The Jacksonville Knights will continue to play their home games at Hodges Stadium, which is on the campus of the University of North Florida, after they announced the signing of a two year contract extension on July 23, that will go through the 2011 and 2012 seasons.
“We are definitely really excited,” said Knight’s founder and Executive Director Jeremy McDonald.
The Knights, who are a member of the Florida Football Alliance, are excited to continue to play their home games at Hodges Stadium because they feel that it is a good size for a team with their kind of fan base. Hodges Stadium seats close to 10,000 fans.
“To me the options are Hodges Stadium or Jacksonville Municipal Stadium,” said McDonald. “If we were selling out Hodges stadium and turning people away then yeah we would definitely want to go play at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium. Maybe years from now, that would be great if we could get to that point.”
While the Knights struggled in attendance for the first couple games last season due to bad weather, they improved at the end of the season and had around 1000 fans for each of the last two home games of the season. The Knights are hoping to improve off of those numbers with a year of exposure from playing on UNF’s campus.
The Knights are also hoping to build a larger fan base after the success they had in their first season last year. This is something that looks possible due to the spike in attendance later in the season. The Knights are coming off of a 10-3 season in which they won the NFC North and came just one win away from playing in the Alliance Bowl Championship.
The Knights are hoping to take their roster to next level and want to compete for championships in the season to come. They are holding Open Try Outs on Saturday, July 31, at Plantation Park in Julington Creek, Fla.
“Really we are looking for all positions,” said McDonald. “I can’t say there is one position that we’re just loaded at that we can’t use help. We definitely are in search of a franchise quarterback, as I think everybody always is. That is probably our single biggest need.”
For more information about the Jacksonville Knights visit www.jacksonvilleknights.org
