With the city of Los Angeles continuing to make a big push into bring an NFL team back to LA, one has to wonder how this is possible. Creating an expansion team for the country's #2 market doesn't seem like a viable option. The current NFL set up is as good as it gets. Evenly spread divisions and a good playoff set up. So what's the best way to bring football back to the City of Angels?? Relocation.
With the option of relocation comes the question of, what franchise would be willing to relocate?? Some have mentioned the Buffalo Bills, but I think they would move to Toronto before they move to LA. Others would say the New Orleans Saints. But owner Tom Benson seems to be content with using the team to help rebuild the city after Hurricane Katrina.
The Jacksonville Jaguars are the best team to move right now. They have a certain issues that, in my opinion, could change once they get into a large market like LA.
While owner Wayne Weaver has put a pretty decent product on the football field, fans haven't responded to the organization as expected. Let's take a look at reasons why the Jags never really took off:
1. Slow ticket sales
The Jags have suffered with this problem for some time now. Despite having some success since they arrived in the league in 1995, fans haven't really been eager to sell out the stadium. The Jaguars blacked out 12 of 16 home games in 2003 and 2004 before covering up seats to reduce stadium capacity and lower ticket sales requirements. In 2007, their home game against Atlanta was also blacked out, and they were playoff contenders that year.
Fast Forward to 2009, and the Jags are facing yet another blackout dilemma. Both of this year's home preseason games will be
blacked out, due to low ticket sales. Not only will they not see a live broadcast, they won't see a delayed broadcast either. While we all know that preseason games mean nothing , they usually are no different than regular season tickets. Anything NFL stamped has a tendency to sell out- except if you are the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jags have tried to come up with everything possible to get fans to purchase tickets, including adding a 12 month payment plan for season tickets. Nothing seems to work.
2. J'Ville Loves College Football More
If you know like I know, Jacksonville is Gator Country. While the Jags can't sell out their games, the Florida Gators sure don't have that problem. The Florida-Georgia game is one of the hottest tickets in town, and is a hard ticket to get a hold of.
Let's be honest here... Jacksonville is a college football town. Their stadium, Jacksonville Municipal Stadium, was the old Gator Bowl. And while most teams have corporate names like FedEx Field and M&T Bank Stadium, they don't have that same luxury, which means less money for the Jags organization for stadium upgrades and potential salaries (They were previously name Alltel Stadium, after the cell phone company,but hasn't had a corporate sponsor since).
3. No New Stadium In SiteAs previously stated, the Jags don't sell out tickets and have played in the old Gator Bowl since their existence.
Why create a new stadium if fans won't come out to support it?? When the Super Bowl came in 2005, the stadium had over $45 million dollars worth of upgrading done to accommodate the big event. But such upgrades have still not been enough for Jags fans to come to the stadium.
Not to say that I don't understand why you would build a new stadium for the Jags. Fan support is the biggest reason why new stadiums are created. Why spend tons of money on a site that will receive little support?
Which leads us to LA. LA is looking to bring in an NFL team within the near future, creating plans for a possible site to build an NFL stadium and other measures. Something that the Jags ownership could surely be interested in. Box suites are the real money makers in football stadiums. If LA can produce tons of suites (which they will. This IS LA we're talking about), that means
for Weaver and the organization.
Even though this is a recession, it's not impossible to expect tons of corporate sponsors for a new stadium in Los Angeles, bringing in more revenue to help the team with their transition.
And while one can say that USC runs the city, you can never go wrong with putting an NFL team in one of the largest markets in the country. It will get the support it needs if ran properly and puts a winning product on the field.
The Jaguars are a slowly sinking sinking ship in Jacksonville. Hopefully Weaver can come up with a way to make it work. If not.. Los Angeles would welcome him with open arms.
