(02-10-2020, 10:01 AM)Mikey Wrote:

(02-07-2020, 09:06 AM)Rico Wrote: Welp, after giving it some thought I'm going to retain my season tickets.  It's going to be a whole different experience.  My entire tailgating group has disbanded.  So I'm going to go to the games with my wife again.  She hadn't gone for the last ten years or so because she didn't like the long day with the tailgating.  It's kind of depressing...not the going with my wife part, but my group of 20+ year tailgaiters breaking up...but I'm going to go anyway.  It's going to be sad going into the stadium and seeing how empty it is from game to game...and it will be empty(er).  And I'm not even going to pretend "I'm doing my part".  I just like being at the games.  Let's see how I feel after a year of this type of game experience.  I'm not making any threats...I'm just not sure how fun the overall experience is going to be without the tailgating part.

Reluctant support is still support.

Empty stadia will do nothing to keep the team in town, nor will it ever be a convincing argument to be awarded another franchise ever again.

I hope you and your wife have a blast every Sunday and probably that one Thursday.

Agreed.  Rico's story isn't too unusual right now.  I know that every person I know who has stuck it out with the team after owning season tickets from the beginning or for at least 20+ years is trying to rationalize their renewals for the upcoming season.  They're doing it, but they're doing so begrudgingly.  We've all seen large tailgating groups evaporate in recent years to the point where they don't even tailgate any longer.  I know that's my situation.  I don't tailgate any longer.  I head to the stadium about 2 hours in advance of the games, get to my parking spot and I'm in the stadium about an hour before kickoff.  

I've got friends in my row who have been in my section almost as long as me, and at the last home game last year, as we were walking out at the end of the game, he and his wife both said they were not sure if they were going to renew this season.  In talking to other friends, one who has owned 8 tickets for 25 years, he's planning on continuing to support the team "until it's not here anymore."  This particular friend goes to at least one or two away games with his family every year.  This guy is an inaugural season ticket holder, and a passionate Jags fan, but when we talk now about the team, he's at the point where he's convinced the team is leaving the market regardless of what they do locally.  

If we're all looking at the situation objectively, it certainly feels like we're looking at the beginning of the end with the JACKSONVILLE Jaguars.  Maybe I'm wrong, and this whole Lot J/Shipyards development will be the saving grace for the team.  Color me skeptical.  I guess we'll see.  I certainly hope I'm wrong, as do my friends who have been supporting the team from the start.  We'll continue to show up for whatever number of home games we'll get, but all of this uncertainty certainly does suck some of the joy out of the experience, especially when you've got an owner and front office saying that priority #1 is building a winning product on the field, and we see the hot pile of steaming garbage they've tossed us over the past few years.

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