Jaguars considering playing some games in Orlando

[The_Admiral]

I think it's near the end for poor old Jacksonville. On top of everything else, The Uncapped Year is gonna be the deathblow.

[STL FANATIC]

They've still got a big 'ol lease, though. If things are really as bad for them as they seem, there will probably be a way out--there always seems to be. Still, it's a pretty big hurdle to jump before we assume they're leaving.

[quantum]

I'd be surprised if the Jaguars didn't announce an intent to relocate this year.

[rvrdgsfn]

Despite that the owner of the team wants to find someone who doesn't want to move the Jags, I honestly think they are done & will probably move soon.

[The_Admiral]

They can break that lease, I'm sure. If the NFL says the Jaguars are gonna get up and go, Jacksonville is surely powerless.

[DustDevil61]

I don't think that the Jags are gone this year, but next year will be it for Jacksonville if something isn't done.

[Gothamite]

They've still got a big 'ol lease, though.

But this one, like the others, has an out clause. If the Jags really want out, they can do it.

[The_Admiral]

The Jaguars won't be playing here any longer. Goodbye.

That's how they'll handle it.

[STL FANATIC]

They've still got a big 'ol lease, though.

But this one, like the others, has an out clause. If the Jags really want out, they can do it.

That's true, but I think it's a "big 'ol" out clause too. Still everything everyone stands is true. If they want out, they'll get out. Teams always do, ultimately.

[Wasatch]

Well, according to ESPN and Field of Schemes, the stadium group in charge of building the City of Industry stadium has said that the Bills and Jaguars are most likely to come to Southern California soon. Thoughts? I still think that the Rams are in a good position to return, though there is a long ways to go, even now.

I had no idea the Bills were on the moving block!

[Gothamite]

They've still got a big 'ol lease, though.

But this one, like the others, has an out clause. If the Jags really want out, they can do it.

That's true, but I think it's a "big 'ol" out clause too.

Actually, it's a fairly low threshold. They just need to show that they lost money three years in a row. That's not very hard for them to arrange, should they want it. Especially with all those empty seats.

[DustDevil61]

Well, according to ESPN and Field of Schemes, the stadium group in charge of building the City of Industry stadium has said that the Bills and Jaguars are most likely to come to Southern California soon. Thoughts? I still think that the Rams are in a good position to return, though there is a long ways to go, even now.

I had no idea the Bills were on the moving block!

Yea, they are, as soon as current owner Ralph Wilson dies (he's at least 85, and not getting any younger), the team is slated to be sold to the highest bidder, and Roski (building the LA stadium) looks to buy a team and move it to Los Angeles.

However, the Rams are up for sale, though Chip Rosenbloom prefers to sell to a buyer that will keep the team in St. Louis. Dave Checketts (owner of the NHL's Blues and Real Salt Lake) is at the top of that list, but as far as I know, he's the only one. Chip has mentioned that he may be pinched into selling to an out-of-town buyer, or something to that effect. So I'm not counting anyone on the seven-team list (which I'll write later) out yet.

[Wasatch]

Well, according to ESPN and Field of Schemes, the stadium group in charge of building the City of Industry stadium has said that the Bills and Jaguars are most likely to come to Southern California soon. Thoughts? I still think that the Rams are in a good position to return, though there is a long ways to go, even now.

I had no idea the Bills were on the moving block!

Yea, they are, as soon as current owner Ralph Wilson dies (he's at least 85, and not getting any younger), the team is slated to be sold to the highest bidder, and Roski (building the LA stadium) looks to buy a team and move it to Los Angeles.

However, the Rams are up for sale, though Chip Rosenbloom prefers to sell to a buyer that will keep the team in St. Louis. Dave Checketts (owner of the NHL's Blues and Real Salt Lake) is at the top of that list, but as far as I know, he's the only one. Chip has mentioned that he may be pinched into selling to an out-of-town buyer, or something to that effect. So I'm not counting anyone on the seven-team list (which I'll write later) out yet.

