Indulge a former resident in a few random musings.

Balkanization vs regional cooperation was one of the principal issues raised by the Pierce Report years ago. Nobody seems to have listened. We have fragmentation on the West side and lack cooperation between East and West. So we’re stuck with a land locked airport (should have moved it to Columbia Ill as was proposed in the 60s)and we may never see completion of the new bridge.

Remember the slogan from the 60s “Downtown St. Louis gives you more?” It’s a joke. Last I heard there’s not even a book store there. By the way, I hear Tony’s is looking to move out!

Those of us in Jacksonville are really ssssooooooo tired of the goofball rumors people are always spreading about us.

The Jaguars are not leaving Jacksonville, and, in fact have a 30 year lease until 2025.

The Jags owner Wayne Weaver stated just the other day that he will NEVER sell, and that the team would be sold only from his “cold dead hands.”

Weaver only owes $110 million on the team, and has recently tried to refinance the various loans into a single loan to save money. Other than that he is quite happy where he is here in Jacksonville.

As for our Stadium attendance: get your facts straight.

Jacksonville is the 13th largest city in population in the USA.

We have a brand new stadium, that seats over 75,000.

But, We built it “too large” for our area. Therefore we got special permission from the NFL to “cover” or “not count” 10,000 seats toward our blackout cap so as to make us “even” with the other cities with smaller stadiums.

It is true that we do blackout games on tv alot, but that is not really an accurate statement..

Each stadium has a pre-determined number of seats that have to be sold by 72 hours before game day in order to avoid a blackout.

That “number” is different for each stadium.

We believe our “number” is still too large, and most older stadiums “number” are too small. Therefore the numbers are skewed, and other teams should be having more blackouts than what they actually get.

The system is stacked against us.

We get blacked out quite often because we procrastinate alot, and buy the tickets at the last minute. Usually on game day.

Which is a real bummer, as more than half of the games that were blacked out over the last 2 years “would not have been blacked out if the NFL counted the actual number of people that showed up on game day.”

But the NFL doesn’t work that way, as they are contractualy required to give a 3 day blackout warning to the tv networks to make other arrangements.

So, in short. Blackouts are not really an issue.

Weaver isn’t selling the team, or moving it.

As for Los Angeles, they already lost 2 teams and don’t deserve to get one back, and probably will NEVER get another NFL team.

In fact, LA voters have turned down THREE referendums to increase taxes to build a new stadium there.

So LA won’t be getting a team.

As for you in St Louis, your problem is simply that your Team Owners aren’t interested in being owners. They want to sell, and get their inheritance.

So, the Rams WILL be sold, but I doubt that they will leave town.

The Vikings aren’t going to leave either.

The only team that might actually move is New Orleans. Simply because the city is dying, and will never be what it was.

Hope this helps…

The Rams should go back to L.A. There are 3 different groups of prospective buyers willing to put up 1 Billion dollars tied into a Stadium deal. If St. Louis doesn’t build a new stadium by 2015, the Rams are gone. Also, there have not been any prospective buyer groups in the St. Louis area come forward yet.

what “Alfie Crow” of “JagNation” has to say about who , if any, will move to LA:

Escape from LA - Part Two (http://ind.scout.com/a.z?s=113&p=2&c=769657)

“Finally, we move on to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Many of the reasons that most national media members claim Jacksonville is a prime candidate to move are because of their struggles to fill the stadium.

Well, most teams would struggle to fill a stadium that greatly outdoes its market.

Jacksonville Municipal Stadium at full capacity seats 73,000 originally and has been raised to seat 76,877 recently.

In 2005, owner Wayne Weave decided to tarp over 9,713 seats in order to avoid blackouts and make the stadium size more in synch with its market.

Jacksonville certainly erred when they originally built the stadium, however the city also had obligations to some college football games such as the Gator Bowl and the Florida vs. Georgia game.

Just looking at raw numbers, in 2007 the greater Jacksonville metropolitan area was listed with a population of 1,300,823 people.

This means that in order to fill the current stadium, which is only 14 years old, would require 1 in every 17 people in Jacksonville attend the game.

The city of Chicago, for example has a population of nearly three million people. The Bears play in Soldier Field which has a capacity of roughly 63,000. Judging by those statistics, only 1 out of every 47 people need to attend Bears games to fill that capacity.

The story that “broke” last week in the Philadelphia Daily News about the Jacksonville Jaguars being sold to C. Dean Metropoulos hinted at the team to Los Angeles sooner rather than later.

That would be rather difficult considering Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver has professed that his team is not for sale, and Los Angeles doesn’t have a stadium to suit an NFL team any time soon.

The team was supposedly being sold to C. Dean Metropoulos through the Galatioto Sports Partners. Doesn’t that name sound familiar? That’s probably because it is.

In June of 2007, the Florida Times-Union reported that “They (Jacksonville Jaguars) have hired a New York investment firm, Galatioto Sports Partners, to help them find new investors so they could reduce their $110 million debt.”

Some simple research could have been done to save the city of Jacksonville and owner Wayne Weaver frustration for a day, hearing another false report about their team being sold and moved to Los Angeles.

Wayne Weaver issued a statement the following day saying “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. Everybody wants me to speculate on the future. I’m not going to speculate on the future. At some point, maybe, I would sell the team, but not now. Whatever happens in the future, I can assure you of one thing: The Jacksonville Jaguars are going to be the Jacksonville Jaguars.”

When asked about the teams interesting in finding minority investors, Weaver had this to say—

“That’s always an option, but if I ever do that, it’ll be with someone who shares the same passion for winning football and to be part of the Jacksonville ownership,” Weaver said. “Until there’s a solution to the L.A. market, you’re going to have speculation. I can tell you the Jaguars aren’t one of the teams lining up to go to L.A.”

Unless Wayne Weaver is an outright liar, which he has proven himself not to be, the Jacksonville Jaguars will not be leaving Jacksonville anytime soon.

Maybe its wishful thinking for Jaguars fans to hope that these stories will cease for once and the city can go through a season without constant talk of possibly moving to Los Angeles.

Unfortunately, there will probably be another story about the Jaguars moving in the next couple of weeks, it is inevitable.

Jacksonville is the easy target. It’s a small market, it struggles to sell tickets at times, and it’s not anywhere on the national media radar.

As I’ve pointed out, there are teams in far worse situations than the Jacksonville Jaguars.

I don’t believe a single team in NFL history has moved without there being a stadium issue.

Jacksonville is not in that situation, and will not be in that situation for quite a few years.”