Caution: LA is coming to steal your NFL team in 2011

[JaxNative68]

Maybe the new owners of the rams will move them back.

[BridgeTroll]

Just off the top of my head...

Baltimore Colts to Indy... new stadium
Cleveland Browns to Baltimore... new stadium
St Louis Cardinals to Phoenix... new stadium
LA Rams to St Louis... new stadium
Houston Oilers to Tennessee... new stadium
Raiders to LA and back to Oakland... hopes for a new stadium(and Al Davis is nuts)

Potential movers due to stadium issues...

San Diego, Minnesota, Buffalo?

[copperfiend]

Last year, bad.
This year, roller coaster, one game good, the next like they're a high school team.

Don't get me wrong, I root for the Jags every weekend they are on the field.  And I even wear their swag around town.  But you have to admit, some weeks they make it tough.

They are 5-2 in the last 7 games.

[BridgeTroll]

And yet attendance hovers around 40k...

[Keith-N-Jax]

And yet attendance hovers around 40k...

This is Jacksonville,,anybody know how many black outs the 0-16 Lions had?

[Steve]

three last year.  And they were the WORST pro football team I ever saw

[Keith-N-Jax]

That really says something about Jacksonville,,really!!!!!!

[KenFSU]

Jacksonville can obviously do much better than 40k, but Jacksonville is a market completely unique to the NFL. You can't compare the Jags to the Lions, at least not in 2009. It's apples and oranges in many ways. The Lions have 70+ years of rich history, spanning generations of fans. More importantly, they have a metro area of nearly 5.5 million, along with 8 major Fortune 500 companies (with a combined revenue of nearly half a trillion dollars). The Lions avoiding blackouts is less an accomplishment than an inevitability, and in fact, Jacksonville drawing 40,000 to a game is probably a far more impressive statistic given the size of the market. Truth of the matter is, Jacksonville has to work much, much harder on a per capita basis than anywhere else in the league to make this thing work. Seems almost counterproductive to keep knocking the folks of Jacksonville by comparing Jags' home attendance to ___________ (insert massive metro here).

[Clem1029]

That really says something about Jacksonville,,really!!!!!!

Except that it doesn't, really. Consider, the Lions were founded (or at least affiliated with an organization) in 1930. So the team has been in existence for almost 80 years, with a following in one of the most populous urban areas for at least 50 years before their "decline" started. which means you have 2-3 generations that have grown up with cheering for the team, through the good times and the bad.

I can speak to this because I'm from Cleveland...the team that is currently fighting the '08 Lions for Steve's title of "WORST football team ever." But it would never occur to me to stop rooting for the Browns, because it's what I grew up with, it's what I knew, and what two generations of my family have ingrained min me. I'll be willing to bet that's the same for the majority of the original AFL/NFL teams.

So what you're comparing are teams that have built themselves into their respective civic consciousnesses (and civic areas that were considered dominant until a recent decline) for decades to a team that has existed for 15 years, in an area that's still building an identity. A lot of the current "teams that suck" have existed for so long that it doesn't occur to the fans to NOT support them. Not that they haven't had their rough areas, but the fans are still around. Compare - the Jags, still in the playoff hunt, might have every home game blacked out, to the Browns, a team that might never win another game this season and with late season games in less than ideal environments, but might not have a single blackout.

The only thing that compares is how established the fan base is. The short term view is "Jacksonville can't support an NFL team." The long term view is "How loyal is the fanbase after 50 years of existence?" Can we find that out now in an era of instant news, with multiple competing entertainment venues, in a region that has enough to enjoy outside of concentrating on its sports team? I'm not sure. But comparing the Jags to any team having issues that's been in existence for a significant period of time is utterly unfair. It's simply a question of whether or not the current economics of the league will allow a team like the Jags the time it needs to establish itself, or whether short term economic interests will win out in the end.

[Keith-N-Jax]

I'm not knocking anybody, but the excuses need to stop also. You mean to tell me we can't get 60 thou in that stadium. If not Jags pack up and go now. Stop with the excuses.

[copperfiend]

And yet attendance hovers around 40k...

That is an indictment on this town not the team. They are winning.

[David]

http://www.youtube.com/v/Umyc50uTt0c


I can't believe he made a terminator reference...

"da day we will do here this cermonial signing of the legislation that will terminate the frivolous lawsuit and clear da way for thastruction."

[JaxNative68]

for all of you that have sh*t on me for opening my mouth about not attending games:

My son has finally shown an interest in attending a Jag's game!  That means, yes count them, two more, possibly three more, will be in the stadium for Jags/Dolphins game.  And yes I know they play the Texans before that, but he wants to see the Dolphins, so I might as well give him what he wants for his first live NFL game.  Hopefully the Jags will have an answer to the wild cat, and they should they are cats after all, not a water breathing mammal.

ac: watching my son enjoy his first live NFL experience, that is what I call value for my dollar!

[ac]

Awesome, man.

I can't wait 'til my little one's old enough to go!  At 16 months, she loves Jaxson and can already recognize the team logo, and signals "Touchdown!"  I just hope the team can weather this rough patch, rack up the new fans and win back some more old fans along the way.

[Wacca Pilatka]

for all of you that have sh*t on me for opening my mouth about not attending games:

My son has finally shown an interest in attending a Jag's game!  That means, yes count them, two more, possibly three more, will be in the stadium for Jags/Dolphins game.  And yes I know they play the Texans before that, but he wants to see the Dolphins, so I might as well give him what he wants for his first live NFL game.  Hopefully the Jags will have an answer to the wild cat, and they should they are cats after all, not a water breathing mammal.

ac: watching my son enjoy his first live NFL experience, that is what I call value for my dollar!

Hope you have a great time!  I will be at that one too, coming down from VA.  I'll have a semi-casual Packer fan with me who I hope to convert.