Ty Petway was in high school when the Jacksonville Jaguars was his father’s dream.
He was 17 or 18 when Houston Oilers owner Bud Adams paid a call in 1987 on Petway’s dad, Tom Petway, at the house. Adams had threatened to move the Oilers to Jacksonville if improvements weren’t made to the Astrodome.
Adams stayed put at the time, but Tom Petway and his partners didn’t.
They created Touchdown Jacksonville in 1989, brought on majority owners Wayne and Delores Barr Weaver in 1991, and in late 1993, celebrated as the NFL awarded Jacksonville a franchise.
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Ty Petway, now 44, grew up during the courtship of the Jaguars and its own teenage years before it was sold in 2012 to Illinois businessman Shad Khan.
On Tuesday, Petway spoke briefly at the “State of the Franchise” presentation to solidify a reconnection with the team that played such a strong role in his formative years.
He confirmed his company’s four-year sponsorship of what will be the US Assure Clubs at EverBank Field starting this fall and the continuation of its support of hospitality events at the Jaguars’ once-a-season games in London.
“I had some good training to see a deal come to life. I was very, very lucky. Nobody really gets to see what kind of hard work goes into it,” Petway said Tuesday afternoon.
“To be a part of it was definitely a lifetime experience.”
‘A party ensued’
Ty Petway is Thomas F. Petway IV and his father, Tom, is Thomas F. Petway III.
Tom Petway, an influential business leader and insurance executive, was a well-connected decisionmaker and just about a household name during the recruitment of an NFL franchise.
Ty Petway, in his early 20s, worked with Touchdown Jacksonville with an inside view of the strategy.
“I remember watching the momentum build with Touchdown Jacksonville and seeing what was being put together to showcase Jacksonville to the NFL,” he said.
He said the city didn’t have the size or the stadium yet, but it did have the ability and the leadership to become an NFL city.
The partners in Touchdown Jacksonville lobbied and rallied government leaders, businesses and fans to show their support for bringing a team to town. Within two years, they brought in the Weavers and their dream came true.
The Jacksonville Jaguars franchise was awarded to Jacksonville on Nov. 30, 1993.
Ty Petway was attending Western State Colorado University in Gunnison, Colo., not far from Denver, when he got the call.
“We were kind of on pins and needles knowing a decision was coming down,” he said. He was at the top of his parents’ call list.
“A party ensued,” Petway recalled.
The Jaguars played their first game in 1995. Petway completed college, earning a degree in business management in 1996. He graduated and returned home to the family business.
‘Tremendous value for us’
Tom Petway and his partners started Zurich Insurance Services Inc. in 1977 as Home Builders Insurance Services. Ty Petway was named CEO in 2005.
In 2011, not long before Petway and his partners sold the Jaguars to Khan, he turned over the Zurich chairmanship to Ty Petway. Tom Petway serves as vice chairman.
It was a generational shift in several ways.
In 2012, Ty Petway, then 42, moved the corporate headquarters to a new South Jacksonville location in Cypress Point and changed the name to US Assure.
While the company had continued to support the Jaguars since the sale through ticket purchases, it hadn’t formed a sponsorship relationship.
Then came London, where the Jaguars committed to one home game a season for four years, with the first in 2013.
Ty Petway signed up US Assure as the sponsor of the hospitality events for the games in London for the four years, and perhaps for as long as the Jaguars play there.
“I knew we wanted to do something with them. With my love for the Jaguars and where we were as a company, it was a perfect fit,” he said.
Now, US Assure has committed to a four-year deal on the home field.
US Assure has partnered with the Jaguars to become the official naming partner for the Touchdown Clubs at EverBank Field. Starting with the 2015 season, the premium spaces on the east and west sides of the stadium will be known as the US Assure Clubs at EverBank Field.
Financial details were not provided.
Renovations to the club area are expected if the team receives state funds from a sales-tax rebate.
The Jaguars and the city applied for $1 million a year for 30 years.
It placed second out of four projects seeking funding and waits to see how the state will distribute funds from the $7 million pool approved last year.
Petway said US Assure is committed with or without those improvements.
On Tuesday, Ty Petway, his wife, Lindsey, and his father, Tom, were back at EverBank Field to strengthen that reconnection with the Jaguars. Ty Petway spoke a few words of support and thanks from the podium.
“It was awesome,” Ty Petway said. Having his dad there was even better.
“He is proud of what we are doing at US Assure and of me, so having him there was icing on the cake.”
Chief Marketing Officer Ryan Schwartz said Tuesday there’s a business strategy behind the move and the company sees value in supporting the team and the community.
“The naming rights partnership gives us the opportunity to further build our brand and tell this story to a broad audience,” Schwartz said. “A strong Jaguars franchise is clearly good for this community on numerous fronts. We could not be more pleased to have our brand associated with theirs.”
It’s also notable that the “Touchdown” name is being replaced by “US Assure.”
“Sometimes a new brand helps bring vision and transition to life and that is why it is OK to depart from the Touchdown Club name and to bring in the new branding,” Schwartz said.
Jaguars President Mark Lamping said Tuesday that US Assure and the Petway family have deep roots in Jacksonville and welcomed their “confidence in the direction we are going” and their sponsorhip.
“The idea that we can have a company like this is a big statement,” Lamping said.
The Petways and US Assure representatives attend the games and are spread throughout the stadium. Tom Petway, the former partner, is in the skybox. Schwartz is in a club seat. Ty Petway is in Section 114 at the goal line with his friends.
Ty Petway and a group of friends bought tickets in that section’s end-zone block in a major push several years ago to sell season tickets to avoid blackouts.
Petway has three children — a son, 10, two daughters, ages 3 and 2 — and another on the way.
Three-year-old Piper is a developing fan. “She goes to all the games with me, sits right next to me,” Petway said.
“She pays better attention than some of my friends.”
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