There are 2 reasons that fans will pay their scarce and hard earned money to go watch a professional sport:
1. Fans enjoy watching good teams winning games.
2. Fans enjoy rooting for good players that they know and like have fun.
I understand Vito Stellino is an established and intelligent beat writer. I know that Collin Cowherd is a top-5 radio voice (sports or otherwise). Etc. and etc. with innumerable sports heads. But by Joe, they are missing the point!
Did Tebow need to leave to spread his wings? Maybe.
Could Tebow have had an impact on the field for the Jags? Maybe.
Would more people have paid to see Tebow if even on the sidelines? Yes, unequivocally.
Here are 2 scenarios, a) sin Tebow, and b) con Tebow:
a.)
The draft goes as it did. Tebow is in Denver, Garrard isn’t looking over his shoulder, and Tyson Alualu is 30 million dollars richer.
Draft net: Tyson Alualu, D’Anthony Smith, Larry Hart, Austen Lane, Deji Karim, Scotty McGee
b.)
Jacksonville takes the deal that the Broncos gave the Iggles to land Brandon Graham. Give them #10, get back #24, #70 and #87. Parlay #70, #87 and the Jaguars’ own #74 and maybe take the deal that Minn gave to Detroit for #30. Get Tebow #24 and Alualu #30, pay neither top-10 money.
Draft net: Tim Tebow, Tyson Alualu, Larry Hart, Austen Lane, Deji Karim, Scotty McGee
The thing is, say we drafted 1 really disruptive DT in Alualu, and the others are all serviceable. Well what’s the Jaguars’ record then? 8-8? 9-7? Is that gonna sell 20,000 more tickets? Jax went 11-5 in 2007, how’d attendance spike after that? By my count, 1 team wins the Super Bowl per year, so there has to be something else that can help ticket sales if we’re not talking championship…
I won’t argue whether or not Tebow was a good football decision, because that is all speculation now. But you cannot debate his icon status–ESPECIALLY in northern Florida–and if Wayne Weaver really wanted to keep the Jaguars in Jacksonville, the right business decision was to draft the hometown hero and put butts in the seats. Some may think the Jags are now a team that will be winning for years to come because of marginally good defensive tackles… while that may be true, they won’t be doing that winning in Jacksonville. Because while some will turn their noses up and say, “fans should buy tickets not matter what if they want the team to stick around.” The fact is that the fans aren’t, but they were ready and waiting to jump all on board if Gene Smith had the courage to take the same arrows he’s getting now for drafting a 2nd round DT at pick 10, but for taking a guy that many actually projected in the first and would assuredly have spiked ticket sales. The point isn’t to tell fans when they should buy tickets, the point is to sell them on buying tickets with your product.
Oh well, I’m looking forward to having my favorite team closer to me here on the west coast, drop the Teal, add some Purple, and you got your Los Angeles Jags. And according to Andrew Perloff now, they’ll be doing it with Jake Locker under center.
*added note: just saw the report that Tebow is setting records for jersey sales… *sigh*
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