What's Dave Checketts plan with the Rams if he's able to buy them?

[STL FANATIC]

Well, according to ESPN and Field of Schemes, the stadium group in charge of building the City of Industry stadium has said that the Bills and Jaguars are most likely to come to Southern California soon. Thoughts? I still think that the Rams are in a good position to return, though there is a long ways to go, even now.

I had no idea the Bills were on the moving block!

Yea, they are, as soon as current owner Ralph Wilson dies (he's at least 85, and not getting any younger), the team is slated to be sold to the highest bidder, and Roski (building the LA stadium) looks to buy a team and move it to Los Angeles.

However, the Rams are up for sale, though Chip Rosenbloom prefers to sell to a buyer that will keep the team in St. Louis. Dave Checketts (owner of the NHL's Blues and Real Salt Lake) is at the top of that list, but as far as I know, he's the only one. Chip has mentioned that he may be pinched into selling to an out-of-town buyer, or something to that effect. So I'm not counting anyone on the seven-team list (which I'll write later) out yet.

What's Dave Checketts plan with the Rams if he's able to buy them?

Actually, the latest rumors have the Rams announcing they are not (officially) for sale within a month or two. Nothing confirmed there yet, though, and a sale would still probably be likely at some point.

Dave Checketts would keep the team in St. Louis and work with local politicians and officials to work out a compromise with the stadium issue. It'd likely be a new lease on the current building and some sort of agreement to begin working on a new building in the not too distant future. But that's speculation on my part.

Checketts has established many relationships with officials in St. Louis in his fairly short time here (although, it's been longer than it seems, actually). The project, as all major projects in St. Louis do, has stalled again, but he's come very close to finally initiated renovations on the Kiel Opera House, the historic building attached to the current Scottrade Center that the Blues play in. It'll be a pretty huge deal if he's successful in that endeavor.

[Wasatch]

Well, according to ESPN and Field of Schemes, the stadium group in charge of building the City of Industry stadium has said that the Bills and Jaguars are most likely to come to Southern California soon. Thoughts? I still think that the Rams are in a good position to return, though there is a long ways to go, even now.

I had no idea the Bills were on the moving block!

Yea, they are, as soon as current owner Ralph Wilson dies (he's at least 85, and not getting any younger), the team is slated to be sold to the highest bidder, and Roski (building the LA stadium) looks to buy a team and move it to Los Angeles.

However, the Rams are up for sale, though Chip Rosenbloom prefers to sell to a buyer that will keep the team in St. Louis. Dave Checketts (owner of the NHL's Blues and Real Salt Lake) is at the top of that list, but as far as I know, he's the only one. Chip has mentioned that he may be pinched into selling to an out-of-town buyer, or something to that effect. So I'm not counting anyone on the seven-team list (which I'll write later) out yet.

What's Dave Checketts plan with the Rams if he's able to buy them?

Actually, the latest rumors have the Rams announcing they are not (officially) for sale within a month or two. Nothing confirmed there yet, though, and a sale would still probably be likely at some point.

Dave Checketts would keep the team in St. Louis and work with local politicians and officials to work out a compromise with the stadium issue. It'd likely be a new lease on the current building and some sort of agreement to begin working on a new building in the not too distant future. But that's speculation on my part.

Checketts has established many relationships with officials in St. Louis in his fairly short time here (although, it's been longer than it seems, actually). The project, as all major projects in St. Louis do, has stalled again, but he's come very close to finally initiated renovations on the Kiel Opera House, the historic building attached to the current Scottrade Center that the Blues play in. It'll be a pretty huge deal if he's successful in that endeavor.

St. Louis is one American City I don?t know much about, so tell me what the issues are with their current stadium. And how does Dave Checketts come up with so much money and investors to buy these teams?

