Back in April, Justin Bergh, General Manager of the CrossFit Games, published a letter on the Games site discussing the potential change in venue for the CrossFit Games in the future. Since that time, there has been no further announcements on the Games site.
However, News4JAX is reporting that the JAXSPORTS Council is partnering with the City of Jacksonville, SMG and the Jacksonville Jaguars to bid on the 2017-2019 CrossFit Games. An Instagram account has been set up promoting Jacksonville’s bid and are encouraging residents in northeast Florida to show their support by using the hashtag #CROSSFITtoJAX on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
Upon hearing this news, we did some more research and found an article by Connect Sports.
In the article, CrossFit, Inc. announced that it is looking for hosts/venues for the 2017-2019 CrossFit Games. The deadline to declare interest was May 15, so we expect other cities have put their hat in the ring, but have not yet made it public.
What is interesting is that CrossFit has set the dates for the CrossFit Games through 2019. It’s nothing surprising (they’re still the last two weekends of July), but it does show that the timing of the Games will not change in the foreseeable future.
2017: July 18-24 or July 25-31
2018: July 17-23 or July 24-30
2019: July 16-22 or July 23-29
CrossFit is looking for venues that have a 12,000-18,000 seat soccer/football stadium, 8,000-12,000 seat tennis, baseball or hockey arena, a swimming facility (pool and open water), hiking and running courses. The open water requirement basically puts the location at one of the coasts or a city with a large body of water.
CrossFit gives those looking to bid an estimate of what the Games will look like…
- 360+ athletes
- 75,000+ spectators
- 2-3 hotels required
The rights fee to host is $100,000.
So the question is, who, outside of Jacksonville, is bidding on the CrossFit Games?
