The London Jaguars?
actionnewsjax.com
The Jacksonville Jaguars announced today they will play a second home game in London next year at Wembley Stadium. The team has played one home game per year since 2013 in London, but in attempt to increase revenue they will add another one to the list this upcoming football season. It might sound ridiculous that they would increase revenue by playing across the Atlantic Ocean instead of in their own home stadium, but home games in London have actually generated twice as much revenue for the team than games in their own TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville. That says a lot about where the franchise is at.
While they don’t plan to leave Jacksonville, the franchise is seeking changes to not fall too far behind other teams that consistently generate the lowest revenues in the league. Other than playing a portion of its home games in London, the Jaguars are planning to build an entertainment district outside of TIAA Bank Stadium in Jacksonville. Whether these two things will substantially help increase revenue or not (I’m going with they will not), two things stuck out to me most about this issue.
usatoday.com
The first thing is the line from the ESPN article from Michael DiRocco that “the Jaguars have repeatedly stressed how critical playing in London is for their long-term stability in Jacksonville.” That is CLEARLY not where you want to be as a franchise if playing in another city…another COUNTRY…is better for your long-term stability than actually playing in your home stadium. That speaks so much about your city, fanbase, and team. Jacksonville doesn’t deserve an NFL team and we all know it. Football is truly an American sport and Jacksonville is so bad at supporting it that games in London are financially two-times better than in their home stadium. Move the team out!
The other thing that stood out to me is that Jaguars’ owner Shad Khan said he expects the fanbase to have a very positive reaction to a second home game in London. Are you kidding me? Fans are who you count on to support your team and the biggest way to do that is by going to the games. I don’t think too many fans are going all the way to London to watch the Jaguars play. They don’t even go to Jacksonville to see them play. A lot of fans probably won’t even care, because of the nature of their fanbase, but you can guarantee the ones that truly do won’t be the slightest bit happy about having their home schedule decrease to a measly six games. No fan would be happy about that and, to tell you the truth, they are probably embarrassed to even call themselves fans right now.
Something has got to be done about the Jaguars. The best solution is to move them. We’ve seen plenty of this recently with the Rams leaving St. Louis, Chargers leaving San Diego, and the Raiders leaving Oakland. The question becomes where should the Jaguars move to. I don’t think they should move to London. Like I said, football is an American sport and interest would quickly wane in London. And there’s plenty of other geographical problems that would arise as well. Some cities that come to mind are Oklahoma City, Portland, or even San Antonio (you know the people of Texas would never let their stadiums sit empty on Sundays). But I don’t know the answer to that just yet. I just know the future isn’t in Jacksonville and the fanbase/city have proved that over and over.
Garett