Post by TheShadow on Jul 16, 2008 20:31:51 GMT -5
jac.scout.com
By Alfie Crow
It’s that special time of the NFL year again known as the dead zone. Football news is normally at a premium, and the only thing making headlines are generally rumors and various arrests. There are some stories however, that seem reoccurring and always seem to feature the Jacksonville Jaguars; the dreaded move to Los Angeles. Every summer there seem to be three or four stories that come out in the national media about how the Jacksonville Jaguars are the leading candidates for a move to the vacant Los Angeles market because of (insert ill-informed “fact” here). The reality of the matter is that Jacksonville is one of the least likely candidates to lose their team. Recently a story “broke” in the Philadelphia Daily News linking billionaire C. Dean Metropoulos and Jacksonville Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver in regards to a possible purchase of the team. The story cites that the Galatioto Sports Partners were hired by Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver to negotiate the sale of the team. This information was later found to be somewhat off-base after Wayne Weaver released a statement. If you actually look at the facts and compare them to some of the other teams rumored to move such as Minnesota or Buffalo, it’s fairly easy to see why Jacksonville is unlikely to move anytime soon.
First, let’s look at some of the other cities who are commonly mentioned with Jacksonville and examine why their situations are far worse of than Jacksonville’s.
The Minnesota Vikings desperately need a new stadium and have been trying for years to get one to replace the outdated Metrodome, whose lease expires in 2011. Not to mention that the idea of using money to buy a new stadium is in the back of the locals minds with the collapse of the I-35 bridge last year. Couple this with the fact that the Vikings have battled with ticket sales and black outs the last couple of seasons, and this puts the Vikings higher on the “to move” list because of their stadium issue, which Jacksonville does not have. Owner Zygy Wilf has claimed he will not move the team, but that will be hard to hold to when the Vikings rank third in importance for a new facility behind the Twins baseball team and the Golden Gophers of the University of Minnesota. With these new facilities being built, it leaves the Metrodome all to the Vikings. You can only update a stadium so much. Right now, the Vikings have in their plans a 675 million dollar 68,000 seat retractable roof stadium, but the likelihood that this plan gets pushed through is bleak.
Next up are the New Orleans Saints. Now, I know this is a touchy subject now that New Orleans residence are all the sudden Saints fans again after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the state, but the Saints have a long legacy of a lack of fan support and an owner who wants to move out. There is fear that New Orleans may never become as populated or as big business as it once was, and that leaves the NFL and the franchise in a hard place. Back in 2005, the Washington Post reported that the NFL considered relocating the Saints to Los Angeles if New Orleans is unable to recover from Katrina; not much has changed as New Orleans still struggles to rebuild. Before the storm, it was reported that the Saints had only sold around 25,000 season tickets. Not to mention the fact that previous to Katrina, the Saints were making moves to void their lease with the Superdome, which is beyond outdated even now with its 200 million dollar refurbishments. Saints owner Tom Benson told the city they had until November 27th of 2005 to exercise a clause in the lease of the Superdome that would enable them to void the lease, forgoing the $81 million in subsidies if the Superdome was deemed “unusable”. Couple this with the fact that while temporarily stationed in San Antonio, Benson was accused of trying to negotiate a permanent stay in Texas for the Saints. Moving the Saints to Los Angeles now would present a public relations nightmare however, all of the financial conditions seem to point to the Saints moving at some point. It remains to be seen how long their new found fanfare and love of the Saints will last if the Saints get back to their losing ways.
The San Francisco 49ers are another team that is ripe for a move. Like New Orleans and Minnesota, the 49ers are desperately trying to get a new facility in the Bay area. The 49ers proposed a 68,000 seat stadium to be built by 2012 at Candlestick Point in San Francisco, but the city and the team have failed to come to any kind of agreement. This has led the team to consider a facility in Santa Clara, California, where the team’s headquarters are located. With Ed Roski, a billionaire builder, feverishly trying to bring a team to Los Angeles, the willingness of building a state of the art facility east of Los Angeles could bring a team like San Francisco south. I’m sure you’re starting to notice a reoccurring theme with these teams that I am arguing have a better shot at moving than Jacksonville; stadium issues.
