As the Jaguars try to recover from a season that featured home crowds in the lower reaches of 40,000, owner Wayne Weaver said at the annual meetings in Orlando that he is encouraged by the early sales for 2010, in the wake of last week’s initial deadline for season-ticket renewals.
“I think it came in really well,” Weaver said Monday, per Michael C. Wright of the Florida Times-Union. “Our renewal rate is going to be way up compared to the past. We’ve got a long way to go, but it’s moving well.”
As Wright explains it, Friday’s deadline applied to the eight-month payment plan, which includes eligibility for various prizes, like a trip to one of the team’s road games, where fans might be able to experience the thrill of a full NFL stadium. (Unless the game is in Tampa.)
The team’s official web site currently shows that 16,242 season tickets have been renewed, and that 29,418 tickets per game must be sold to avoid local blackouts. Last season, only one of ten home games met the minimum threshold for sales, permitting the contest to be televised locally.
I’ve been to Jacksonville Municipal Stadium for a couple of Gator Bowls, and it’s a first-rate facility. Jacksonville also is, in our view, a first-rate town. So we continue to be flummoxed by the failure of the locals to fill the place up. It’s NFL football, folks -- and with another year or two of 40,000 fans per game, it won’t be NFL football for much longer.