Orlando Jaguars? Take a Deep Breath, O-Town

(Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

Wayne Weaver has sparked speculation about the Jaguars possibly playing some regular season games in the shadow of Wally World by mentioning Orlando being a target market for the Jaguars to grow their fan base in an interview with a local newspaper. In turn, one columnist chided city leaders in Orlando to take this as an opportunity to lure the NFL to relocate a team to the town permanently.

Settle down! The Jaguars are not pulling up stakes to move down I-4 to central Florida.

The Jaguars are repeatedly mentioned as one of the most likely relocation candidates in the mainstream media.

When the owner of the franchise muses with a reporter about the possibility of trying to lure new fans in the Orlando market, he chose his words very carefully.

He spoke about the league expanding the regular season from the current format, adding two games to the regular season and shortening the preseason. He framed his comments within the parameters of this change happening.
 
From my perspective, it sounded like Wayne was trying to generate some buzz in Orlando, a market even he agrees has been practically ignored in the Jaguars efforts to bolster their ticket and merchandise sales.

It is indeed imperative for the Jaguars to find ways to make inroads into secondary markets like Orlando. They provide the team with an expanded pool of potential fans, nearly tripling the target audience from the 1.3 million residents of the Jacksonville metropolitan area to almost 4 million.

As I mentioned last week, by reaching into the Orlando market along with going north into Charleston, SC, and west to Tallahassee, the Jaguars should be able to generate the necessary buzz to draw in new fans interested in attending games in Jacksonville.

Expanding the marketing efforts to turn the team into more of a regional draw will reduce the burden currently carried by the Jacksonville faithful residing within earshot of Duval County.

Weaver is sending a clear message to Orlando football fans that he wants them on his bandwagon. If his comments create a little interest from potential fans in the Orlando area, they served their purpose.

But, let's put this notion that Orlando is getting an NFL franchise to rest once and for all.

They are not going to get a team.

First, The Citrus Bowl is a dump, and the city has no intentions of building a new facility to accomodate any professional franchise.

There have been plans in place to renovate the existing facility, but the money to pay for these renovations was expected to be derived from taxes imposed on tourists in the form of a bed tax.  Earlier this year, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer put any talk of renovating the stadium on hold because tax revenues had taken such a serious hit with the downturn in the economy that it could be another five years before anything can be done to pursue updates.

The current Citrus Bowl might be a quaint place to host World Cup soccer, college bowl games, or the occasional outdoor concert, but it is not nearly adequate to handle the demands of an NFL franchise. Based upon current plans to renovate the stadium, even after the facility is upgraded, it will not have enough luxury suite capacity to entice an NFL team to call the stadium home.

Second, Tampa Bay is not going to allow any team to be dropped less than 80 miles away from their home market.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?