Report: Weaver trying to sell Jaguars

[StcChief]

LA seems logical, NFL has a big Hardon for that media market and potential ad $$$.....

but would go/or watch on TV there? on Sunday afternoon when the desert/beach/mtns etc are full of weekend warriors.

[Valiant]

Originally Posted by StcChief

LA seems logical, NFL has a big Hardon for that media market and potential ad $$$.....

but would go/or watch on TV there? on Sunday afternoon when the desert/beach/mtns etc are full of weekend warriors.

How many failures in the LA market will it take to convince them to quit wasting money there???

There is a reason why teams keep leaving there.. People have other stuff to do or root for other teams..

Hell if they are smart they put the team in Las Vegas, New York or Chicago.. Those areas could support the team..

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Valiant

How many failures in the LA market will it take to convince them to quit wasting money there???

There is a reason why teams keep leaving there.. People have other stuff to do or root for other teams..

Hell if they are smart they put the team in Las Vegas, New York or Chicago.. Those areas could support the team..

Way to read the thread

Are you saying that the LA area doesn't support the Dodgers, Angels, Kings, Ducks, Clippers, Lakers or USC & UCLA football?

Because if that's what you're implying, you're dead wrong.

And you're completely incorrect as to the reasons why the Rams & Raiders (who were only in LA briefly to begin with) left.

[Valiant]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Way to read the thread

Are you saying that the LA area doesn't support the Dodgers, Angels, Kings, Ducks, Clippers, Lakers or USC & UCLA football?

Because if that's what you're implying, you're dead wrong.

And you're completely incorrect as to the reasons why the Rams & Raiders (who were only in LA briefly to begin with) left.

Besides college football and the Lakers how much do the other teams sell out??? Even if by your definition the Raiders and Rams left on other terms, the sheer fact of having so many people going to the games should have kept them there??? And I also said that people go to other events already..

You are saying that you have the people to support it, but yet those teams could not get fans??? Then you say that LA has to have the perfect owner, stadium and winning team to get fans to come???

Which is it??? Does it take a perfect team/owner setup and 20 million people to sell out a stadium to get a team??

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Valiant

Besides college football and the Lakers how much do the other teams sell out??? Even if by your definition the Raiders and Rams left on other terms, the sheer fact of having so many people going to the games should have kept them there??? And I also said that people go to other events already..

I've already stated why the Raiders had issues (100k seating, poor neighborhood) but the Rams left because Frontiere wanted to leave. She didn't try to stay in Anaheim (she shouldn't have moved the team to begin with). The Dodgers and Angels consistently sell out. I'm an owner with a group of guys for Dodgers season tickets and I've yet to go to a game with the paid attendance of less than 45,000 per game. Most of the time, it's closer to 52-53k. Same goes of the Angels. The Clippers even have major fan support, now that they've been playing at the Staples Center. Same goes for the Kings and Ducks.

Originally Posted by Valiant

You are saying that you have the people to support it, but yet those teams could not get fans??? Then you say that LA has to have the perfect owner, stadium and winning team to get fans to come???

No one said that the Raiders and Rams didn't have fans. It was all about the money grabs for the owners. The Chiefs didn't have fan support throughout the 80's but they stayed in Kansas City. The Rams and Raiders had far more than 30,000 people attend their games (especially in the 80's for both teams, when the Rams were consistently in the NFC Championship Game and the Raiders won Super Bowls). Additionally, the NFL is far more popular than even a decade ago. The television rights contracts prove that.

[RP_McMurphy]

LA repeat after me......doesn't want a NFL team. The Raiders and Rams couldn't get out of town quick enough. If the Jaguars would move they move back out within 10 years. LA is not a good football town.

[StcChief]

Originally Posted by RP_McMurphy

LA repeat after me......doesn't want a NFL team. The Raiders and Rams couldn't get out of town quick enough. If the Jaguars would move they move back out within 10 years. LA is not a good football town.

SD and LA should just "share" the Chargers they practically do now.

Jags should have been expanded in STL. as The Stallions. that has a donkey kinda sound.....

now owner see's no love/money in JV. Throw out Rams and move 'em here.

[Chiefnj2]

I wouldn't blame him for selling the team, but Weaver is denying it:


In a brief but forceful interview with reporters from jaguars.com and “The Florida Times-Union” on Thursday, Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver delivered an emotional message to the team’s fans: “I’m not selling the team. The team is not moving to (Los Angeles),” Weaver said.

Weaver was reacting to a report in Wednesday’s “Philadelphia Daily News” that claimed Weaver was in the process of selling the Jaguars to New Jersey food king C. Dean Metropoulos. The report speculated that Metropoulos would move the team to Los Angeles.

