Jun 8th 2008 10:35AM by Michael David Smith (author feed)
Filed under: Jaguars, NFL Fans
Fan loyalty is a funny thing. In some cities — like, say, Detroit — an incompetent front office can run the franchise into the ground, but the fans keep selling out the stadium. In others, even good teams have a hard time drawing a crowd.
Jacksonville is one of those others. The Jacksonville Times Union has a good look at all the ways the Jaguars franchise has developed into one of the top teams in the league, and then moves on to this:
Now here’s the scary part for the Jaguars’ administration: In light of all this progression and coming off the team’s first playoff win in eight years, there’s still about 4,000 non-premium season tickets to sell to ensure all of its home games being on local television in 2008.
… With the NFL angling to put an existing team in Los Angeles in the next five years, the last thing Jacksonville wants is to give an impression that this market has trouble filling the low-priced seats (51,000) when the Jaguars’ football arrow is pointing up.
The Jaguars have tried all sorts of things to sell more tickets, but here’s the simple truth: The NFL miscalculated when it put a team in Jacksonville. As long as they’re in Jacksonville, the Jaguars just aren’t going to be the kind of team that has a packed stadium and a season-ticket waiting list.



