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Perspectives - John Delaney · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Jacksonville was long the bride's maid, never the bride, the
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: bold new city of the South, desperate to convert its
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: passion for the college game into the big leagues through
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: their lot in with the likes of the World Football
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: League in the nineteen seventies and the U s f
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: L in the nineteen eighties. However, despite league leading attendance
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: figures for the Express, Sharks and Bulls, the city's foothold
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: in professional football folded with those leagues. This is perspectives
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: the story of the Jaguars twenty five years, as told
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: by the people who built the franchise from the ground up.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: This is John Delaney, the man who would be mayor,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: grew up across the river in Arlington, and remember those
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: football flirtations plus failed bits to land the Houston Oilers
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: in Baltimore Colts in September of ninety Early in his
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: first term as Jacksonville's mayor, he understood why the city's leadership,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: both public and private, worked so hard to bring professional
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: football to jackson Bill. I do remember walking into that
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: very first game, and you had people pouring from all
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: over the place, from the north side and the south side,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: the beaches, Black white, and for the first time everybody
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: in Jackville was pulling for the same thing. And and
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: I said, you know, this is exactly what Mayor god
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Bold wanted. Was was kind of a unifying sort of
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: an event. And I think it's been that way for Jacksonville.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: I think it's been one of the best things that's
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: ever happened to the city. And Lenny found himself in
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: the middle of a serious effort to turn Jacksonville into
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: an NFL city, first as the city's General Council in
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: the early nineties and later as the chief of staff
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: to Mayor Ed Austin, who was the movement's champion. He
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: watched the process carefully and monitored the progress leading up
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: to the November announcements. You know, I didn't think we
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: had a prayer. Um. I didn't think we had a prayer.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: And you know, it was pretty clear that Charlotte was
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: going to get a team, and then it was really
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: is it gonna be Baltimore St. Louis and um, Memphis.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: I thought we should have ranked ahead of but they
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: had the FedEx money, um UM, which you know, gave
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: them a little bit of viability and UM. Then as
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: time went on, I went to the first selection up
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: in Chicago with with Mayor Austin and with Wayne Weaver
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: and the other owners and UM and I saw the
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: head of the Baltimore group, whose name was Boogie Wine
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Glass Um, and he had a ponytail as hair, kind
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: of balding, and I said, they're not picking him, and
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: so Baltimore was kind of out of the mix. St. Louis.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Then they had an ownership fight, you know, somebody controlled
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: the stadium, the other kind of the the application and
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: then it's just downed. Okay, it's us in Memphis, and
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: I thought I thought we were gonna beat Memphis. But
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: I didn't go for the second selection. You know, they
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: picked Charlotte and tabled it for a month primarily to
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: allow UM St. Louis to get their act together, which
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: they didn't weren't able to do. And I didn't go
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: the second time because I was expecting that we were
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: going to get bypassed. And I felt that that I
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: needed to be in town to help spend the media,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: to help help speak for him because the new Mayor,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Austin was going to be back up in Chicago with
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: the ownership group, and uh so I was that stunned.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: I mean, I was sitting here trying to figure out
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: what we're gonna tell the media and how we were
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: going to explain it. And um, um, the town had
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: grown so excited about the prospects, um that it was
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: going to be a major, major disappointment. And that had
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: followed the other flirtations that ownership owner ownership groups have
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: had on maybe moving a team to town. Um. So no,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't think we were gonna get it.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: I didn't think we were gonna get it. The process
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: was serious and well organized and run like a business
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: by incredibly successful men, but it was still a long shot, though.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: The arrival of Wayne Weaver gave them a chance. You
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: originally had two sort of groups that were quasi fighting
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: over it, and then they merged together and that was
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: led by Tom Pettway, and um, they had enough finances
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: to really make make it work under the way the
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: terms of the NFL's deal looked at that time, but
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: they really felt they needed somebody with a massive net worth. Um,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: and in walked Wayne Weaver, and of course his brother
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Ron was part of the ownership group, and um, you know, Wayne,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Wayne changed the name of the game um. He was
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: sort of a known commodity among um, the hundred millionaires
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: and billionaires that were in the NFL ownership group. He
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: had a lot of he had some credibility with him.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: And Chris just a decent guy, just a regular down
