Big League City! 100 Years of Football in Jacksonville

[KenFSU]

Nothing at all against football. Against millionaires showing up with a sports team and  sticking the taxpayers with a fat bill while the millionaire get the profits.

With all due respect, almost every single thing about this statement is factually inaccurate.

[KenFSU]

^ Specifically, millionaires do not "show up" with sports teams. Millionaires -- billionaires is probably more accurate these days -- purchase sports teams, either from the owner of an existing franchise, or from the pool of owners via league expansion. For example, Wayne Weaver/Touchdown Jacksonville purchased the Jaguars for $140 million from the NFL.

As far as "sticking the taxpayers with a fat bill while the millionaire gets the profits," that's obviously highly subjective. You could argue either way once things like marketing exposure, tourism, and quality of life enhancement are factored in. To me, the biggest offender is television revenue. The NFL's television rights are worth nearly $30 billion, and the host cities share in none of those proceeds. 28 of 32 NFL stadiums are publicly owned. Without those municipally-owned stadiums providing the necessary stage for said television games, there is no $30 billion in TV revenue. Thus, if a city-owned stadium plays host to a televised game, it seems like common sense that the city should get a cut of the television revenue.

The numbers are complicated and easily manipulated, but personally, I'd think it would be very difficult to argue that the Jaguars haven't been a net gain for the city.

The Super Bowl on the other hand...

[Tacachale]

Well put, Ken. Framing it as "profit" to be taken from a city is off. It's a quality of life expense, and unlike many others expenses it brings revenue back in.

[Rynjny]

it's a great read but there are few typo errors.

[KenFSU]

it's a great read but there are few typo errors.

As I told my new friend Editor99, these typos that you speak of are the reason that I've made the difficult decision to buy up all existing copies of the book, bury them in the Nevada desert, relocate to the Pacific Northwest, and live out the rest of my existence in deep, reflective shame.

In all seriousness, I have a full time job in civil engineering, a new baby at home, and a limited budget for the project. At 460 pages and over 100,000 words, a misplaced apostrophe or misspelled word is bound to slip through the cracks. If you are able to overlook these egregious offenses (and better yet, email me a heads up so I can correct in subsequent editions), you'll find the best book ever written on Jacksonville's football history.

You'll find a kick-ass foreword by Shad Khan declaring his commitment to Jacksonville and his desire to bring the city a Super Bowl championship. You'll find a long reflection by ESPN's Woody Paige about his rivalry with Jacksonville, how it began, and what he really thinks of the city. You'll find the weird stories about how Jacksonville and Orlando attempted to win a shared NFL expansion team in the 1970s, how the original Jaguars logo was literally copied out of the Jaguar automobile section of the phonebook, and how Fred Bullard's attempt to take the USFL's Jacksonville Bulls public went down in flames. You'll find histories and memorabilia from flash-in-the-pan teams like the Jacksonville All-Stars, Bears, Robins, Jaguars (all three local teams that have used that name in the last century), Firebirds, etc. You'll find detailed stories about how Jacksonville became a Bowl city, an AFL city, a WFL city, a USFL city, an NFL city, an Arena League city, an LFL city, and eventually a Super Bowl city.

Alongside the football, you'll find some of the most colorful characters Jacksonville has ever seen, including stories of rock stars, gangsters, con men, street gangs, burning hotels, crazy preachers who hate beer, planes crashing into Riverside, race riots, rednecks firing at waterspouts with shotguns, Michael Jackson destroying hotel rooms, city corruption, helicopters, poodles on the football field, exploding barges, children diving in a flooded Gator Bowl, snipers on I-295, green polar bears, staged bank robberies, and a prized punter nearly chopping his foot off with an axe in the Jaguars locker room.

Truly had a blast writing this book over the last couple of years, exhausting as it was, and if people get even a fraction of that enjoyment reading it, I'll be a pretty happy guy

[Tacachale]

This is just what happens when you publish yourself or with a small press. You're basically your own editor. Typos may be common, but the other side of the coin is that you can release the book you want, rather than what the publisher wants to publish or thinks may sell. In this case, you get a wonderful new book on a very specialized topic - football in Jacksonville, and with substantially more content than would be likely going the normal publishing route - 460 pages is huge. A few typographical errors are a small price to pay.

[KenFSU]

This is just what happens when you publish yourself or with a small press. You're basically your own editor. Typos may be common, but the other side of the coin is that you can release the book you want, rather than what the publisher wants to publish or thinks may sell. In this case, you get a wonderful new book on a very specialized topic - football in Jacksonville, and with substantially more content than would be likely going the normal publishing route - 460 pages is huge. A few typographical errors are a small price to pay.

Thanks buddy!

And I sincerely appreciate all of your help on the back end.

You Delaneys are a good bunch

[Wacca Pilatka]

After having devoured the book this past weekend, I'm really curious to know more about how the interactions went with Tom Sorensen.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Look at the bright side, Ken.  It usually takes a writer some years before they have people actually PAYING them to proofread it for errors.  I think you might want to take a page (literally) from Clive Cussler.  Read the back page, after-forward, closing, whateverthehellyoucallit in any of his books and you'll get the idea.

Congrats, BTW.  I think the task of actually finishing the book, especially by an engineer, is a feat all in itself. 

[fieldafm]

Does San Marco Bookstore carry this?

[civil42806]

Enjoyed the book a lot Ken, don't live in jax anymore, but quite a few people here in Mobile were interested in it.  Learned a lot never really had the lowdown on the WFL fiasco, and the chapter on minor league football was fascinating.  its now proudly a coffee table book

[KenFSU]

After having devoured the book this past weekend, I'm really curious to know more about how the interactions went with Tom Sorensen.

Thanks so much for picking it up!

Tom was surprisingly cool. Nice guy who seemed to get a genuine, if harmless, kick out of prodding Jacksonville back in the day.

Would have loved to get Mike Bianchi's thoughts on the Charlotte-Jacksonville expansion war (he was leading the charge for the Times-Union at the time), but alas, he was simply TOO COOL to chat...

[KenFSU]

^ Thanks so much guys, really means a lot to me.

P.S. Hope to have the book in San Marco Bookstore by mid-August!

[David]

Very cool. Your mention of the Charlotte-Jacksonville expansion war led me to google that phrase...I forgot how the negotiations fell through in 93 and the Jaguars almost didn't exist:

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1993-07-23/sports/1993204102_1_jacksonville-investment-group-memphis

I'll check out the book! Very interesting.

[KenFSU]

Very cool. Your mention of the Charlotte-Jacksonville expansion war led me to google that phrase...I forgot how the negotiations fell through in 93 and the Jaguars almost didn't exist:

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1993-07-23/sports/1993204102_1_jacksonville-investment-group-memphis

I'll check out the book! Very interesting.

^ Thanks!

My favorite part of the Charlotte-Jacksonville "war" was when a display of Charlotte was floated into the St. Johns River on a barge and publicly blown up by the city.

Shockingly, many found the action to be in poor taste