A career college coach who knows a thing or two about having a large stadium packed with fans of his own team is rooting for that same kind of thing in his new city.
Jaguars coach Urban Meyer, addressing season-ticket holders at practice, issued a challenge to Jacksonville fans.
“We’re gonna own this thing,” Meyer said. “When I say we I mean everybody. That’s our stadium. I’m done hearing about other fans coming in our stadium. That shit’s gotta stop. That’s our stadium, this is our city, and this is our team. Own it.”
Well, for starters, the Jags of recent years have had a hard time getting fans of either team into their stadium. Owner Shad Khan presumably would welcome consistent sellouts, regardless of the allegiances of the paying customers.
But, sure, the goal is to have a team that fills the stadium with tickets purchased by its fans -- and then not sold on the online secondary market (as facilitated by the league and its teams) to fans of other teams. It’s good to hear Meyer talking like that to folks in Jacksonville because, frankly, in 26 years of the team’s existence I can’t think of another head coach of the team who has.