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: to earth guy, as was his brother. And that whole
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: ownership group. I remember sitting on the first Chicago visit
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: and I think every one of the owners were married
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: to like their high school girlfriends, um And you know,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: that's pretty rare anymore for people to be able to
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: stay married that long. And and there was an integrity
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: about what he what he brought to the equation. UM.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Some of what went on on that during this time
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: frame was Originally we thought a fifty million dollar renovation
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: to the old Gator Ball was going to be enough
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: to get us in the game to compete with the
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: other four cities for an NFL expansion franchise. But as
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: as the Jones Is kept getting more and more bills
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: and whistles on their facilities, it became clear that fifty
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: million wasn't gonna be enough. And then it was seventy million,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: and it was eighty three million, and it was nineties
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: something million and a hundred and ten hundred, four hundred
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: and twenty three, and so town was was hit. Was
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: sort of schizophrenic. They thought we were being ripped off
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: by the NFL, but they wanted the team. And UH
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: and Mayor Austin was sitting here trying to get a
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: deal that the city could afford, which was to pay
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: for the stadium um by the same token. UM trying
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: to keep us in the game with enough accouterments in
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: the stadium and the facility to allow us to be competitive.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: And you know, the deal kept falling apart. UM and
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: um UM I had recommended to Mayor Austin, who didn't
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: negotiate on behalf of the city. There was David Selden
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Paul Harden on the other side, and and it was
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: oil and water. They just kept jabbing each other and
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Snyde comments couldn't really get a deal pulled off. UM
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: and I remember going to going to Mary Austin. I
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: kind of had a little bit of a brainstorm, and
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: I said, you know, I think we've been looking at
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: this thing wrong. In reality, the hundred and thirty something
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: million dollar stadium was really largely being paid for by
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: ticket search charges and rent in effect, it was free
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: and uh um, other than the fifty million that the
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: city had already agreed to put into the stadium before
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: the NFL even came knocking. That was to help keep
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: the Flora Georgia game in town and and help with
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: the Gator ball game. And um and I remember calling
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: him up and I said, ed, um, what if forget
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: that we had this expansion thing. What if the commissioner,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Paul Taglabo called you up and said, Mayor, I see
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: that you're putting fifty million dollars into renovating that stadium. Um,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: I want to give you an NFL team and they
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: will generate enough money to do another eighty eight five
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: million dollars worth of improvements to that stadium. So you're
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: gonna get a hundred and thirty million dollars stadium and
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: an NFL team for free. I said, I think we
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: take that deal. The problem was the number head kept moving.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: But we shouldn't have been shocked by that number because
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: it was being paid for, in effect by the fans
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: that were going to the stadium. And um, and we
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: had a few kinks to work out, and it had
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: six kind of conditions. He wanted to try to iron
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: out Paul harden Um, who's a local lawyer and a
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: lobbyist and a very good friend of mine, and uh,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Paul and I got together and I said, look, I
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: think I can get Ed to agree to not go
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: on item five, but he's got to have items one
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: through three. Paul says, I think I can get Wayne
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: to agree with one through three, but he's gonna have
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: to have six. We kind of went back and forth
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: on that, and uh, Paul rented a conference room at
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: at the Pontevedrian and we met and kind of ironed
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: at a you know, some of the details of the
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: term sheet and it ended up jelling getting back together.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Tuesday November figured to be a day of significance for Jacksonville.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: No matter what the NFL decided, the day the team
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: was selected would clearly go down on one of the
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: biggest days in Jacksonville's history. And uh close to two
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: hundred years now. And um, I'll go back real quickly,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Brian that that I actually grew up in Cincinnati and
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: my dad got transferred to Jacksonville UM in nineteen seventy
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: two and he picked me up from school that day,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: which was unusual because he wasn't home normally that early,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: and he says, we're getting transferred to Jacksonville, And I go,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: which Jacksonville? Is it Alabama? Is it Florida? Is it
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: I think North Carolina or something like that, And UM,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: that shows you how far off the national radar Jacksonville
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: really was USA today. I always would do a cover
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: story on kind of ranking the odds before the selections,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: and and we would be fourth or fifth and virtually
