Quote:Where do you get this garbage?


Jacksonville had 900k when it got the team. It has 1.5 million now, having surpassed New Orleans and Buffalo. Would you suggest that New Orleans and Buffalo don't deserve teams?


Fan support for this franchise has been outstanding since Shad bought the team. Consider that prior to this year, the Jags started 0-7 for three--count 'em three--years in a row. That means that by mid October, while fans of most teams are thinking playoffs, Jags fans are thinking about the draft. And yet fans - 60k or more -consistently show up.

Whoa, nelly! Easy! Down boy! Jeesh, I'm on your side.

 

I don't know if you were around in the early to mid '90s, but back then, John Delaney & co. were talking up Jacksonville as "the next Atlanta". The insurance market was nuts, which was great for insurance-heavy Jacksonville, and the city was growing at a very nice clip. That growth did not sustain itself, and although yeah, fan support for the team is great now, those tarps still appear on TV, and it's still apparent on TV that the stands are less than full shortly after the third quarter kicks off. Also, the city has been a running punchline in stand-up comedy for 20 years now. Combine that with everything else I said above, and you'll see why the national media--not me--finds it so easy and fun to pile on Jacksonville.

 

Also, Buffalo has nearly lost their team on a few occasions, and New Orleans was considerably bigger than Jacksonville until this mean old lady called Katrina rolled through. By the way, New Orleans nearly lost their team after that.

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