The Jacksonville Jaguars are tired of playing their home games in front of tens of thousands of empty seats, and they’ve enlisted the first player they ever drafted, offensive tackle Tony Boselli, to help them change their box-office fortunes.
Boselli, a member of the 1990s NFL All-Decade Team, said in a speech at the Rotary Club of Jacksonville that he thinks business and civic leaders in the community have a responsibility to help fill the stadium.
“Even if you don’t like football, if you’re in business in Jacksonville you need to support the Jaguars. It’s the duty of anyone who can afford season tickets to buy them,” Boselli said.
That doesn’t sound like a particularly successful sales pitch. Even if you don’t like football, it’s your duty to buy tickets? Is anyone persuaded by that?
People who don’t like football aren’t likely to start spending their hard-earned dollars on football tickets just because a football player urges them to. If the Jaguars want to fill their stadium, the best way to do it is to put a team on the field that gives the fans their money’s worth. As long as the Jaguars are a last-place team, few in Jacksonville will be moved by Boselli’s invocation of a “duty” to buy tickets.
Who cares, the Jaguars are a shit team, and Jacksonville is a crap city so they deserve shitty fans.
ridiculous. its your duty to donate to charity if you can afford to, not buy football tix.
If the Jaguars want to sell tickets, move to LA. Too many teams in a small area in Florida
As long as they’re a last place team? Seriously? 3 seasons ago they were in the playoffs and beat Pittsburgh in Pittsburg twice. They went down to the final minutes against the Colts twice in what everybody knew was a rebuilding year. They’re also working hard to improve every facet of the team, hello they just spent a truckload of money to bring in Aaron Kampman.
Boselli’s pitch was to the Rotary Club business and civic leaders which you should know since you put it in the damned article, MDS. The Jaguars do a lot for the community of Jacksonville and have had an economic impact. Do you realize that until the NFL came, pretty much nobody in the country knew Jacksonville existed. Five years ago they hosted a Super Bowl!
Boselli does not believe and has never indicated that it is the responsibility of all of the citizens of the city to buy tickets. If you cared enough to do any actual work on the matter you’d know that. If you don’t care about the team, then don’t buy tickets is still his general principle.
But if you consider yourself a leader in the community, then you ought to recognize the value they provide and your duty to do what is best for the community.
Is the AOL brain drain sucking out all of your intelligence or what these days?
“…and if you can’t buy tickets, you can donate a tarp to cover some more of the unsold seats we have. That’s your duty too.”
The Jags aren’t a last place team often, 2008 was a fluke with all the injuries, and last year was a rebuilding year.
The kids born under the Jaguars are finally growing up, and as the economy recovers and they get jobs and finish college the team will sell out consistently.
“If you’re in business in Jacksonville” is the key to that statement. It’s not rocket science that a football team is part of the web that is a city’s economy. But I guess MDS is a long way from being confused with a rocket scientist.
ar1888, I suggest to you an examination of the history of the the Los Angeles Raiders and the Anaheim Rams.
In a way I see Boselli’s point. The businesses in and around Jax probably benifit from having the team in town. $1200 (or whatever) dollars for season tickets to pass around to your employees doesn’t seem like a steep price to keep the team around. I would think it’s in the best interest of everyone.
What an idiot. Sounds real heartfelt.
It’s supply and demand. If they have tens of thousands of seats sitting empty every week, they need to lower the prices for those seats. They need to understand that they are in the entertainment business, and they are competing against movie theaters and other entertainment options in the area. Even if they have to lower the price on their upper level seating to $10 to sell them all, it would be better than having those seats empty.
What a Moron! He sounds like nobama, pelosi and reid trying to sell obamacare!
what a dumb article. the point is dumb dumb that they don`t sell out even when there a good team. as far as i recall the jags have always been a solid team on the field. do you follow pro football mr writer guy?
Deymond, LA Raiders and LA Rams left LA because of stadium issues. Not lack of fan support.
@Persona..
A shit team? In the last decade that “so-called” shit team had more wins the two-thirds of the other teams in the league.
And just where do you live, asswipe?
Maybe Boselli could pony up all those millions he raped from Houston (never playing a game), and the stadium would sell out. Then he could sit by himself in his own section.
It really is shocking they can’t sell that place out when they have lowered the price per ticket to $9.
You can’t get near any other NFL stadium for less than ten dollars, let alone get in and see a game!
Bosselli is a horrible communicator but his heart is in the right place. and so is his logic. I recently gave a 7 minute speech to my co-workers asking them to step up to the plate as employed residents of Jacksonville and bridge the gap from now until the economy turns around in order to keep the Jags in town. My points were the affordability, fun and impact off the field the Jags have in our community. The Jags offer tickets in 7 sections of their stadium that are available for less than the NFL average of $85 a ticket. A really good home schedule that includes the Redskins, Eagles, Browns, Raiders, and Broncos and of course their divisonal opponents. The impact the Jags have on local businesses and chairities as well as our city’s growth is infinite.