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: every list, and only two teams were getting picked. So
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: you fast forward to um mayor god Bold in the
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: in the eighties saying, you know, this town has an
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: inferiority complex, one thing that I think will change it
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: as an NFL team. You had the flirtation with the
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Colts and some others through Mayssouri and and and mayor Austin.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Then the expansion opportunity, and as I said, um, they
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: had a selection day, Charlotte got it and they tabled it.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: And clearly that meant that they were waiting to try
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: to get it look like St. Louis, Um, if not Baltimore,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: but I don't think they league like the Baltimore ownership group. Um,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: it looked like we'd separated a little bit from Memphis,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: but they were still sort of in the game. Um
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: so I again, I stayed in town, kind of wanting
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: to spend the bad news when the selection was made,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: and I can't even remember who called me. Somebody gave
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: me a call. I think may have been Mike Weinstein,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: um or may have been Paul Harden that they had
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: overheard I think the commissioner speaking to somebody like out
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: in the hallway, and he said, we got it, We've
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: got it, And are you serious? He says, we've got it.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: He just kept saying it, We've got it, We've got it.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: And then of course you're waiting to make sure that
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: you haven't gotten a bad tip, you know, on a
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: on a horse or you know, something like that, and
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: and and ah, the emotion of it when it hit,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: and you almost heard a roar no matter what building
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: you were in, you could just sort of hear a
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: roar in the community. And you know, the news anchors
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: on the television stations they almost couldn't talk. It was
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: just so mind boggling, you know, what was going on.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: And the chamber of course through through together kind of
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: a quick party and and uh, quick press availability and
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Mayor Austin and Wayne Weaver and others came back into town. So, um,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: it still was one of those things. It's it's sort
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: of like, um, most lawyers will tell you that that
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: they wake up with a dream that they overslept the
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: bargs and there's something or that they'd actually failed the bar.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: I still get that dream, you know, thirty something years
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: later after taking the bar and that was sort of too.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: I'm waking up the next day. Was that real that
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: I dreamed that? Um? And it was just it was
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: a heck of a run. It was a heck of
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: a day. When the euphoria died down in the days
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: that followed, the realization set in at the to do
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: list was overwhelming, starting with building a place with a
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: new team to play well. Of course, it's it's large
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: for an NFL stadium, and we needed to be able
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: to get it where it could be adapted for the
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Florida Georgia game, which needed about eighty three thousand and
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: you know, it's kind of accepted now that that's as
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: many as thirty thousand seats too many for an NFL team. Um,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: but it is the quickest a stadium has been built
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: in the history of the world. I mean, nobody has
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: put a stadium of that size together and that kind
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: of a time frame. And um, I was so naive.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: I didn't think it was that big a deal at
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: the time until I saw what kind of a construction project.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: The grounds were here, the west upper stands, that was
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: all that was remaining. Everything else gone, and um, and
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: you know, they kept saying, we're gonna make it, We're
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: gonna make it. We may not have everything quite ironed out,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: maybe not every bathroom is working, and we're gonna have
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: to work the kinks out because we knew we were
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: going to have a packed house, you know, in that
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: first game or those first set of games, and um,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: but it's incredible accomplishment. And I frankly credit David Selden
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: and Wayne Weaver on that. One of the conditions that
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Mayor Austin had. He knew government couldn't build quickly and
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: on budget. Um, there's just too much red tape that
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: go get involved with government construction projects. So his deal
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: was that the Jaguars had to do it, and that
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: any overruns over the agreed upon price would be paid
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: for by the Jaguars. And that's probably the only way
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: it would have been done in time. And um, and
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: I don't even remember if we had contingency plans on
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: what was gonna happen if we weren't gonna make it.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: We must have. I don't remember him. Um at that
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: point in time, you know, we moved the gate ball
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: game had to move really for one year, but we
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: did it for two because each each school needed a
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: home game with Georgia and Florida. But we had to
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: be able to afford it. And UM, I had you know,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: I was a prosecutor for ten years. I was the
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: chief assistant state attorney here and so you're dealing with
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: criminal defense lawyers that you know, we're doing whatever they
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: can to get their their guy off, and it's usually