The next team who is a candidate for relocation is the Oakland Raiders. We're going to touch on the Raiders situation briefly, as I’m sure we all know why they might move: Al Davis is old and crazy. Aside from Davis’ lack of mental well-being, the Raiders often struggle with ticket sales, have been a perennial loser for the last five seasons, and have major stadium issues.
With that said, I will move on to San Diego. San Diego might as well be in Los Angeles as it stands, and with most of the other teams mentioned they have stadium issues. They have yet to work out a long-term stadium deal, which would make the move two hours north very tempting. Currently Chargers brass wants to try and get a stadium deal done in near by Chula Vista and move out of the outdated Qualcomm Stadium. Oddly enough, San Diego is one of the few teams in the NFL with a lease that would allow them to move in the time frame that Ed Roski is looking to begin building his proposed stadium in Los Angeles. If the team pays off its $56 million debt to the city remaining from its 1997 expansion of the stadium, the team can move wherever it wants. Currently however, Chula Vista is busy worrying about building a resort hotel on the bay front instead of a stadium.
Finally, we move on to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Many of the reasons that most national media members claim Jacksonville is a prime candidate to move are because of their struggles to fill the stadium. Well, most teams would struggle to fill a stadium that greatly outdoes its market. Jacksonville Municipal Stadium at full capacity seats 73,000 originally and has been raised to seat 76,877 recently. In 2005, owner Wayne Weave decided to tarp over 9,713 seats in order to avoid blackouts and make the stadium size more in synch with its market. Jacksonville certainly erred when they originally built the stadium, however the city also had obligations to some college football games such as the Gator Bowl and the Florida vs. Georgia game. Just looking at raw numbers, in 2007 the greater Jacksonville metropolitan area was listed with a population of 1,300,823 people. This means that in order to fill the current stadium, which is only 14 years old, would require 1 in every 17 people in Jacksonville attend the game. The city of Chicago, for example has a population of nearly three million people. The Bears play in Soldier Field which has a capacity of roughly 63,000. Judging by those statistics, only 1 out of every 47 people need to attend Bears games to fill that capacity.
The story that “broke” last week in the Philadelphia Daily News about the Jacksonville Jaguars being sold to C. Dean Metropoulos hinted at the team to Los Angeles sooner rather than later. That would be rather difficult considering Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver has professed that his team is not for sale, and Los Angeles doesn’t have a stadium to suit an NFL team any time soon. The team was supposedly being sold to C. Dean Metropoulos through the Galatioto Sports Partners. Doesn’t that name sound familiar? That’s probably because it is. In June of 2007, the Florida Times-Union reported that “They (Jacksonville Jaguars) have hired a New York investment firm, Galatioto Sports Partners, to help them find new investors so they could reduce their $110 million debt.” Some simple research could have been done to save the city of Jacksonville and owner Wayne Weaver frustration for a day, hearing another false report about their team being sold and moved to Los Angeles. Wayne Weaver issued a statement the following day saying “This team is not going to California. This team is the Jacksonville Jaguars. I don’t know how I can do anything more to reaffirm my commitment. I want our fans to get as excited as I am. Everybody wants me to speculate on the future. I’m not going to speculate on the future. At some point, maybe, I would sell the team, but not now. Whatever happens in the future, I can assure you of one thing: The Jacksonville Jaguars are going to be the Jacksonville Jaguars.”
When asked about the teams interesting in finding minority investors, Weaver had this to say—
“That’s always an option, but if I ever do that, it’ll be with someone who shares the same passion for winning football and to be part of the Jacksonville ownership,” Weaver said. “Until there’s a solution to the L.A. market, you’re going to have speculation. I can tell you the Jaguars aren’t one of the teams lining up to go to L.A.”
Unless Wayne Weaver is an outright liar, which he has proven himself not to be, the Jacksonville Jaguars will not be leaving Jacksonville anytime soon. Maybe its wishful thinking for Jaguars fans to hope that these stories will cease for once and the city can go through a season without constant talk of possibly moving to Los Angeles. Unfortunately, there will probably be another story about the Jaguars moving in the next couple of weeks, it is inevitable. Jacksonville is the easy target. It’s a small market, it struggles to sell tickets at times, and it’s not anywhere on the national media radar. As I’ve pointed out, there are teams in far worse situations than the Jacksonville Jaguars. I don’t believe a single team in NFL history has moved without there being a stadium issue. Jacksonville is not in that situation, and will not be in that situation for quite a few years.