[Brian in Boston]

In publicly stating that the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars are "at the top of" the list of teams that Ed Roski is targeting for relocation, Majestic Realty spokesperson John Semcken is touting the NFL party-line. The NFL doesn't want a potential partner that it is interested in doing business with publicly declaring that it is open season on any and all franchises facing stadium and/or fan-support difficulties. Sure, NFL leadership is more than willing to play communities against each other in a high-stakes game of stadium-financing one-up-manship; they just don't want to be seen publicly trumpeting the benefit to the league of playing such a game. So, Majestic Realty "limits" its talk of interest to a franchise whose current owner has already said he'll be putting the team up for sale on the open market in the wake of his fast-approaching earthly demise, as well as a franchise that is in the midst of a rather public inability to generate sufficient ticket sales in its current market.

Further, given that state politicians in California - including those who represent the Bay Area and San Diego County - approved a fast-tracking of the permitting process for Majestic Realty's stadium project in the City of Industry, Roski is choosing to wisely distance himself - for now - from any discussion of a possible relocation of the Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers or San Francisco 49ers. Why? Because a significant part of the rationale behind fast-tracking said project is to create a boon for the California economy. Frankly, an NFL franchise relocating into California from its current out-of-state locale would provide a bigger boost to the economy than simply reshuffling the locations of teams already playing in California, as a new business would be coming into the state.

All of this said, there is a much better chance of the Buffalo Bills relocating to Toronto than there is of the team moving to Southern California. Further, barring a Super Bowl win successfully inspiring San Diego County politicans and residents to help finance a new facility for the Chargers, the Bolts are on there way out of town.

Bottom line? Regardless of what Ed Roski publicly states, I'd still say that the Chargers are the front-runners - along with the Jaguars - to wind-up playing in Los Angeles.

[STL FANATIC]

St. Louis is one American City I don?t know much about, so tell me what the issues are with their current stadium. And how does Dave Checketts come up with so much money and investors to buy these teams?

I can't answer the question about Investors, I don't know. He's got some capital himself and he's got good connections I suppose. I have no idea if and how he can come up with enough (including one major) to land an NFL franchise, though.

The deal with the stadium though is that it was built in 1995, and was nice, but even then, it was built on blueprints that were a couple of years old from the original plans to try and bring in an expansion franchise. Since then, however, many, many stadiums in the NFL are either new or massively renovated.

The kicker is the sweetheart lease the city gave the Rams to get them to come. It states that the stadium must be in the top 25% of all stadiums. There's scheduled checkpoints, and they negotiate renovations to bring it into that, and the Rams haven't been HUGE sticklers on it, but at the end of the day, with all those new stadiums, top 25% is just impossible--unless they build a new one themselves.

I don't recall all the events leading up to it, but I believe the bottom line is that the Rams can opt out of their lease after the 2014 season if the conditions are not met. There's probably less than a 1% chance they will be met.

However, if an owner committed to keeping the team in St. Louis is found, you could easily see a re-negotiated lease and movement towards a new stadium, just not in such a short time span. That possibly grows exponentially if the Rams can turn around the actual football aspect of the team and get fans and the city excited again.

[Wasatch]

Call me crazy for even bringing this up, and yes I know the odds of this happening are incredibly low, but has there been even the smallest of rumors that Mr. Checketts is considering moving the Rams to Utah with it?s rich college football following? I know Utah isn?t looked at as NFL country to anyone, but Salt Lake City actually ranks higher in market size than Kansas City! So if you were to place a new stadium in between Salt Lake and Provo, there?s no doubt you could get the turn out for games, even on Sunday?s!

[STL FANATIC]

I haven't heard anything like that to this point. It's certainly not his public stance (which I realize means little in this business) in trying to win the bid.

I wouldn't be against a SLC team sometime, though. I just hope it's not my Rams.

[Wasatch]

I haven't heard anything like that to this point. It's certainly not his public stance (which I realize means little in this business) in trying to win the bid.

I wouldn't be against a SLC team sometime, though. I just hope it's not my Rams.

Yeah, I think Clay Bennett has changed how fans look at potential out-of-state buyers from here on out!