by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
Former Jacksonville Jaguar Tony Boselli brought the “Team Teal” story to the Rotary Club of Jacksonville Monday and made a passionate plea for support from the business community to keep the National Football League in Jacksonville.
The team’s first draft pick in 1995, Boselli was called on in November by Mayor John Peyton, team owner Wayne Weaver and former Florida Times-Union Publisher Carl Cannon to serve as “commissioner” of the revived Touchdown Jacksonville and Team Teal.
Touchdown Jacksonville was an effort led by Cannon and other business leaders in 1993 that sold 10,000 club seat season tickets in 10 days in a strong show of community support to land the franchise. Boselli said Monday it’s time to renew that passion if Jacksonville is to keep its NFL team.
One of his points was that the Jaguars helped put Jacksonville on the map and into the national conscious.
He recalled that when he was at the University of Southern California, he hoped to fulfill his dream of playing in the NFL. Then came the Jaguars.
“Head coach Tom Coughlin called my agent and said he’d like to fly me to Jacksonville for an interview. I realized I wasn’t sure where Jacksonville was in Florida,” he said. “I didn’t know I was going to an NFL city that I would one day call my home.”
Since he retired from the playing field, Boselli has had a career as a sportscaster and business owner. During his travels, people outside the city ask him, “What’s wrong with Jacksonville? Why can’t you fill up your stadium?”
Boselli also said the impact of the Jaguars goes beyond what happens in the stadium on Sunday. He referred to economic data collected early in Jacksonville’s NFL history as an example of what an NFL team means to the community.
“In 1993, an economic study compared Jacksonville to similar size NFL cities and the national average in terms of per capita income. Jacksonville trailed the national average by 3 percent and the NFL cities by 5 percent. By 1998, Jacksonville had caught up to the national average and the other cities,” Boselli said.
“The Jaguars are one of Jacksonville’s greatest assets. We live in a different community because we have an NFL team. A lot of my work is in the nonprofit world. Ask any organization’s executive director or any board member and they’ll tell you what Wayne and Delores Weaver and the Jaguars have contributed to our community,” he said.
Team Teal’s goal is to “reconnect the passion” that surrounded the effort to bring the NFL to Jacksonville. Boselli described it as a grassroots effort to sell season tickets, from single tickets to corporate packages.
Boselli said the goal is to sell 20,000 season tickets in order to ensure that all of the Jaguars games will be televised locally next season. To do that, Team Teal needs more captains who will purchase at least two season tickets for as little as $300 each per season and then involve more people in the campaign.
“Even if you don’t like football, if you’re in business in Jacksonville you need to support the Jaguars. It’s the duty of anyone who can afford season tickets to buy them,” Boselli said.
Cannon said Boselli has become a major driver in the season ticket sales effort. “It’s not unusual for him to speak to two or more groups in a day,” he said.”
Boselli’s visit to the Rotary Club made the right impression on at least one member of the club. As he was thanking Boselli for taking the time to speak to the members, club President Steve Bacalis said, “Sign me up as a Team Teal captain.”
356-2466