What was the impetus to the story?

“I have no clue,” Weaver said, but he included the possibility that Metropoulos’ name may have surfaced as the result of the Jaguars’ intention a year-and-a-half ago to sell minority interest in the team for the purpose of paying down the team’s debt.

“I’m frustrated. People take things out of context,” Weaver said, his voice choked with emotion. “This team is not going to California. This team is the Jacksonville Jaguars. I don’t know how I can do anything more to reaffirm my commitment. I want our fans to get as excited as I am.

[bowener]

I dont understand the LA thing either. If anything they should wait a year or two to see what happens with the chargers situation. Arent they wanting a new stadium and that supposedly isnt going to happen? Just move them to LA, then they can keep their fan base where it is (at least in the same state).

Las Vegas was second in the expansion team voting to LA too, I think. I think that would be one hell of a place to have a football team. The stadium would be absolutely crazy. If Caesars Palace owned the stadium they could rebuild circus maximus and seat 150,000 people. But I imagine gambling and drugs may become an issue... or not, I have no idea. I just kind of want a team to go there so they could possibly play in a giant pyramid or palace or hell, maybe a spaceship or something. Fan base would be an odd mix too. You would have permanent residences and then you would have that weeks high rollers in the box seating because they were given comp. tickets for spending 100K in the casino nearby.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by bowener

I dont understand the LA thing either.

This has been detailed in the past on this forum but I'll briefly summarize:

1946: Cleveland Rams move to LA.
1980: After the death of her husband in 1979, Frontiere moves the Rams to Anaheim, even though they'd been successful in Los Angeles for over 35 years.
1994: Frontiere leaves Anaheim for St. Louis.

She was a money-grubbing whore. She didn't care about the fans, the sellouts, the players or team. The Rams leaving Los Angeles and Anaheim had nothing to do with the fans.

As far as the Raiders, Greasy Al is a bigger scumbag than Frontiere. The Raiders had huge fan support in LA and it's his fault that they didn't stay. He took $10 million dollars from the city of Irwindale as a deposit which he never returned. He's a scumbag but Raiders jerseys are seen everywhere in Los Angeles to this day.

Bottom line: There are several multi-billion dollar developers standing in line to build a billion dollar football stadium in Los Angeles. With the proper stadium location, it'll be sold-out forever. There's over 20 million people in the LA basin and the college teams (USC & UCLA) routintely sell out their stadiums.

Los Angeles just needs the right team, right owner and right stadium. If those things fall in line, it'll be extremely successful. And the television contract will be through the roof.

[ChiefsCountry]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

This has been detailed in the past on this forum but I'll briefly summarize:

1946: Cleveland Rams move to LA.
1980: After the death of her husband in 1979, Frontiere moves the Rams to Anaheim, even though they'd been successful in Los Angeles for over 35 years.
1994: Frontiere leaves Anaheim for St. Louis.

She was a money-grubbing whore. She didn't care about the fans, the sellouts, the players or team. The Rams leaving Los Angeles and Anaheim had nothing to do with the fans.

As far as the Raiders, Greasy Al is a bigger scumbag than Frontiere. The Raiders had huge fan support in LA and it's his fault that they didn't stay. He took $10 million dollars from the city of Irwindale as a deposit which he never returned. He's a scumbag but Raiders jerseys are seen everywhere in Los Angeles to this day.

Bottom line: There are several multi-billion dollar developers standing in line to build a billion dollar football stadium in Los Angeles. With the proper stadium location, it'll be sold-out forever. There's over 20 million people in the LA basin and the college teams (USC & UCLA) routintely sell out their stadiums.

Los Angeles just needs the right team, right owner and right stadium. If those things fall in line, it'll be extremely successful. And the television contract will be through the roof.

Thank you, LA will support a team just fine. The stadium is the only problem.

[Valiant]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

This has been detailed in the past on this forum but I'll briefly summarize:

1946: Cleveland Rams move to LA.
1980: After the death of her husband in 1979, Frontiere moves the Rams to Anaheim, even though they'd been successful in Los Angeles for over 35 years.
1994: Frontiere leaves Anaheim for St. Louis.

She was a money-grubbing whore. She didn't care about the fans, the sellouts, the players or team. The Rams leaving Los Angeles and Anaheim had nothing to do with the fans.

As far as the Raiders, Greasy Al is a bigger scumbag than Frontiere. The Raiders had huge fan support in LA and it's his fault that they didn't stay. He took $10 million dollars from the city of Irwindale as a deposit which he never returned. He's a scumbag but Raiders jerseys are seen everywhere in Los Angeles to this day.

