town to Destin and Panama City, Florida.
There’s already a Dick’s Sporting Goods under construction on Apalachee Parkway…to compete with Sports Authority and Academy Sports and Outdoors. For those that don’t know, Dick’s is a major sporting goods store. Having that store in Tallahassee only increases revenue for the city. Here’s the ticket though, Dick’s will easily sustain itself during the college football season but to sustain itself during the offseason, you will need something, i.e. other sports to keep the fans spending their money. This is when you may have to look at a professional indoor football team.
Sure, it’s been tried before but the City of Tallahassee Officials must first understand…get a team in place first, don’t charge them much to be there that way the team doesn’t have to charge the fans that much to come. Allow for the team to become a winner, over time…ticket sales will rise, as ticket sales rise, you can now charge the team more to use your facilities. Understand, fans like being associated with a winner and where will they go to get their team apparel from? You guessed it, one of the 3 major sporting good stores you have in your city. As the team becomes a winner, you will also have fans coming from out of town needing a place to stay and places to eat. Sure it’s a steady process but you see where I’m going with this right? And since the games generally take place at night, why not give the people something to do during the day…for instance an amusement park and or some outlet stores to shop at.
This is just an idea of mine but hey, being the center of trade and agriculture cannot be the only thing you have to hang your hat on. In my opinion and it’s just mine but for Tallahassee to be the capital of Florida and not have much to show for it in over 20 years…well maybe it’s just time they tried something different. Don’t you think? I’m out.
HARD IN THE PAINT 