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: a guy, and so those could get acrimonious. And when
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: you're in a courtroom, you know, you're an arena and
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: you're objecting and shouting down the other and arguing. And
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: I we had had with Wayne and with David Selden.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know, f bombs, probably more from me
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: than from them, but just horrific arguments and um, massive disagreements, shouting, matches,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: pounding on the table and and I give Wayne this credit.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Outside of a sitting around a table, he never a
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: lot to get personal and it would take me a
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: few blanks to kind of say, Okay, you know that's right.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: I like this guy, and you know we can set
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: that aside and leave it in there. And and um, um,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: you know, and I think he made some mistakes and
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: I made some mistakes, and um, it was a big
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: jump for us to be able to finance it at
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: the time. And um, but again our frame of reference
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: really was wrong because the rents and the ticket search
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: charges are covering the nut and so the city has
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: been able to afford this and actually pretty easy. Um.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: You know, some feel that the team is expensive and
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: a lot of academics right that, you know, pro sports
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: are not good for towns. That's just baldered ash. I mean,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: it's just absolutely baldered ash. And in this case, we've
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: got some game day expenses for security. But we have
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: that for concerts. Uh, we have that for Gator Bawl,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: we have that for uh, you know, if there's a
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: big event at the beach in the spring, or the
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Air and Air and C Show when the Navy's flying
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: the jets overhead. So that's what you want is amenities
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: and activities in a town that appeal to people. Um.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: I mean it may be the symphony. A lot of
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: people aren't sympathy people, but that adds a dimension to
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: a town that's positive. And this Jaguars. The Jaguars have
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: more than paid their freight and and it's part of
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: a feel good element of this town. That's that's just
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: a great story. I think people take it for granted
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: how quickly that thing went up, and um, it's got
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: a little bit of an industrial look to it, but
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: there's not a bad sight line in the whole stadium.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's a great place to watch a football
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: all game and and uh and then with the new
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: ownership group, they're making it even better and better, you know,
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: I mean put in those swimming pools. I mean, who
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: would have thought that was kind of we were mocked
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: around the league, But those cameras are on them. Uh,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: you know in September and October when people are in
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: there splashing around and and uh, Mark Lamping has really
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: brought a lot of creativity on the marketing. That's helpful. Uh.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: You know, we're no longer really the league's smallest city
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: setting aside Green Bay. You know, we're bigger than New Orleans,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: now bigger than Buffalo. Were kind of working our way
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: up a little bit, but it's still a mid market team.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: It's still a very small city to be able to
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: keep and host an NFL team. It took nearly as
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: long to build a winning football team as it did
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: the stadium. They were four and twelve in the first
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: season and one eight of their first twenty seven games
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: by early November. It seemed more difficult to build with
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: people than concrete. A sudden series of fortunate events, though,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: turned the Jaguars into a winner late in the second season,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: which gave Jacksonville its first taste of football fortune. If
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: you want to be successful as a mayor, have an
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: NFL team, start your first year and win the second year.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: It's great on your poll numbers. And uh. Um. The
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: NFL learned some lessons from you know, really go back
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: to Tampa Bay. When Tampa you know, they were horrible forever. Um.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: You know, Spurrier was a quarterback down there. I think
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: they won a game one year. And so they realized
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: that they needed to make expansion teams more competitive, and
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: so they kind of loaded up on some of the
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: draft picks and some of the things to make make it,
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: you know, viable. And we were viable very quickly, and
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: in Charlotte or Carolina not that much longer afterwards. And um,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: so that season was unbelievable. And um, you know Denver, um,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: that was supposed to be Denver's year. You know, Denver
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: was supposed to go to the super Bowl. That was alway.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: Um and there's this little upstart, second year team and
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: they got thumped. And um. If you talk to people
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: from Denver that were there during that era, they're still shocked.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's a good thing they finally won a
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: super Bowl later because it was it was that was
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: the year they had all the cards put together. But
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: it it gave credibility to the team in the city.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: You know, we were the Wall Street Journal doing articles
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: USA today, you know newsweek as as I recall all
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, you know what what is this place?
