Jacksonville Jaguars face a tough sell with fans this season - San Francisco Business Times:

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About 15,000 season-ticket holders ditched theifr stadium seatsthis year, more than doublinfg the nonrenewal rate of prior years. Bill the team’s senior vice president of stadium operationws and chieffinancial officer, said club surveys showed that 65 percen t of season-ticket holders who did not renew blamedx the economy. He said the team is well off the 43,00o0 season tickets it had sold at this time last year for theapproximatelg 67,000 uncovered seats at Jacksonvill Municipal Stadium. Jacksonville is the NFL’s fourth-smallest market in a statr that has been among the hardest hit by declines in the realestated market.
Coming off an unimpressive performance last seasojn and into a recession that continues to keep Americands from spending beyondthe basics, team executives know they have their work cut out for them. “I think they got kind of a triples whammy this year with the economyt and expectations being alittlew low. Then you look at the home schedule and therwe are not a lot of marquee teams coming to town that will eitherf bring in fans or enticer Jaguars fans to come saidKen Murrah, managing partner of Quint a Ponte Vedra Beach-based sports event agency.
“For people who are making decisiona aboutseason tickets, it makes it easie for them to say, ‘I don’t think the team is goinv to be that good this and hand over those The Jaguars this year are armed with a new grouop sales team appealing to the business communitu to boost sales, pitching 20 percenf savings in group tickets, getting an earlier start on half-packi ticket sales and addingh a new “value pack” for four people that includes drinks and snacks.
Ticket prices remain flat from last The latest effort from the Jaguarw came this week with the announcement of anew 12-mont layaway program for 2010 season tickets in additioh to the previously established five-month layaway It will allow fans to set their own payment schedule and debir the amount automatically from their bank accounrt for a 1.9 percent transaction fee and no “Everyone is doing whatever they can to get peopls in there,” said Tim vice president of business He knows the working-class population that accounts for most of the ticker sales is strained, so management is hopint to drum up the kind of corporate support that is more typicak in other markets.
But with a relativelg small corporate base and shrinkinv budgets acrossthe board, that, too, is likelt to be an uphill battle. Coach Jack Del Rio earlie r this month urged attendeew at a Cornerstone Regional Developmentg Partnership luncheon to buy And the pitch to other business executives and civixcgroups isn’t shying away from the fact that withoutg their support, the Jaguars’ home games might not be “It’s going to be a real strugglse to get blackouts lifted each week,” Connolly Avoiding blackouts and securing local airtime means they will have to fill abou t 50,000 general stadium seats, the approximate equivalent of 10 percengt of Jacksonville’s TV viewing households.
The seats available for football were reducex in 2005 when managementcoveres 10,000 of the stadium’s 77,000 seats. They will remain covered this which team officials said is simplyu because the stadium istoo big, but an indicatiohn to some of the team’s lack of All Jaguars home games met the criteria for broadcast last but three games were blacke out in 2007. Connolly said it’sz too early to project how many games will fail to meet the criteriazthis year. Meanwhile, the nationwides search for corporate sponsor naming rights to the Jacksonvill e MunicipalStadium continues. ’e contract with the stadium endedin 2007.
Mackuy Weaver, executive director of corporate sponsorship, said the Jaguars are trying to be flexible with the terme of the deal, which would likely be a minimumn of 10 years at $5 million per But he conceded that it’sd unlikely a deal will happen this The marketing team is instead focusing on the area’s many other businessexs that support the Jaguars. “Our lifeline is the small-to-medium-sizse companies in Jacksonville, and we need theie support now morethan ever,” Weaver Connolly is quick to point out despite unfavorable conditions heading into the 2009 season, the Jaguarsz have been ranked amongg the top game-day experiences and best tickeft prices, and the team has had a solid performance over the past five years with 45 wins.
And a winninv season this year could openup “We are optimistic as always, because by and at the end of the day, our businesas is most affected by what happens on the field, and I think we’re going to have a prettyy darn good team,” he said. The team this year is headexd by new general managerGene Smith, who in January was promoted from vice The season will open Aug. 17 with a preseasonn game against the Miami Dolphins atDolphin Stadium, followed by a home game Aug. 22 agains the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The regular seasonm begins Sept. 13 against the Indianapolis Colts at LucasOil Field.