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

[duvaldude08]

If we lose the jags we wont get another team!

I agree Keith. i dont think we would either. Being that we were blessed to even get a team with being such a small market, they probably wouldnt even think it would be worth giving a second chance. I agree with you. However, the jags are so Im happy!! Go Jags!

[duvaldude08]

I think that people in Jax should be looking for a new owner loyal to Jax to buy the team when Weaver or his family finally sells it.  He has made it known that when he gets too old and/or passes on, his family has no interest in retaining ownership.  This is likely the biggest risk of all to the team staying in Jax.  A new investor, paying much more for the team than Weaver did, will be much more hard nosed about the numbers than Weaver has been.  Jax will really have its work cut out then unless such investor has an emotional commitment to the City like Weaver does.

If Im not mistaken, I heard the wayne weaver was supposed to be putting some kind clause in the contract that whoever buys the team can not move for until X amount of years after his death. (or something like that.) Im going to try to find the article I was reading and post it.

[stjr]

I didn't say we will lose the team or that we wouldn't ever replace it again if we did lose it.

I merely tried to highlight what I think is the greatest risk to keeping the team we currently have.  If someone pays $750 million to $1 billion for the team, the possible worth of it according to press reports, vs. the $125 million or so I recall Weaver paying for it, their economics are going to be much more stressed (not counting any new rules regarding allocating League and/or team revenues that favor larger markets).  Unlike Weaver, they may require ALL the club seats and suites to be sold. I understand we are quite a bit short still in this area.  These seats are not required to be sold to avoid blackouts so they are not addressed publicly as much as the non-premium seats.  A new owner might also require that all the covered seats be sold as well.  That's a far higher bar than we are currently meeting.  Not saying we can't do it, just that's the greatest risk to maintaining the team in Jax in my opinion.

[stjr]

Looks like I pegged things pretty well based on these excerpted quotes from Wayne Weaver in today's Times Union article by Vic Stellino:

Wayne Weaver was candid in pointing out that avoiding TV blackouts by selling slightly more than 50,000 non-premium tickets doesn't solve all the problems. The Jaguars also have 13,000 premium seats, which account for almost 60 percent of the team's revenue. They need to sell 4,500 to 5,000 that went unsold last year.

"We've really struggled with our premium tickets," he said.

He said only about half of the club seats on the east side are sold, and the cameras are aimed at that side of the field.

"It's an eyesore," Weaver said. "We've got to figure out what is the sweet spot that is going to help sell those seats."

The Jaguars have reduced prices for most club seats and might try to get buyers to share unsold suites.

Overall, though, selling the non-premium seats and lifting the TV blackouts is a positive first step in securing Jacksonville's future in the NFL.

Weaver, who said he hasn't been approached by any representatives of Los Angeles, has said he and wife Delores plan to sell the team at some point in the future, but he hasn't set a timetable to do that.

If the team keeps avoiding the TV blackouts, it might be easier to find a buyer willing to keep the team in Jacksonville.

Weaver said he knows the kind of buyer he wants.

"Someone who shares our vision about the market and has a commitment to the market," he said.

http://jacksonville.com/sports/football/jaguars/2010-12-26/story/12th-man-responds-jaguars-complete-home-schedule-no

[I-10east]

Keep dreaming buddy! and you are a Duval homer, you take offense to every and anything negative said about Jax which many of them are very true.

I'm stating facts, and you're saying an opinion. If you can show me the document in Roger Goodell's office that's saying "If the Jaguars leave Jacksonville, that city will NEVER get a NFL team again"; Your agrument holds weight if you can show me that document. Talk about recording everything that the national media blowhards say! Maybe I'm not so "homer" as you are "paranoid".

[Shwaz]

Some more rumblings coming from the "city of a-holes"

http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/nfl/news/story?id=6078709

Farmers to sponsor LA stadium
EmailPrintComments
59
By Arash Markazi
ESPNLosAngeles.com
Archive
LOS ANGELES -- If the NFL does return to a proposed stadium in downtown Los Angeles, the league's newest venue will be called Farmers Field.

Developer AEG and Farmers Insurance Exchange announced the naming rights deal Tuesday in advance of a press conference.

They did not reveal terms of the pact, but sources told ESPNLosAngeles.com that it is worth $700 million over 30 years. A source told The Associated Press that the deal could be worth $1 billion if the stadium were to attract more than one NFL team.

