For fans making the journey to Alltel Stadium to watch the Jacksonville Jaguars, style is everything.
From the latest caps and T-shirts to golf shirts and jerseys, Jaguars fans like to look good while cheering the team.
Alan Trager, co-owner of the sports store Football Fanatics, is no different.
A die-hard fan of both the Florida Gators and the Jaguars, Trager’s sports history dates back to his early childhood.
“My dad took me to Gators games starting when I was five years old,” he said. “It’s more like a religion. When you grow up with it and it’s part of you, you become passionate and you love it.”
Now Trager is mixing business with pleasure.The company was recently named the official team store of the Jaguars.
Trager, along with his brother and co-owner Mitch, approached the team with the idea some time ago, and the deal was recently completed.
“We felt it would be a real plus for our customers and the business,” he said.
Convinced that their company was best suited for the arrangement, Trager started knocking on the Jaguars’ executives door.
“It was a fairly easy sell,” said Trager. “We have had a philosophy since we opened to do things in a positive way both with our customers, with suppliers, with everybody we negotiate with. We have very high standards for the way we do business. I think that was very consistent with the way the Jaguars like to do business.”
Sporting paraphernalia from NFL and major college teams, a sizable chunk of the store’s inventory is Jaguars items. With the new arrangement, the percent of Jaguars merchandise is going to get even bigger.
“We are going to continue to carry all the teams as we have in the past, but we’re going to try to carry special items that would only be in our store and at the stadium,” said Trager.
With locations in the Orange Park and Avenues malls, the Trager brothers employ 25 people and are working with the Jaguars to develop new products, which Trager declined to discuss.
In anticipation of Jacksonville becoming an NFL town, the Trager brothers opened the store in 1995.
“We knew when we opened up that the Jaguars were coming. If we didn’t have NFL in Jacksonville we may never have opened this business,” said Trager. “After the initial year we had some excitement with going to the playoffs. The passion has gone up and down but we’re a core football town. The core fan is there no matter what, whether the team is performing or not. We’ve seen bumps but the business has grown every year.”
Touting a business degree from the University of Florida, Trager has made a career out of the retail business.
In addition to being the official Jaguars team store, Football Fanatics also handles all the Jaguars Internet orders.
So just how is the season shaping for the Jaguars?
“If the Jags stay healthy, they’ve got a chance to go all the way,” said Trager.