@Seeryer And it really took you 7 minutes to say that? Did they get a raise if they didn’t fall asleep?
@ BradyGazelle : Are you really that stupid that you believe there are $9 tickets? They lowered tickets by $9 in some sections.
The Jags are way ahead of ticket sales. There wont be any black outs, and alot of this is due to Tony B. and his group. Dont worry about us. We are just fine.
I think they should just move there home games to a local high school football field so they would have a better chance of not having a blackout. JAGS SUCK!
Bh103, I live in SoCal and yes the raiders and rams left due to lack of support. You can google this information, then why have teams like the 49ers and packers have not left they have very old stadia? L.A. is NFL ready too many other things to do!
umm, the tax payers of Jacksonville already paid $60M in construction plus god knows how much in maintenance and other costs so the Jaguars ownership and guys like Boselli can make their millions of dollars but yeah it’s on the local businesses to pick up the tab when it doesn’t work out.
@Persona
Crap city? Yeah, everybody I have ever talked to hates beautiful weather and world class golf courses, and not paying state taxes.
You would be so lucky to live in a place like Jacksonville.
@TexansMike,
Wow, hold a grudge much? LMAO
@titan87,
Don’t be mad cause in free agency your team made about as big a splash as an Ethiopian jumping in a swimming pool feet first.
Have fun paying VY that roster bonus and creeping into the cellar of the AFC South for a very very long time.
This is a misleading story. I work for a local station in Jacksonville (a great city by the way Persona), and the pitch has been to try and regain the support the Jags had when they first came into the league.
Tony is leading the charge to get more people involved in buying season tickets, and its working. They have had far greater sales this year then they had last season. The numbers after January were easily seen as a success. Over 2000 season tickets sold (compared to under 20 the year before). That’s without renewals. Do a little research Mike.
“Team Teal” is an organization made up of people who want to see the Jaguars stay in Jacksonville. I, for one, hope they succeed to shut up the morons in the national media who just want to see a team in douchebag filled LA. Those pansy asses on the west coast couldn’t give a rat’s ass about professional football. They lost 2, yes 2, franchises in the 90s.
Yeah, the Vikings are moving to LA before this team.
joedirt217 and robigd and midwest – Persona hit thenail on the head – Jacksonville IS a shit town that didn’t deserve an NFL franchise to begin with. They have never consistently supported the team by filling all of those seats whether the team was good or bad, new or old – they relied on the “tarp factor” to fill seats instead of the “fan facotr”..
This is the one (and only) team in the league that stands out head and shoulders above the rest as the most logical choice to be moved to LA.
They were also hosts of the “worst” Super Bowl in history. Were it not for “The Super Bowl” bringing in fans from all over, J-ville would not have been able to sell out that game either.
That franchise desparately needs to move west (or any place else) in order to be successful. Getting a new head coach that is known for more than wearing suits in the Florida sun and a GM that has more of a clue than signing all of those idiots the last few years would help too. Being an effective judge of talent would help as well (head coach or GM) – regardless – that still won’t bring out the J-ville fans. They are not an NFL town even tho its the only pro team in town.
robigd – “Yeah, everybody I have ever talked to hates beautiful weather and world class golf courses, and not paying state taxes.”
LMAO – You are describing Tampa not J-ville – no one living in J-ville is “lucky to live in a place like Jacksonville” – J-ville is a “Shit City” or “Crap Town” – same/same.
I’d resent that sales pitch if I were a Jacksonville business owner. That city has sunk enough money into the Jaguars via that $121 million dollar renovation of the stadium. Football teams aren’t public utilities, and studies have shown that the economic impact of an NFL team on a city is negligible. It just makes you feel like a big boy city.
Wow great reporting Michael David Smith or shall we call you Mr. Jump on the Jax bandwagon cause we have nothing else to report except the same sh*t we wrote 7 months ago. What’s funny is next season when the Jags have no blackouts just like we haven’t up until last season all you same FOLLOWERS and Florio lovers will be on to the next subject. If it wasn’t for Florio reporting the same reports week after week after none of you would have even know Jax had blackouted games. All of you were writing the same things a few years ago when the Saint’s were 1-15 remember San Antionio Saints, Saint’s suck, Saint’s got 15 fans in the stands. Now all of you are on the Saint’s cheerleading squad. Redemption will be sweet on you lame a** marks. YAY-E-YAY!!
@Pier55
What are you talking about, you dumbass?
Even with the tarps, the stadium in Jacksonville is bigger than 2/3rds of the other NFL stadiums.
Get your head out of your ass, moron!
Go back and look at the attendance, prior to last year when the economy took a dump. They were middle of the pack.
Know what you are talking about dickhead!
@ Thingamajig,
We have a club called Toastmasters that many employees are members of. The object of the speech was to move people to act. I wish you could have been there. It was a good speech. But when you ask people to come off their wallet it is hard to get much reaction.