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: You know, what is this town? And um um and
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: then you know, heads is you know, some decent years
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: to round out that part of the decade and um uh.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: And you know Tom Coughlin still is a sort of
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: a hero of mine. It wasn't just what he did,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: it was the way he did it. He just had
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: a lot of character integrity. There were there were players
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: that we could have gotten, some that played safe for
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: the Dallas Cowboys that would have just torn this city
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: apart with some of their personal antics. And uh, and
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: the team Underwayne and Undershot a sort of said, no,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: you know we we realized we've got a military town,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: a southern town, and and we've got to play with
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: character and that's as important as winning. And Uh, someone
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: who's been a mayor, I appreciate that the Jaguars were
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: a Cinderella of shorts arriving at the ball in style.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: But what was already apparent was that the life of
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: a small market team in the big NFL would never
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: be happily ever after. There would always be floors to
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: mop City Hall in the franchise worked hand in hand
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: to build the stadium and would have to stay on
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: the same page in the years ahead. How come other
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: cities don't do that? Well, you can do that in
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Dallas and New York and in in l A because
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: there's so much collateral revenue going in. You don't have
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: that in the small market towns and that's why governments
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: have to become partners on those constructions, on the construction
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: and bringing a team to town. Uh. Wayne Weaver in
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: the Jaguars really revolutionized the club seat area. Prior to that,
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Joe Robbie had done it with the Dolphins where he
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: ran the clubs kind of around the upper rim of
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: the stadium. And Wayne's saying, well, you're in the end
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: zone and you're paying a premium, let's put them all
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: between the thirty five yard line. And all of a sudden,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: it was like people slapt their forehead. Why didn't we
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: think of this before? Um, not long before there was
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: the realization that the Sweets Act sale where where there
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: could be the major money, where you'd get the major
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: corporate sponsors and headquarters. And um, it was a big stadium.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: It was selling out. The clubs were really going for
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: a premium. But I give you one little anecdote of
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: some of what happened. UM. A friend of mine, um
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: Baryln Houston. She's from the McGhee mac paper family in town,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: and her husband was a physician who had died some
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: years earlier. And she told me one time, she said,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: you know, the only good thing about being a widower,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: was no football. And she says, now where am I
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: on a Sunday, I'm sitting in a football standing watching
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: them watching a football game. And so, um, a lot
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: of people bought tickets early that couldn't really do it
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: beyond the first couple of years. I think usually think
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: there's a three or four year, five year sign up
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: on on some of those tickets. And so you still
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: had people, you know, in there in their forties and
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: older that were really more going to Gamesville and going
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: over to Tallahassee and you know, taking the whole day
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: to go to that game. So you had you had
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: a little windowing. And of course that coincides when you
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: get losing. Um, as Patton said, Americans level winner. And
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: and that's that's that's true of this town as well. UM.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: I still maintain that this town has done a phenomenal
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: job of supporting a team when it's had some hard
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: times on the field in terms of a win loss record.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: And and uh, um, I mean the saturation level, the
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: the TV ratings have always been very very high for Jacksonville,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: you know, both home and away. Um, when you think
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: of the percentage of the population that has to be
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: in the stadium on on a on a home game
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: on a Sunday, it's immense and um and forget take
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: out little kids and elderly people that uh, you know
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: maybe you can't move. Um. So I I think the
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: city has been great with it and um and you know,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: we've had two great owners. I mean that's that's a blessing.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Not every city gets at and um uh you know,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: people that are interested in the town and interested in
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: in that game day experience. And uh so there was
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: some resistance in the early years to improving the facility.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Now I think it's sort of expected. You know, you've
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: got virtually every other city has either a new or
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: all actually brand new stadium, and you do have to
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: do some keeping up with the Joneses and so shot
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: and Lamping Mark Lamping. I think I've done a phenomenal
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: job and being creative and making this more and more
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: attractive for people to come through and you know, adjusting
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: the seat size and those kinds of things to make
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: it work. And uh but it's always gonna take work
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: in a in a smaller, medium sized market and um,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: you know, I understand what it's like being being mayor
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: of the city that that you know, the cah A
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: is with those bigger cities that have longer, deeper history
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: or have old old money or old corporate old corporate money,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: and um you know, pick on Indianapolis for example, essentially
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: that's the only city in that state and the capitals
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: there as well. You know, we have three NFL teams
