“This is a perfect time to begin the conversations, to build the foundation that's going to grow,” says Michael Corrigan. The chief executive of Visit Jacksonville meets the News & Star half-an-hour before he is whisked to Brunton Park, as part of a delegation from the Florida city keen on establishing bonds with Carlisle and Carlisle United.
The connecting thread is of course the Piatak family, who hail from Jacksonville and, since last November, have owned the Blues. As well as growing United, the Piataks are keen to foster positive relations between their adopted city and their homeland.
Hence a visit from tourism and civic officials to coincide with United’s home clash with Harrogate Town. The Jacksonville contingent were in the UK as part of an annual trip which sees NFL side the Jacksonville Jaguars play two games in London. In between those fixtures, they hopped on a train for Cumbria.
It was a whistle-stop trip, last Friday and Saturday, but there was time enough for some positive discussions and the basis to build something mutually beneficial, Corrigan says.
He arrived in Carlisle on Friday evening. “Candidly, I was more impressed than I thought I was going to be,” he says, when I ask for his first impressions of the city. “I’ve talked to the [Piatak] family, I’ve done some research, but it was more vibrant than I expected.
“We’ve been pleasantly surprised, and thrilled to be here with some delegation from Jacksonville that include representatives from JAXUSA, which is the private economic development entity. From Mayor Donna Deegan's administration, her chief of economic development is up here with us, my marketing chief at Visit Jacksonville is here with us, and then the head of sports and entertainment for Mayor Donna Deegan is up here as well, so I have a chance to bring both colleagues and friends up here to see it.”
“I think for Jacksonville, and hopefully for Carlisle, it’s extremely important [for us to be here]. For the last 11 years, Jacksonville has gone to London on an annual basis when the Jaguars have played there, and this is the first time that we've gone north from London as part of that.”
As part of the trip, the Jacksonville officials met Cumberland Council politicians, visited Carlisle Cathedral and also toured the ‘Backing the Blues’ exhibition on Carlisle United’s history, before attending the match at Brunton Park, which was showcasing new executive facilities for the first time, a result of the Piataks’ continued major investment.
It offered the opportunity, in person, to discuss long-term links.
“The Piatak family wants to bring the Blues to Jacksonville for maybe some training and a friendly match,” said Corrigan. “We know in Jacksonville that sports builds business, and if you can start with sports, you can build incredible business opportunities from there.
“We've seen it in the 11 years we've gone to London – the companies that have relocated to Jacksonville, the relationships we've made.
“When we first started going to London 11 years ago, you had to explain Jacksonville was in the States, Jacksonville was in Florida, and where Jacksonville was in Florida. Everybody thought it was in Miami. Now, 11 years later, we look at the differences. They expect us to come, they're looking for us to come, and you no longer have to explain where you're from.
“That same infancy is starting now in Carlisle, where we're able to have those initial conversations. I've been super fortunate in the very short time we've been here to meet with elected leaders and business leaders, and talk about connectivity that nobody knew existed, industries that Jacksonville representatives didn't know that Carlisle had, the co-operation.
“This is the part that I think Carlisle will learn about Jacksonville. It's a one-stop shop. It's a unified city government, where once you decide you want to do something, you've got one place to go and you can do it. Are there opportunities to take Carlisle’s successes and expand them in the States? Even more importantly for me from the tourism side, how can we make a connection between Jacksonville and Carlisle?
“Jacksonville is often forgotten in Florida. Carlisle can be forgotten in the UK. We have this opportunity to start making that relationship between the two. Jacksonville needs to know that Carlisle exists, and Carlyle needs to know that Jacksonville exists.”
How did he find the welcome from council leaders in Carlisle? On Friday the Jacksonville officials dined with Cumberland Council leader Mark Fryer, the council's chief executive Andrew Seekings and assistant director of neighbourhoods Michael Barry, along with the United hierarchy.
“I was pleasantly surprised at the relationship building that started immediately,” said Corrigan. “I've met a lot of elected leaders over my career, and you either meet people that you genuinely like and look forward to seeing again, or you meet people that knew that they were just trying to do something that was on their schedule.
