Could what some people have speculated for years about the Jacksonville Jaguars actually moving to London (GASP!) actually happen?
According to a report by talksport.com on Friday morning, it certainly can.
The report, by Brian T. Smith (Jaguars’ move to London gains more steam with $1 billion relocation threat by NFL team | talkSPORT), points out numerous ties that the franchise has to London, including the obvious (eye-roll), that owner Shad Khan is from there, and then that the team will play there twice this season, that team stars like quarterback Trevor Lawrence will be making public appearances there, and the like.
But he also notes this: Jaguars President Mark Lamping on Wednesday actually said, according to the Sports Business Journal, “Do you want to keep the NFL in Jacksonville?” (Jaguars’ Lamping: ‘Do you want to keep the NFL in Jacksonville?’)
In that SBJ story – which you can conveniently read above, thanks to Mr. Lucas’s insistence on us putting links in our own stories – the lede by Ben Fischer pointedly says that the team would leave the city of Jacksonville without public funding contributing to “stadium redevelopment.”
Apparently there is a $2 billion plan in place to renovate 1995-constructed EverBank Stadium – and taxpayers are on the hook for half that.
The SBJ report goes on to say that a poll by the University of North Florida revealed that only 6 percent of Jacksonville residents were in favor of the plan, but when those polled found out the Jaguars would leave without the funding, the number skyrocketed to 46 percent.
Lamping is a former Anheuser-Busch marketing executive, so you can bet he has his I’s dotted and his T’s crossed here. Is he throwing out empty threats?
Well, who knows?
But here’s another quote from the SBJ story.
“Look, if Jacksonville loses an NFL team, they’re never going to get another one,” he said. “And if the Jaguars have to relocate from Jacksonville, those of us that went down there would have failed. OK? And none of us want to face that.”
