Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan hasn’t given up on getting public stadium upgrade money since the city council rejected his $200 million subsidy plan for new development in a stadium parking lot back in January, coming back in June with a proposal for at least $153 million in public funds for renovating his stadium. And on Monday, he gave a talk to media about how his stadium urgently needs upgrades, despite just having gotten upgrades in 2014 and 2017, because, as USA Today put it, “those didn’t fundamentally change the fan experience.” And without a fundamentally changed fan experience, Jacksonville may not get to host as many college football games:
“We need a stadium that not only keeps Florida-Georgia, but we’ve got to think about really to get more use in Jacksonville,” Khan said. “The college playoff is going to be expanding, we got to have a stadium that qualifies for that. There’s no reason we can’t have Jacksonville get into the mix of it. So, all of those events, how do we make it more? And it’s not the stadium usage, but it’s also getting more people to this town.”
Aside from hosting a Super Bowl after the 2004 season, Jacksonville has largely been absent from the bidding process for games like that, including the College Football Playoff national championship. As Khan points out, the playoff is likely to expand in the coming years and could open the door for more bidding opportunities for the games.
Really, “maybe renovations will let us land some more college football playoff games,” that’s the best you’ve got? That’s not going to throw a $153 million scare into anybody — oh look, here’s Jaguars president Mark Lamping, maybe he’ll bring a bigger threat stick:
“Without paying attention to the other things like the stadium, we could have woken up one day like the fans in St. Louis and San Diego and Oakland – and said, ‘Even though those teams are winning, and they go to the Super Bowl, now we’re gonna lose the team over a stadium issue.’ So, Shad was really pushing very hard to make sure we stayed ahead of that.
“We’re making progress. We still got a ways to go, but we have a path.”
Now we’re talking! Send money, or Jacksonville could end up a, um, warm St. Louis. That oughta hold the little bastards.
You know what would “fundamentally change the fan experience” for Jags fans?
Not losing 10+ games each and every year.
Moving to a better city would probably do it too. Just sayin’.
Fan experience = soak ’em for more $$$.
I’m guessing Khan gets the $$$?
Hang on. If my memory serves me right, that one time Jacksonville hosted the Super Bowl much of the media coverage focused on two things:
1. Jacksonville has crappy hotels and not enough of them.
2. Jacksonville smells really bad. No one is sure why, but it’s “worse that Secaucus”
I’ve never been to Jacksonville but thanks to it hosting the Super Bowl I know it apparently smells something like rotten eggs but less pleasant. Way to put yourself on the map.
To quote David Letterman: “What’s that Smell?” / Jacksonville.
I’ve never been there either, but when enough people who have all say the same thing… well… um.
I wonder what $150m could do to address that? Maybe nothing (depends what the cause is), but on the other hand, what is the point of spending the money on tourist attractions if the attractions still carry the burden of… the smell….
First of all, throwing shade at St. Louis, San Diego and Oakland is a cheap shot. Perhaps Khan was paid extra money by the NFL to do that, but still.
Secondly, Jacksonville is in a lose-lose situation at this point. The never-ending annual threat of “If you don’t support us, we’ll just move to London, England or wherever!” always hangs over the people living there. Even if the Jaguars find creative ways to stay, they keep pumping the city for cash like Class A bullies. So basically, Jacksonville never gets a break either way.
Third, Khan’s tactics further illustrate the lousy, insane, and corrupt landscape of professional sports ownership. Give them an inch, owners will take a mile, and then hold your city hostage.
There are several instances/locations where the host city would be better off by far to cut it’s losses and tell the team to move. Jacksonville and Glendale are just two of them.
And if you are going to have the team you host (generally at great public cost) move, you might as well tell them to get their finger out and go.
Jacksonville should respond by telling Khan that he will not be offered a lease extension at the end of the current term and that no public funding will be forthcoming for renovations.
They have simply got to have higher priority and better things to spend tax dollars on than Shahid Khan’s moribund NFL franchise.
Will they do that? Of course they won’t…
This is pure speculation bordering on psychoanalysis — but the main reason Jacksonville wants to hold onto the Jaguars (even at great cost) is because it would revert to being completely irrelevant on a nationwide scale, and probably even on a statewide scale, the moment the Jaguars skip town… and it would little else to fall back on in terms of selling points and self-identity. For one-horse towns like Jacksonville, losing its only team would be an exponentially bigger blow than never having a team at all.
Having gone there more a few times (though only once for an NFL game), I can’t imagine it’s any less attractive of a city than your typical fading rust belt metropolis — but I can also see why it gets a bad rap, especially among people who’ve never been there. It’s not just that it’s a southern city not named Atlanta, Nashville, or New Orleans; it’s also a Florida city not named Miami (or even Orlando or Tampa). Jacksonville is kinda like the Dwight Howard of American cities: its existence has seldom been anything more than a low-grade, surface-level annoyance, but people simply do not like that town.
Kinda agree – without the Jags, Jacksonville is the Fresno of Florida.
The cities that only have one “major” team are definitely more susceptible to this sort of thing than cities that already have two or three teams.
That’s a big reason why the Coyotes have struggled to find a willing city around Phoenix and why Houston isn’t such an easy option.
Maybe the Coyotes should move to Jacksonville.
If it helps, Kei, I also have low opinions of Atlanta, Nashville, Orlando and Tampa.
I’m sure the “it’s what we’ve got” thing is a major factor. But my point is “they” don’t really have it. The NFL never really wanted to be in Jacksonville (much like the NHL never wanted to be in Ottawa).
Khan is going to keep shaking down Jacksonville every few years until he (or a future owner) picks up and leaves.
A sports franchise owner is just like a bad girl/boyfriend. They are only with you because you are paying them, effectively, to do so.
Neil, if your Uncle Don reference is indicative of the age of your readers/subscribers, then I’m afraid your site has an impending short shelf life.
Krusty the Klown referenced the line, so that should give it a few more decades of life.
It was Gabbo, and then Kent Brockman.
Thank you — I clearly remembered it as Krusty, but clearly that’s Mandela Effect.
I was sure it was Krusty too… in fact, I remember it because Fox News broke in to the regular programming to cover the Bowling Green Massacre…
Was it really that long ago? Makes you think doesn’t it…
Will it host more AEW events?