Bottom line: There are several multi-billion dollar developers standing in line to build a billion dollar football stadium in Los Angeles. With the proper stadium location, it'll be sold-out forever. There's over 20 million people in the LA basin and the college teams (USC & UCLA) routintely sell out their stadiums.

Los Angeles just needs the right team, right owner and right stadium. If those things fall in line, it'll be extremely successful. And the television contract will be through the roof.

So you need the right team, right owner and right stadium for success?? I think that is anywhere if we are cherry picking.. Most of LA is transplants??? Most root for other teams??

If you get the team and they fail for 5-7 years how will the LA market treat it?? Wouldn't they just go do other things?? I mean hypothetically we look at having money crunch right now with oil/jobs/housing and then add to the fact that you have people spending money on USC/UCLA or driving to the other NFL teams in the state and how many of those will just be able to fork over extra money for season tickets for the Jags??

Las Vegas would seem like a better choice to me... Comping tickets from the Casino to sell the stadium out would ensure it not being blocked out.. And you still would get the California transplants every game that drive to LV anyway..

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Valiant

Las Vegas would seem like a better choice to me... Comping tickets from the Casino to sell the stadium out would ensure it not being blocked out.. And you still would get the California transplants every game that drive to LV anyway..

First off, the NFL doesn't want to be in Vegas. Either does any other major sports franchise (NFL, NBA, MLB or NHL). Wealthy athletes and Vegas nightlife is a recipe for disaster.

Originally Posted by Valiant

So you need the right team, right owner and right stadium for success?? I think that is anywhere if we are cherry picking.. Most of LA is transplants??? Most root for other teams??

Most of LA are not "transplants". Are you implying that 15 million out of the 20 million that live in this basin are from elsewhere? If that's what you think, you're very uninformed.

And the right team, right owner and right stadium? Absolutely. I think that goes for any city that's either moving a team or is a start up franchise. An owner like Bill Bidwell will not succeed in Los Angeles. Jerry Jones? Absolutely. Eddie DeBartolo? No question.

As far as the stadium, Los Angeles has its own issues with traffic to deal with. A five mile drive can take an hour. If the stadium isn't located in the perfect area, people won't attend. Would you drive 2 hours to watch the Chiefs every Sunday? I realize that many people do just that but that won't fly in Los Angeles. Los Angeles needs a state-of-the-art stadium that's convenient for fans. Again, that could be said for anywhere.

Originally Posted by Valiant

If you get the team and they fail for 5-7 years how will the LA market treat it?? Wouldn't they just go do other things?? I mean hypothetically we look at having money crunch right now with oil/jobs/housing and then add to the fact that you have people spending money on USC/UCLA or driving to the other NFL teams in the state and how many of those will just be able to fork over extra money for season tickets for the Jags??

In today's NFL, it would be very unlikely that a team would "fail" for 5-7 years, so that's a moot point. As far as money, the wealth in Los Angeles county alone is absolutely staggering. There are over 250,000 millionaires (that means people earning more than $1,000,000 per year, not net worth) and millions more who make in excess of 500k per year. The money is here. The studios are here and will most certainly (like they do with the Lakers, Kings and Dodgers) own plenty of luxury boxes and seats. There are also so many companies who are headquartered in Los Angeles that will own seats and boxes.

Filling a 65,000 seat stadium will not be the issue.

[Redrum_69]

they should move to vegas and change the name to "Las Vegas Gamblers"

[cardken]

Originally Posted by Redrum_69

they should move to vegas and change the name to "Las Vegas Gamblers"

The Las Vegas ACES, would never happen , Hell NFL would'nt even let the Vegas.com people advertise during the Super Bowl in fear of being linked with gambling. Biggest rouse in the NFL is that they are'nt in bed with Gambling, not nessesarly "fixing" but the built in marketing of it all. First of all at the very least the "home team" would have to removed from the "boards" in the Casinos, like the UNLV teams are'nt on the boards now. Do you think the Casinos would take even one game off their boards, you're crazy. I lived there I understand how it all works. The Mayor of Las Vegas has been trying for years to lure a team, any sports franchise there, to no avail. Hell, the Maloofs who own the Sacromento Kings have'nt even moved there, and they own the Palms Casino in Vegas, and in need of a stadium. Las Vegas is essentially Los Angeles East, huge Raiders base there, and just like L.A. everybody there is from somewhere else, like someone else said in this thread their loyalties lay somewhere else. Besides the weather is god awful, and the city has to interest in football outside of gambling, the Arena2 team left last year due to lack of interest. The middle schools there don't even have football programs, but plenty of Soccer, i'll let you figure out how that all plays out in the lack of interset in Football there, Football Americanos?