The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp hopes to offer fans a special team license plate if the team can get enough orders.
The Double-A minor league baseball franchise needs to get at least 3,000 sales of the license plate over the next two years before they’re officially produced.
Nearly a quarter of the profits from the plates would go to the St. Johns Riverkeeper.
“We have a lot of outreach and education programs where we're trying to raise awareness and educate youth [about the river], so a lot of this will help us to hopefully sustain those programs,” said St. Johns Riverkeeper Executive Director Jimmy Orth.
Orth said apart from the financial gain, the partnership with the Jumbo Shrimp will raise awareness of the river’s importance.
“With nonprofits, we just don't have a big budget or a lot of resources to get the word out,” Orth said. “And so having the opportunity to work with an organization that's obviously very good at marketing, and getting the word out to their supporters, is going to help us raise the profile of the river. ”
Jumbo Shrimp General Manager Harold Craw said the team plates will help market the organization outside of the city.
“You see people in the airport all the time and say, hey, go Shrimp or this or that. But how cool would it be - I was thinking about this this morning - to pull up next to somebody, roll down the window, and just like you say ‘Go Gators’, you say ‘Go Shrimp!’ So it's pretty cool.”
Republican Fernandina Beach State Senator Aaron Bean sponsored legislation to create the Jumbo Shrimp plate along with a variety of others during this year’s legislative session.
The Jumbo Shrimp plate costs $36.75, with more than $8 from each sale going to the St. Johns Riverkeeper.
If the team meets its initial sales goal, that would mean more than $26,000 for the nonprofit environmental advocacy group.
People can find out more information on the plates on the team’s website, or order them through the Duval County Tax Collector’s Office.
Apart from the license plates, the Jumbo Shrimp are offering a pair of season ticket specials that would give fans exclusive bobbleheads if a deposit is received.
Sky Lebron can be reached at slebron@wjct.org, 904-358-6319 or on Twitter at @SkylerLebron.
