Crap ... what's going to happen to that surge of NFL interest in Jacksonville?

The Vikings did have their stadium get buried by snow and they were an out of control train-wreck suckfest before that.

So there was that.

(Cannot believe I'm defending the Vikings here)

 

Yeah ... the stadium collapsed Dec. 12. Most of the home games had been played by then.

Here's my beef (and for the record, I'm not from Jacksonville): Mizzou would have you think that Jacksonville is the worst franchise with the worst fans in the worst city in the NFL. When I pulled up the attendance figures for last year, showing Jax was 24th, ahead of Chicago, Detroit and Minnesota, of all teams, one of his next responses was "I don't care about attendance." Well, how else do you judge?

Yes, they covered seats a few years ago. The stadium was too big for the population of the metro area anyway. Other NFL teams have been green-lighted by Goddell to do the same thing. We'll wait to see if they get the same nationwide abuse Jacksonville did.

On the field, you can argue, and I would agree, that the Jaguars have largely underachieved under Del Rio. But they're also not the reincarnation of the worst Arizona Cardinals teams, going 2-14 in front of 25,000 per game. Del Rio's usual record is 8-8 and 7-9, and a handful of plays from going 10-6 or a handful of plays from going 6-10.

The NFL owners, in 1993, voted to award a franchise to Jacksonville. Evidence to the contrary involving the lockout aside, these guys didn't build the current 800-pound gorilla by making dumb decisions. The team made two AFC championship games and four playoffs in its first five years. Wayne Weaver pulled the trigger too soon on Coughlin but Del Rio has gotten them to the post-season twice and they're usually in the running for the playoffs after Thanksgiving.

Tell me again whey the NFL should simply swoop in and toss them to LA?

 

Jacksonville is the worst NFL city with the worst fans and whatever team is 31st, it's a very distant second worst.

 

Holy crap, Mizzou, you really do have a hair up your ass about Jacksonville. What the hell did that city do to you? I think Hondo's done a fairly decent job of countering you with some actual factual evidence. God forbid you provide the same.

 

I've looked at those attendance numbers and here is what doesn't make sense to me: the percentage numbers.

It says that Green Bay and Pittsburgh were both only 97.1% capacity for home games. Those teams both have season ticket request lists a mile long. How were they not 100% capacity for every home game?

Shouldn't they have had games blacked out if they weren't sold out? I don't remember hearing about the Packers or the Steelers having a home game blacked out last year. By %, Carolina and Arizona were both higher than the Steelers and Packers. I saw a lot more empty seats in Carolina and Arizona than I did when I watched Pittsburgh and Green Bay home games on TV.

 

the trouble with JAX-

1- No one ever wants to go downtown, the stadium is downtown. Folks would much rather spend Sunday afternoon on the beach or in San Marco or Riverside

2- They'll need a new stadium eventually and there will be zero political will to build one.

3- Market size. Don't look at population of the city because that's not relevant. Look at DMA size. Jacksonville is 47. LA is 2. That's a lot more TV's. But even cities like Green Bay and Buffalo have secondary markets, places nearby that have a lot of people willing to drive in for a game. People from Madison and Milwaukee will go to Packers game. No one in Savanah, GA is driving to a Jags game.

4- UF and FSU. The college game has always been there. While the Jags were stumbling to finish third, the Gators were winning national titles. The Gators and Noles are the teams everyone grew up watching, the teams everyone's father grew up watching. They are ingrained in the life of a sports fan there. The Jags don't have that.

5- Corporations. Teams get the big bucks from Fortune 500 companies that buy up private boxes to impress clients. The New York teams have a slew of companies lining up for them. The Redskins have tons of lobbyists looking to do the same thing. Jacksonville has two Fortune 500 companies.

There will always be a group of dedicated fans that will hold rallies and buys season tickets, but they are a small group. I covered a "Save the team" rally in Arlington once and four people showed up. What kind of message does that send to the league?
Don't get me wrong, I loved that town and enjoyed covering that team while I was there. I don't think Weaver will move or sell as long as he's alive, but the man isn't immortal. That team will be gone soon enough.

 

Re: Crap ... what's going to happen to that surge of NFL interest in Jacksonvill

Could it be that Hondo's numbers are bullshit? Unpossible!

I looked at that list. Indianapolis is shown at 106 percent.

Sorry, but I went to a few Colts games last year. No way they were at 100 percent in either game I went to.

This list has to be tickets sold, a method which is open to all manner of manipulation, as can be seen by the teams that have OVER 100 percent attendance.

For all we know, some TV station in any number of these cities bought up tickets at the last minute to avoid a blackout. I know that was standard practice in Indy for a long time.

Until someone shows me a list that reflects actual butts in seats, I ain't buying what Hondo is selling. We've all seen the empty seats in Jacksonville (and elsewhere).

 

One of the most amusing aspects of sports fandom and journalism is the constant concern by people presumably of quite average economic status over the potential for already-rich multibillionaires to make billions more in the future, and the usual insistence it's the responsibility of the community/fanbase to make sure it happens.

 

Along those lines, I've always been amused how the sports consumer is expected to act differently than all others.

Restaurant has poor service and declining food quality? You are expected to go elsewhere.

Team raises prices, makes no effort to win, and the in-person experience gets worse every year? You had better keep buying those season tickets, or you'll be a "bad" fan. And if your colleagues do the same, you'll be a "bad sports town."

 

BINGO

 

Sticking with the capitalist theme, if no one patronizes an establishment, they close it down.

 

Most restaurants aren't built with massive sums of tax money.