Often in this column I write about the importance of teamwork in creating success. I don’t care who you are or what you do, being a member of a team where everyone works and pulls for a single goal is one of the greatest things you can do in life.
For the last several months we’ve read and heard a lot about “Team Teal,” that aggressive group of people who’ve stepped up to back the Weavers and help the Jaguars sell season tickets to ensure that Jacksonville remains an NFL city.
Business after business and organization after organization have joined “Team Teal” and the result in ticket sales is great proof that Jacksonville wants the Jaguars to continue kicking off with a full house of fans at every game.
Now, with people like Linda Sherrer, Mark Carlson and Andy Chambers leading the way, our real estate and construction industries have climbed on board “Team Teal” and we’re playing a big and important role. Just like the lead story of this issue says, “If it’s a good cause, the real estate and construction industries will be near the head of the line.”
Certainly, the success of the Jaguars is important to our own businesses, perhaps more than any other industries in town.
I think it’s important that we reflect for a moment on what the Jaguars (and the Weavers) have meant to Jacksonville over the last 17 years and what they mean to our future.
There was a time in our history when we wanted and wished with all our might for an NFL football team.
It began on that August night in 1979 when more than 50,000 of us sat in the old Gator Bowl and shouted over and over: “We want the Colts!”
Past mayors and citizens alike plotted and worked hard in our efforts to persuade the Colts and then other teams, like the Houston Oilers, to cast their lots in our city.
We told the NFL and we told America that we wanted NFL football.
Touchdown Jacksonville was born, and one day Wayne Weaver decided to invest his wealth and spend his dreams to help Jacksonville land us a team.
And, he did.
Before the announcement that we had won a team by Commissioner Paul Tagliabue almost two decades ago, we all thought we had a pretty good idea of what having the Jaguars would mean to Jacksonville.
But we’ve all learned over the years that our notion was way short of the real value. Many thousands of our citizens recognize and are grateful for what Wayne and Delores have contributed to our community. That’s one reason so many of us are signing up now to buy and sell tickets.
In the 15 seasons since the Jaguars kicked off NFL football in Jacksonville, Wayne has brought great excitement and incredible exposure to Jacksonville that only a handful of cities in America get to enjoy.
The Jaguars have changed how others around America look at Jacksonville, and the Jags caused us to look differently at ourselves.
The investments made by Wayne and Delores in nearly every aspect of Jacksonville, the great leadership they’ve provided, and the difference made by Jaguar players and coaches as volunteers and philanthropists are things that have changed our town for the better.
This team is incredibly important to jobs and investment, to construction and home sales, to our image, and to our quality of life.
Now, we need to go back to the future.
We need to tell the NFL and America once again that we want the Jaguars and NFL football in Jacksonville.
We should never accept failure, and we should never lower our expectations.
That’s why we need for you to join with our industry leaders who are saying that we refuse to accept a Jacksonville without the Jaguars. We want and expect the Jaguars to be in important part of our future.
– Jim Bailey is president of Bailey Publishing and Communications and publisher of Realty/Builder Connection.