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: in this state, and um so a lot of these
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: other places. They're kind of the player. Um Carolina with Charlotte.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: That's kind of it really for two states when you
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: get down to it, and they can draw from the Greenville, Sparkinburg,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: Columbia market as well to go to a go to
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: in a NFL game there. So, so we're up against
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: a lot to make this work, not the least of
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: which is University of Florida and Florida State that are
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: just a couple of hours away. The Jaguars became a
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: success three in their first five season, going to the
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: playoffs four times twice making the a f C Championship Game.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: The partnership was clearly a winner. They put the band
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: back together in two thousand to try and win again
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: for North Florida, this time Super Bowl thirty nine. That
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: is an incredible story on the landing of the Super Bowl. UM.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: I did not really have an idea for how complicated
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: logistically that is. UM, whether it's the hotel rooms, the generators,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: the cable um, UM, the security UM. UM. You know
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: they don't want planes flying over a stadium. UM that
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: they've they've really got a protocol. It's a thick notebook
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: they hand you when you're applying. This is what you've
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: got to do to be able to get a Super Bowl.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: And that was really an act of will by Wayne Weaver.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: That's another thing where where the ownership group their people too,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: and relationships count there and the owners liked Wayne and
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: sort of another one of the revolutionary things along with
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: the way he rethought the club seats, UM was this
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: idea that you know, you need to move that Super
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Bowl around, you need to reward a team or a
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: city that has invested to upgrade the facilities. And it's
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: a way for the team to start to make a
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: little bit of money back to be able to help
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: put back into the facility. And UM, so its revolutionary.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: And I had no idea the amount of work that
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: that took. I mean I sat on that committee and UM,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: the Tom pet way and Peter Rummel chaired, and and
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: they hired the right people to come in to to
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: make it work. Um, I mean cruise ships. We didn't
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: have enough hotel rooms, so we bring in all these
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: cruise ships and uh, which worked out great. People loved him.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: It was kind of like having a party and and
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: uh um. You know, in a lot of the cities
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: other than the big, huge ones like say in Miami, Um,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: you know, people will stays hours away to be able
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: to come in to go to a Super Bowl, and
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: drive to three hours to be able to come in.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: And uh. I remember talking to the then mayor of Miami.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: He kind of shrugged his shoulders about a Super Bowl.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: He says, you know, it's kind of a pain in
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: the neck. And we've had so many of them. It
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: doesn't mother me if we don't get one this year. Um.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: That's a little different when you're a big, big city
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: or a big metro area like Miami, you know, l
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: a New York, et cetera. And um, um, so ill
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: we'll get another one eventually. And um, I always had
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: the worry that we didn't have enough time. The one
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: advantage I had as I left office in July of
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: two thousand three. So it was Mayor John Payton's issue.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: And and I often joke it's easier to get a
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: super Bowl and it is to put one on. And
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: so he actually had the harder job, although he was
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: of course mayor when the super Bowl was here and
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: and uh uh and was able to represent the city
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: well and all those you know, international and national interviews
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: that go on to kind of talk about the city.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: So it was a good showcase for us. There's a
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: few hiccups, there's no question that that happens. I went
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: to Sam Musa, the the city CEO under me and
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: under the current mayor. Um we went to the Atlanta
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Super Bowl um um to kind of get a little
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: feeling a vibe for it, the one that Emmett Smith
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: sort of just ripped it open to win. And and uh,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: there's no question in Atlanta is a natural fit with
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: the amount of open space that it has in the downtown.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: But Bay Street just turned into a big street party.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: You know, from the Main Street bridge all the way
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: down to the stadium. That's I don't know a mile
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: and a half or two miles mile and a half. Um.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: So we pulled it off the cruise ships were critical
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: to it. And uh, but you know, since then, we've
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: added the you know, the arena, the baseball park and um,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: which are usable to be able to kind of be
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: able to you know, nurse those those games along, bring
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: them along. Tiny Jacksonville, the market everyone wanted. His second
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: guest found a way to win again. It required vision, passion,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: and the special personal touches brought first by Wayne Villere's
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: Weaver and end Coon family. I grew up Cincinnati where
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: with the Cincinnati Reds, and I was there when the
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: Bengals came to the town. They actually had an NBA
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: team at the time. And um, of course I was
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: a kid. But um, they're kind of distant, you know.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: And some of these other cities, the owners really don't
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: live there, you know. Or and um shots here a lot.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: He may as well live here. And but he's kind
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: of a man of the world. Um. I don't know
