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Jaguars to L.A.: Hail Mary?
With stadium plans in motion, Los Angeles is wide open for a team. Could the Jacksonville Jaguars make the play?
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Steve Chiotakis: National Football League owners today will vote on the sale of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Businessman Shahid Khan is all but certain to get that team for around $760 million.
Now as Marketplace's Jennifer Collins reports, there may have been some unspoken influence on the deal from clear across the country.
Jennifer Collins: That influence came from Los Angeles. The city gave the go-ahead for developer AEG to create plans for a new stadium. Now it's looking for a football team to play in it.
Rodney Paul is a sports finance professor at Syracuse University.
Rodney Paul: Given that L.A. is out there, a huge market, huge potential source of profits and revenues, that constantly stays in the mind of potential buyers to these teams.
L.A. has been without a pro football team for more than 15 years. The Vikings, the Chargers, the Raiders and the Rams have all been in talks with AEG's reps. And L.A. has a lot to offer to whichever team lands here.
Brad Humphreys teaches economics at the University of Alberta in Canada.
Brad Humphreys: This is the first time that there's been a credible privately financed stadium deal in place. And that's going to clearly be a big incentive to the league to fill that market.
Humphreys says the NFL will have the final say on the team that moves to L.A. And he says the Jaguars -- which can't fill its stadium -- is a good candidate. Rodney Paul says buyer Shahid Khan's investment could double in value if the team moves to L.A.
Paul: It's silly to think that would not be in the back of his mind.
Fans are thinking about it too. The Florida Times-Union posted this video on its website from a recent game in Jacksonville.
Fan: We're happy he's here, but don't take our team away.
Khan has said he has no plans to move the team -- he'd have to pay a hefty fee to break the team's lease in Jacksonville.
Fans: Go Jaguars.
But a shiny new billion-dollar stadium in one of the biggest markets in the country could be pretty tempting.
In Los Angeles, I'm Jennifer Collins for Marketplace.
Let's throw something against the wall and see if it sticks!!! Sorry not this time. Being the non reporter that I am and being a huge Jags fan, I have been worried about this for a while and have kept my eye on the happenings in LA about the new stadium deal. Sept 9, 2011 on ESPN LA in an article posted at 6:14 it was stated "AEG's agreement with the city states construction on the project cannot begin until an NFL team has signed a long-term lease to play in Los Angeles. AEG is hoping to begin construction on the project in June 2012 with Farmers Field opening in September 2016, but is prepared to push that schedule back one year if needed." On top of that in the same article the President of AEG was quoted as saying ""If we can get through the EIR and we think we will be by May and if we can have certainty that if there are challenges that they will be dealt with in a reasonable period of time, I believe somewhere between the end of the Super Bowl in 2012 to the end of the Super Bowl in 2013 we are going to be able to prove to the NFL and to a team that we are now ready to go," Leiweke said. "We have cleared all the legal challenges, the environmental challenges, the financing challenges and we have a definitive agreement with the city of Los Angeles. That means we can play football at Farmers Field hopefully no later than 2016, but we are prepared to go to 2017 if we have to." All of this in one article but yet once again someone speculating and trying to stir the pot. Please do us, the City of Jacksonville a favor, do some better research and realize that the Jaguars are not going anywhere for the near future.
One more thing.. AEG offered to buy the Jags for more than Khan offered.. Weaver turned them down cold !! There is a reason he went with Khan.. I would like to see a retraction of this article and marketplace to apologize to the city of Jacksonville for claming -- it can't fill its stadium -- when we havent had a blackout all season but other teams that ARE in the running for LA (Namely Oakland and San Diego) have had blackouts. It makes it sound like Jacksonville doesnt support its team.. which couldn't be further from the truth.
Your going to base this whole article on "Brad Humphreys teaches economics at the University of Alberta in Canada" really..? Did you just have a economics professor on speed dial that you could call to back up your "report". Aren't you a journalist..? Doesnt that include research..? YOu should NOT report on what you do not know.. its embarrasing to you, Marketplace, and everyone involved in letting this "report" even air.
Remove this report.. apparently NO effort at real journalism was attempted prior to posting this story.
Try this for real journalism in regards to the NFL in LA:
http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/nfl/post/_/id/702/nflla-four-corner
or maybe this
http://www.bigcatcountry.com/2011/12/2/2606239/open-letter-to-peter-king...
or this
http://www.bigcatcountry.com/2011/12/1/2602881/week-12-nfl-attendance-up...
I am REALLY dissappointed in Marketplace for doing such an inept job at reporting ( if you can call this hack report reporting or journalism)
Jags are not going any where. Not until after 2030 when their current lease expires. By then hopefully the NFL seed will be firmly planted in this city.
For the Jaguars (regardless of ownership) to break that lease requires:
1. The NFL to change its written policy for a team to break a stadium lease to move to a new city.
2. The Jags would have to open their books and prove to the city that they lost money for three straight years. (good luck with that, the NFLPA would have a field day knowing what an org makes/loses)
3. Current TV revenue sharing agreements make it nearly impossible for any team to show lost profits.
4. Pay back the City of Jacksonville the remainder of the lease agreement (around 50 million) in one lump check immediately upon termination of the lease.
5. Reimburse the city for lost parking revenue, ticket surcharges, and other things. This could total 200 million as well.
Wayne Weaver wrote that lease with the city in order to keep the Jaguars there. It was his idea to include the clauses for breaking the lease.
They can only get out of the money if they have a local judge say that the stadium has poor maintenance. (not likely, it just had a 33 million dollar update to get the SuperBowl a few years back)
AEG ( the current LA stadium group) are more interested in the Chargers, Raiders , and Vikings. These teams current lease agreements are all up for renewal. AEG also wants sole ownership
So Jennifer please do your research Thank you