“This was definitely a relationship where we met people that we look forward to seeing again. We invited them to come to Jacksonville, and they said, ‘Please come back to Carlisle’. I think it's going to be a whole lot better than anybody can anticipate.
“We both of us are trying to grow, both as a tourism destination and as a business destination.”
The Piataks’ work at Carlisle has introduced Jacksonville to the Cumbrian agenda. What is the Jacksonville impression of what the Piataks are doing in this corner of northern England?
“I think I'd say blown away,” Corrigan says. “They've owned the team almost a year now, right? And to activate a side of the stadium [the East Stand] that's never been activated, in less than a year…I don't know all the details, but that takes an incredible amount of, first, capital investment by the family, and two, a vision of what's best.
“To do that, whilst not changing the flavour or the feel or even the look of the stadium, that's pretty incredible. And to do it in 11 months…I don't know how they did that.
“Jacksonville's organised. But I don't think we're organized enough to do something in 11 months from idea to opening. We are rebuilding our NFL stadium – the Mayor and the Jaguars' ownership agreed on a $1.2 billion renovation of our existing stadium. Construction will start in 2025 and construction will end in 2028, and there'll be one year we play no matches in our home stadium.
“Now, it's a larger capacity. It's 68,000 versus 18,000, but the co-operation with the community and the political leadership, to get this done here in Carlisle, is incredible.”
The Piataks’ approach is eye-opening and striking, Corrigan continues.
“I didn't know the family prior to the purchase of the team last November. I've been super surprised at how low on the notice meter they were. They were involved in everything that's important to me as a tourism executive in Jacksonville, but they weren't standing up on top of a box and screaming, ‘We're helping, we're helping, we're helping’.
“You look at the sporting venues, you look at the cultural venues in town, that family and the Jacksonville Corporation have been involved in it for years, with the kind of involvement they're going to do here.
“I was with Tom this morning and got to watch him interact with someone, a corporate leader he had not met previously, and he's so good at it that the benefit of that family buying the team here is going to go way past the pitch.
“If I was a resident here, that's what I'd be excited about. That infusion of capital, but probably even more importantly, that infusion of love for the idea is going to be good. And don’t forget, they've got the next generation actively involved every single day. You're talking about a family that's going to be involved. They're going to continue to work to be a corporate winner and a team winner.”
United’s current struggles on the pitch must be mentioned. Amid the vision and the positivity, Carlisle are floundering in League Two. To what extent does it matter to Jacksonville, and these hoped-for connections, whether the Blues are winning, or otherwise?
“People love winners, so if we're winning it makes it easier,” says Corrigan. “We know that. Jacksonville's NFL football team has one victory so far this year [prior to Sunday against New England Patriots]. Most college, university American football teams are not having good seasons
“Does it decrease the energy a little bit? Does it make you a little more hesitant? Yeah, but also, we all need to get better. The Jaguars need to get better, the Blues need to get better – but I don't think that's as big of a point today.
“I think in that short game it's not that big of a point, in the long game it definitely is. If you're back in the league you were in last year [League One], if you were eventually in the Premier League, that's incredible. Lofty goals, attainable goals with the right plan, but I think it's the perfect time for these conversations that I'm having this week. It’s much harder to have these quality conversations if you're winning the Championship league, because the amount of time it takes, the amount of energy it takes, and everything else.
“This is a perfect time to begin the conversations, to build the foundation that's going to grow. I don't know football in this country near as well as I know football in America, but I've always been a fan of starting low and moving up. It's a lot harder to stay at the top when you get there.
“I'm optimistic about the team I'm watching play here today, and I'm optimistic about my NFL Jaguars playing in Wembley tomorrow. The future for both of them I think is bright, so I guess the answer to your question is no – it's important long term, but it's not important short term.”
What, then, are the next steps in the proposed Jacksonville-Carlisle partnerships being discussed?