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: if there's any owner in any sport, in any franchise
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: that worked as hard to be a part of this
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: community as wayned the Lord's Weaver. Um, you know, they're
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: worth a fortune that can live anywhere in the world
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: they want. Um, they fell in love with the town
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: and um um and you know, have given away tens
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: and tens of millions of dollars to try to make
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: the town even better. And they really don't want anything,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: you know. And and uh but it's beyond that to
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: the other ownership group, you know, Laurie Dubo and Tom
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Petway and and uh. Um you can kind of run
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: down the list that they are people that are here
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: in town. I think, what Wayne Way, they're nice people,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: you know, do you start with that? They're they're not
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: you know, aloof haughty, better than better than that, That's
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: just not who they are. And um and of course,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: when you've got to town this size, um to be
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: able to buy those suites and buy blocks of club tickets,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: you are integrating with the bankers and the realtors and
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: the manufacturers and the you know, the businesses that make
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: up the backbone of the town. And um and and
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Wayne was willing to go and talk to people. UM.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: I don't know if many owners do that, you know,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: maybe for one big sponsorship naming the stadium. But Wayne
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: was willing to talk to, you know, blocks of people
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: that were looking at buying a few club seats. And UM,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: I think as as you look too. He knew early
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: on a small market midsize city is going to be work,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: but he sure was willing to do it. And and
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: his wife too. I mean, they're very much partnership. They
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: were co owners. Um Um. You can't really mention Wayne
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: without mentioning Dolores and vice versa. It hasn't always been easy.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Life rarely is, but it's always been rewarding for Delaney
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: and the city of Jacksonville, who in twenty nineteen celebrate
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: twenty five seasons with the Jaguars, twenty five seasons in
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: the NFL. Well, you know, I think what we've got
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: to keep, and it's it's a great frame of reference,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: is how much it really has changed. You know, the
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: practice fields used to be on the south end of
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: the of the stadium where that Pepsi Plaza has been,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: and what now is the Daily's place, the Amphitheater. Uh,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: we've got an enclosed practice facility, which you really need
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: in the south because of the of rainstorms and and
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: the temperature is not not necessarily the issue. Um Um.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: How deeply seated the the the owners, the consecutive owners
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: have been in terms of supporting the community and and uh, um,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: I just like the integrity of the team. I mean,
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: you know, obviously, you know some players are going to
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: get into trouble, but but overall, the team has really
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: kind of put some values on what its role in
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: the community. And and uh, but yeah, it's it's hard
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: to imagine that old Tinker Toy Gator Bowl stadium. You know,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: it was metal. Um you know, you bang your feet
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: when you know if you were a bulldog or a
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: Gator for the Florida Georgia game or in the Gator
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: Ball game. And and to have the thing we've got
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: now with the amenities and the clubs, it's it's really
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: the arena next door. I said, it's like watching a
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: sporting event in the luxury home till it's a it's
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: a great way to go. Um. I thought doing the
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: big jumbo tron TVs were crazy. I was crazy. It's
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: they're spectacular. I mean, they're absolutely spectacular. And um uh
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: the Dailies placed the Amphitheater. It's a phenomenal place to
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: watch a concert in the show. It's just it's just,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: you know, additional amenities the Jaguars have helped bring to
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: this town and so many of the players stay in town.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: There here, they like this town, they like raising a
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: family here in town. And that's quite a compliment. Um.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: I think I think Jackson has been good for the NFL.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: And it's sure as vice versa as well. I've often
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: said l as l a with her without an NFL team,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: um Um, the same could frankly be said for New York.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: But um uh, this is a big part of our
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: identity and our psyche and and we need to do
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: our best to keep this town that this team in town.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: And uh, things change, you know, TV starting to starting
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: to have a little impact on attendance, whether it's college
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: or or in the NFL. And and just like anything,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: it's a competition. You gotta keep up to uh to
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: make that entertainment dollar work. And so um it's fun
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: for my kids and my grandkids to be a Jaguar.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: They're growing up as Jaguar's first and um, and it's
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: just becoming very it's it's become a very big part
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: of the town in the time of town psyche and
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: to be wearing the jerseys and the hats and the
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: colors and those kinds of things, and it makes it
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: a special part of this town and and uh, um,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: you know the near run to the super Bowl. You know,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: one or two whistles, bad whistles or lack of whistles
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: away a year before last we would have been in
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: the super Bowl. And um, and should have been in
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: the super Bowl. Um. And you know that's gonna happen
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: with his team, and it's gonna, it's gonna The city
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: is just gonna love it. It's gonna rise up and
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: enjoy it.