by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Negotiations between the City and the Jacksonville Jaguars over electronic advertising rights inside Alltel Stadium are turning the upcoming Florida-Georgia game into the World’s Largest E-mail Party.
In a flurry of correspondence, electronic and old-fashioned, the parties continue to debate who owns the rights to the stadium’s electronic ribbon boards during non-Jaguar events.
The negotiations go back more than a year, but have taken on added urgency lately with the Oct. 29 game between Florida and Georgia less than three weeks away.
The Jaguars claim the right to all revenues produced by the electronic advertising boards. The team’s chief financial officer, Bill Prescott, said the team’s lease on the City-owned stadium is explicit on the matter.
“Our position is that the City gave us the rights to electronic signage all of the time,” said Prescott. “To us, it’s very clear that the City gave us those rights.”
The City disagrees with that assertion, according to an Oct. 7 letter sent to the team from City General Counsel Rick Mullaney. He wrote that the City, “disagrees with your characterization and conclusions on the signage issue.”
If no compromise is reached, both sides plan to have control of the electronic signs during Florida/Georgia.
Prescott said that the current agreement is unchanged since last year’s game. Then, it was the Jaguars’ sponsors that appeared on the ribbon boards.
“The agreement that’s in place this year is the same as last year,” said Prescott. “And last year the team’s advertising ran during the Florida-Georgia game.”
But Mullaney told the team in the Oct. 7 letter that the City has its own plans for the ribbon boards.
“In the event that an agreement is not reached, the City will continue to own, manage and operate the stadium under the lease,” said the letter. “This includes all operations related to signage and the City’s right to all electronic signage for the upcoming Florida-Georgia and Gator Bowl games.”
The team is willing to give up its claim to the ribbon boards during four specific non-Jaguar events for a $9.6 million buyout. Prescott said the team already offered that much for the rights to the signs during Florida-Georgia, the ACC Championship football game, the Toyota Gator Bowl and the annual Monster Truck Show. Prescott said it was City consultant Dean Bonham who first arrived at the $9.6 million figure.
Those negotiations broke down when the parties were unable to negotiate a buyout for other, unspecified events, according to a letter delivered to the mayor’s office Oct. 5, from Paul Harden, attorney for Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver. Mullaney’s letter said the City disagrees with Harden’s “characterization... of recent negotiations.”
The team is willing to accept the four-game buyout at the previously agreed price, said Prescott. But the City wants a comprehensive agreement with the team that addresses other issues, including stadium rent deferrals sought by the team and ongoing negotiations for the stadium’s naming sponsor. The current deal with Alltel expires Jan. 31, 2007.
Those larger financial issues are best left until later, said Prescott. Weaver told Peyton in July that the team needed help from the City to survive financially in Jacksonville. But Prescott said the team wants to see how the local market evolves before figuring out what form that help should take.
But the City wants a comprehensive solution, and Mullaney’s letter indicated that the City might be willing to press the team on what it perceives as violations of the Jaguars’ lease.
The letter said that the team violated its stadium lease by selling naming rights to the east and west club seats and failing to report Super Bowl revenue properly. Mullaney also said that some of the Jaguars’ sponsors fixed signs violate the City’s sign ordinance. Along with Mullaney’s letter, the City sent the team a comprehensive agreement drafted by Bonham that the City said addressed those violations and the current dispute over the electronic signs. The electronic file was dubbed “final offer.”
But Prescott said that the focus on both sides should be settling first the most pressing issue, the Florida-Georgia game. The bigger issues distracted from that, he said.
“I don’t understand what’s productive about bringing these things into the discussion at this point,” said Prescott. “If there’s a discrepancy with the lease, the City shouldn’t be holding it over our head, the City should be working with us on those issues.
“Those are things we do trying to stay competitive in this market. The City shouldn’t be fighting with us over them. Don’t make it more difficult for us to make it in this marketplace.”