“From the Visit Jacksonville side, we're going to look and say, ‘Okay, how much of a presence do we want to do as far as marketing Jacksonville in Carlisle? What is our budget to be able to do that? And who would we partner with?’ Obviously, the Blues will be first on the list, but what else can we do or should we be doing as part of that?
“I think also, having had the economic development leaders here from Jacksonville, they’ve never looked at industry in Carlisle before, so they're going to go back and look at that.
“I think the short term is a unified effort to bring the Blues to Jacksonville. Hopefully, between the seasons, bring them in for training and a friendly match. That's probably goal number one.
“Goal two would be for Jacksonville to establish a visual presence of some type here in Carlisle. And then step three would be that exchange of flights back and forth. I've only spent 14 hours in Carlisle so far, but the people, the city and all that seems similar. I think people in Jacksonville would be very comfortable coming to Carlisle. I think people in Carlisle would be very comfortable coming to Jacksonville.
“So, I think short term is bringing the Blues over to great exposure. Longer term is establishing a presence here and then, much longer – three, five, ten years – is an industry exchange of talent.”
Corrigan says that, during their tour of the Tullie exhibition, there were already discussions about bringing it, in some way, to Jacksonville, and reciprocating with a museum experience from the Florida city in Carlisle. At the core of the visit, meanwhile, was that first experience of Brunton Park.
The Jacksonville delegation had, the week before, watched United’s game at AFC Wimbledon.
“I've been to a lot of sporting events, probably hundreds,” says Corrigan. “I've been to an NFL Super Bowl. I've been to the Masters golf tournament. Phenomenal sporting events, much, much larger than a home or away game for the Blues. But I've never been to an event that had that kind of camaraderie.
“It probably happens in football everywhere over here, but that the two [teams’] owners get together with a few friends and have a meal prior to the match…in American sports, you don't hang around. They all get along, and they always show the two coaches talking in the middle of the field as the telecast is coming on, but to sit down with your opposing leadership and have a meal and shake each other's hands and say, ‘Have a nice day’, and it's passionate – American football has nothing on your football in that way.”
The support for United that Corrigan witnessed was also enriching.
“It's pretty refreshing,” he says. “The American football teams I follow have very passionate crowds. My son, who's now 28 years old, started buying season tickets to the Jacksonville Jaguars football when he turned 16. He buys them with his own money, always has, and has taken me many times to a game, and there’s nothing more impressive than having your son take it on.
“Supporters of the team here are the same way. They're generationally going to continue to do that, and that's impressive. I think there's an opportunity for that to even grow more.”
United’s heritage is a major part of its standing, its meaning, and this also resonates with Jacksonville.
“If one goes to see the [Tullie] museum, you can’t help but be touched by the floods in 2005 and 2015, and the destruction, and just seeing the picture of the pitch [under water], and learning about how the supporters helped,” Corrigan says.
“It’s also things like seeing the wedding dress of the photographer’s daughter who tragically passed away [Lisa Holmes, daughter of Barbara Abbott, was married in a dress in United’s 1995 to 1998 away colours). To donate that, and the love that shows, is amazing.
“Remember, you’ve got 100-plus years of memories. We’re used to teams that have 30 years of memories.”
Corrigan is aware of United’s top-flight days, 50 years ago, and says the fact that some of those players still attend Blues games today is meaningful.
“I guess my take on that is that if the new ownership wasn't doing things correctly, those people aren't going to come,” he says.
“We know the story of Wimbledon when they moved the stadium [the hugely controversial move to Milton Keynes]. We saw that, where they had to literally go back to ground zero and start over [as AFC Wimbledon] because of poor ownership changes.
“There's a lot of different ways over here that you can do it. But I think if legends are still coming, then dreams are still there and happiness is all around.”
The Jacksonville party, along with Michael Corrigan, included Greg Anderson, vice-president of business development with JAXUSA, and Ed Randolph, executive director of the city of Jacksonville Office of Economic Development, and Alex Alston, the executive director of the city of Jacksonville Office of Sports and Entertainment.
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