The Jaguars Should Move To L.A.

Arguably the greatest player in the short life of the franchise knows as the Jacksonville Jaguars, RB Fred Taylor said the team should move to L.A.. I have to agree with him. When Jacksonville was announced as the city to house a new NFL city in 1995, it was a pretty odd decision. Florida already had two franchises in its state: the Miami Dolphins and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. At this point, L.A. had just lost the Rams so the second biggest city and a huge sports market did not have a professional football team.

15 odd years later, the decision to create a football in Jacksonville, Florida is still a pretty dumb one. This year, the Jags are a good team are will probably earn a playoff birth. But, 7 of their 8 home games this season have been blacked out because of lack of attendance. The one time the Jags did sell out was last Thursday when the 13-0 Indianapolis Colts came to town. This is just ridiculous. I can understand why the Rams and Lions games have been blacked out, but there's no reason a good team with a winning record and is playoff bound should not sell out their home games.

Jacksonville has the third lowest attendance this year averaging 49,651 per game (Bears are 5th to last this year) ahead of Oakland and Detroit. Normally winning cures all woes, but when you have a season like the Jags are having with the attendance records like they are having, maybe it's time to rethink staying in your city. As an owner or a person in the front office, your main job is to bring in revenue and make money (the sad reality is that this is THE main goal of the higher ups). But a great way and one of the best ways to generate revenue is to put a product on the field that people want to see. The Jags have put a product on field that people should want to see, yet nobody is coming to see games and I'm sure the Jags front office isn't seeing mush profits- if at all. Fred Taylor said it perfectly:

Sometimes the truth hurts. ... It can be played either way in that the fans want the team to stay there, they have to show that they want the team to stay there.

Jacksonville has been a pretty good team throughout its short existance. Sure they've been inconsistent year to year, but they've never been Cleveland Browns bad (I mean after they've settled in as a franchise and drafted players) and they've always seem to bounce back after bad years. I would be proud to have a franchise like the Jaguars in my city. I'm not saying this just because of the wretched season the Bears are having, but I think Jacksonville is able to pick themselves up after wretched seasons, and the Bears can not.

Now I don't know how realistic it is just up and move an entire franchise (although I'm sure old school Baltimore football fans and Seattle basketball fans feel it's pretty damn easy), but I think it's something the NFL and Jaguars should really think hard and consider moving the team to L.A. I think L.A. fans would love to have a professional football team in their city and the Jaguars franchise would love to have people go see their games and make money. Plus, the franchise is guaranteed to get national attention just by being in a major city. It's clear from this year, that people in Jacksonville and Jaguar fans would not be upset if their team left.

(Although I meant for this to be a serious post, I'm fine detracting from the seriousness)