The announcement will take place inside the West Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center, a building AEG plans to demolish to build their proposed 64,000-seat retractable roof stadium, which would connect to the current convention center.

AEG president and CEO Tim Leiweke had said he needed this kind of "contractually obligated income" to make the proposed stadium a reality. It seemed like a daunting task when he first announced his idea for downtown stadium in April considering newly built stadiums such as Cowboys Stadium and the New Meadowlands Stadium have yet to secure naming rights deals.

Even with a naming rights deal in place, Leiweke and AEG still have several hurdles to clear before they can begin construction. The company must still pass an environmental impact review, complete the entitlement process and come to a long-term land lease agreement with the city. AEG is also asking the city to issue $350 million in bonds which would help build a new extension to the convention center that would replace the torn down West Hall and additional parking units. Leiweke has said ticket-tax revenue will pay off the debt and AEG would write a check for any shortfalls.

A competing proposal by billionaire developer Ed Roski of Majestic Realty to build a 75,000-seat open-air football stadium in the City of Industry is shovel-ready after getting two approved environmental impact reports. While Leiweke has promised no tax-payer dollars would be used in the proposed downtown project, his opponents in Industry are arguing otherwise.

"AEG is expecting taxpayers to dole out well over a billion dollars for a proposal that will compromise the City's general fund, the L.A. Convention Center, the new stadium and the financial success of any potential NFL team," said John Semcken, vice president of Majestic Reality, who has been working with Roski over the last 15 years to attract an NFL team back to Los Angeles.

Leiweke called the comments "fear tactics" and seems to have the support of city politicians, many of whom, such as Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, will be in attendance at Tuesday's press conference.

Earlier this month, Leiweke had hinted this agreement was forthcoming and that it would be the most significant sign yet that the NFL would finally be returning to Los Angeles for the first time since 1995.

"By the time we hit the Super Bowl we're going to have an announcement that proves to everyone once and for all that this project is going to happen," Leiweke said. "It's going to be private and it's going to be brilliant and it's going to happen."

Arash Markazi is a columnist and writer for ESPNLosAngeles.com.

[stjr]

The announcement will take place inside the West Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center, a building AEG plans to demolish to build their proposed 64,000-seat retractable roof stadium, which would connect to the current convention center.

When I suggested our convention center consider moving to the stadium area, I didn't receive the same reception.  LOL.  If great big LA thinks it's a good idea, maybe we should reconsider and take note.

[Jason]

It wouldn't be a terrible idea if there were plenty to do in the stadium district and a transit connection to link up the other DT hotels.  Extend the skyway to the Duvault (via arena) and work with a private developer to build a convention center hotel that is easily expanded and... viola!   You would still have to wait for the remaining development (ie. sports bars, clubs, restraunts, retail, residential) to follow but that would still be better than what exists at the Prime. 

[JaxNative68]

+1

[copperfiend]

LA will be home to the Chargers or Raiders. Book it.

[mtraininjax]

When we get a new convention center on the site of the old courthouse, look for the city to float something, maybe bonds, not the other, and run it down Bay street to the arena. Take down the overpass and limit access from downtown on Bay to the access to the Hart bridge from in front of the gator bowl offices. Use the old pilings to support the station and build a station in front of the boat docks, the land is already city space. Model it after the system in Indianapolis. Its a no brainer.

[Shwaz]

Maybe it's Toronto we should be looking over our shoulder for...

http://blogs.thescore.com/nfl/2011/05/05/toronto-councillor-on-nfl-they-cant-keep-ignoring-a-market-this-size/

“They have to take care of the problem in Los Angeles first,” said the candid Ford, who is the brother of Toronto mayor Rob Ford. “Two teams are kind of in play here: Jacksonville’s number one; New Orleans is the other. So there’s two teams. Once they take care of Los Angeles, we’re going to fly over to New York, set up a meeting with [NFL commissioner Roger] Goodell and give him our pitch.”

[copperfiend]

Why? This is nothing.

[Shwaz]

Why? This is nothing.

I was being facetious. Toronto is nowhere near ready to start making their pitch to the NFL. Besides after what they did to us with Justin Beibier I think they may be blackballed.

[copperfiend]

I read on another site that tailgating is illegal in Toronto too.