Urban Sports: San Diego

Metro Jacksonville · December 26, 2007, 04:00:00 AM

Urban Sports: San Diego

San Diego's PETCO Park opened in 2004, creating a tremendous economic impact on San Diego's Downtown Gaslamp district.

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http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/679

NJ to JAX WHAT DID I DO? · December 26, 2007, 09:01:30 AM

I'm now moving to San Diego.

jeh1980 · December 27, 2007, 02:12:06 AM

No matter how we think of Jacksonville, don't sell our city short. I think we are probably overdue for a MLB team.

gatorback · December 27, 2007, 02:51:36 AM

Get a MLB team and I'll be the 1st to move back. I'll dump our hydrogen powered city buses, our new redline, the tree huggers and my apt. above burberry just to see my red sox play!

raheem942 · December 27, 2007, 03:32:00 AM

Quote from: jeh1980 on December 27, 2007, 02:12:06 AM
No matter how we think of Jacksonville, don't sell our city short. I think we are probably overdue for a MLB team.

im not a big baseball fan but i agree its something we should have

gatorback · December 27, 2007, 04:57:51 AM

Let's raise taxes to build a new stadium for the Jacksonville Red Sox yeeaaa!!!!

Ocklawaha · December 28, 2007, 12:49:31 AM

I don't give a hoot about baseball, but my daughter is a nut for the game. Guess I'd learn to love it too but only if y'all agree to rename the team "The Jacksonville Red Caps" which was the historic name of the famous Negro league team that started here. I'd love to see them honored.

Ocklawaha

gatorback · December 28, 2007, 03:38:59 AM

Red Caps sounds cool to me. Can we force them to take mass transit only to the games...the team that is....car pool mandate in the contract on game day at a minimum?

raheem942 · December 28, 2007, 03:14:24 PM

Quote from: Ocklawaha on December 28, 2007, 12:49:31 AM
I don't give a hoot about baseball, but my daughter is a nut for the game. Guess I'd learn to love it too but only if y'all agree to rename the team "The Jacksonville Red Caps" which was the historic name of the famous Negro league team that started here. I'd love to see them honored.

Ocklawaha

sounds like plan

RiversideGator · December 28, 2007, 04:20:56 PM

I would love to see MLB in Jax too, but I think we need about 20 years of population growth until we can support such a franchise. We will see.

Ocklawaha · December 28, 2007, 06:59:30 PM

After the play-offs and the Super Bowl game, when the Jaguars are sitting as World Champs, and teams like New England, and Dallas are stunned, wondering what just ran over them... Every league in the nation will be knocking on our door... I could dig seeing...

NHL
NBA
AL or NL

It COULD happen! This is the year!

Ocklawaha

thelakelander · December 28, 2007, 08:22:11 PM

Don't hold your breath. We need to get a firm handle on supporting the Jags before thinking about the MLB, NBA and NHL.

Charles Hunter · December 28, 2007, 08:53:30 PM

Yeah, there are lots more of those games, and tickets aren't exactly cheap to major league anything. Let's support the local minor league hockey team, the Barracudas. (Is justdave still the Beer Man and Chuck-a-Puck guy?) And the Suns, when baseball season starts. If we don't support what we've got, there's no way we can "graduate" to a higher level.

Ocklawaha · December 28, 2007, 09:48:24 PM

I just don't agree...

Factor One: We put lots of folks in a stadium for Pro-Football, true we are a small market team (TV MARKET) but had we a stadium of say 50,000-55,000 like many MUCH LARGER markets, we'd be the sell out champs of the league. When the gloves come off the stadium CAN seat something like 80,000... great for College once or twice a year, but bad for pro sports.

Factor Two: Way too many of us "think small town." We fondly recall Par 3 Golf and Dizzyland, the Boardwalk, TADS restaurant, Petersons 5 and 10...etc... We just are not that little "ville" anymore. We have a team that pounds the likes of Pittsburgh, Denver, San Diego and Oakland into the grass, then turn on a dime and claim we just won't go to a game where our Hockey team plays the Farmville Fireants! The WHAT? No frickin wonder. I can spend my dollar to see the Jags play New England, or the Suns play Orlando, or the Cuda's play "Fireants", sorry guys even if I had all the sports money in the world, we are no longer in that league.

Factor Three: With a proper size baseball park and Arena, there is no reason why we can't put 10,000-30,000 folks in those places a couple times a week, with the likes of Magic, Islanders, Padres, Heat, Cubs etc... Beats the hell out of the 500 that show up for the Fireants.

Factor Four: We were the NUMBER ONE team in the USFL, and NSL in attendence. We put more folks in the bowl for pro soccer (a game most gringos don't even understand) then places like Los Angeles and New York.
Why? I think it's because it allowed us to play up to our size and flex a little muscle... Jacksonville Tea Men vs the New York Cosmos, sounds oh so much more like I'll go then some game against the "Biloxi Bigots", or "Macon Mayflys".

Historically Speaking: When you already have the Afrika Korps rolling across every City on the continent, it's better to allow the Vichy to waste their assets on the small fry.

Ocklawaha

thelakelander · December 28, 2007, 10:14:13 PM

The success of the Jags on the field has nothing to do with market size. Green Bay has been a powerhouse for decades, but that does not mean a city with 80,000 reisdents can support an MLB team. Metro Jax only has 1.3 million residents in a State already littered with pro franchises. Its not a knock against Jax, but our market is simply too small. If not, then it should be quite easy to find a market our size with multiple franchises.