A Note To Our Readers: Similar to last month, we had already picked the location of this article well before Hurricane Irma barreled down on Florida. The Apollo Mapping team wishes Florida a speedy recovery from this second (historic) natural disaster.

Last month, we were in the now recovering town of Houston with a look at a baseball stadium that is likely to see some October playoff action; and this month we move to Jacksonville, Florida with a look at EverBank Field, the site of the annual “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party,” a college football game between the University of Florida and the University of Georgia.

Name & Its Origin: (Re-) Opened in 1995 as Jacksonville Municipal Stadium, in 2010 the Jacksonville Jaguars, a National Football League (NFL) team, sold the naming rights to EverBank for $16.6 million over 4 years. In 2014, the agreement with EverBank was extended for 10 more years, this time for $43 million.

Location: EverBank Field is located in downtown Jacksonville, Florida. The stadium is less than a quarter mile (0.4 kilometers) from the bank of Florida’s longest river, the St. Johns River, at just 5 or so feet above sea level which is only 14.5 miles (23.3 kilometers) further east.

A 50-cm color image of EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Florida, USA collected on June 24, 2017 by Pléiades 1B. To see this stadium in SPOT 6/7 1.5-meter resolution, check out this month’s feature on SPOTMaps. This image has custom processing and color balancing applied by Apollo Mapping. © CNES 2017, Distribution Airbus Defense and Space / Spot Image S.A., France, all rights reserved.

Stadium Capacity/Size, Architect & Build Date: EverBank Field has a long and storied history, as it was originally the Gator Bowl Stadium which opened in 1949. After a series of disputes around the annual Florida-Georgia game and then after being awarded an NFL expansion team in 1993, the city and investors agreed on a $121 million renovation of the Gator Bowl completed by HOK Sport (now Populous). The stadium has under gone a series of renovations with the latest $90 million round started in 2016. Surprisingly hard to find, according to Wikipedia, EverBank field seats 67,246 fans and is expandable to 82,000.

Type of Field Surface: EverBank Field features a natural grass field of Tifway 419 Bermuda given the year-round warm weather and sun.

Key Sports Teams: While EverBank Field is the home of the Jacksonville Jaguars, as is apparent by the logos on the outside of the building, it hosts a wide array of sporting events each year, including running races, World Cup qualifiers, the Monster Jam and multiple college football games. The stadium also hosts a number of concerts, such as Santana, Ms. Lauryn Hill and Nas and Bryan Adams in 2017 alone.

Most Popular Yearly Event: NFL games are always a big draw at EverBank Field but it would appear there is no single event bigger than the annual Florida-Georgia college football game, affectionately named the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party in the 1950s by Bill Kastelz. The annual South Eastern Conference (SEC) powerhouse match up dates back to at least 1915 and according to Georgia fans perhaps as far back as 1904.

Fun Factoids: (1) According to local newspaper reports, the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party draws 140,000 plus fans while the stadium holds a maximum of 82,000 – that is a lot of folks left to tailgate all game long! (2) If you use 1915 as the start of the annual Florida-Georgia game, Georgia leads the series 49-43-2, with the two ties in 1930 and 1969. (3) In 2016, EverBank Field hosted a Pokemon Safari night to boost annual revenue as the Jaguars have seen slumping attendance in recent years.

The Pléiades 1 High-Resolution Satellite Constellation

The Pléiades 1 constellation (or at least part of it!) has been in orbit since December 2011 and if you have not had a chance to check out any sample imagery, take a few moments and have a look at the gallery on our website. If you work with high resolution imagery, you should consider Pléiades 1 for your next geospatial project.

A variety of Pléiades 1 products are available from both a growing archive and as a new collection, including 50-centimeter (cm) pansharpened imagery and 50-cm panchromatic – 2-meter (m) 4-band multispectral bundles. We are happy to discuss the technical specifications, pricing and tasking options available with this satellite constellation.

Working with Pléiades 1 since the launch of the first twin satellite, P1A, we have noticed that:

• Airbus Defense and Space is able to deliver on their tasking feasibilities.

The Apollo Mapping sales team can answer any questions you might have about the high resolution satellite constellation, Pléiades 1. We can be reached anytime at (303) 993-3863 or sales@apollomapping.com.

More sample images and technical information about Pléiades 1A and 1B can be found on our website here.