Jacksonville Jaguars buyer Shahid Khan isn’t a stranger to the area, but his local meetings with team owner Wayne Weaver were kept low profile by design.
Delores Weaver, a partner in the Jaguars with her husband and other owners, said Khan, an Illinois businessman, has visited Jacksonville a few times, although she hasn’t met him or his wife.
“Wayne has met him a few times at different locations,” she said. “Wayne was trying to keep this as quiet as possible until something concrete was done.”
She said that while they didn’t necessarily hide, the visits were “certainly planned ahead. It was in no one’s interest to have it leak.”
She doesn’t know if Khan’s wife, Ann Carlson Khan, has visited the area.
Delores Weaver spent time Wednesday returning reporters’ calls and asking media to assure the community that although they sold the team, she and her husband have no plans to leave the area other than to travel.
“This will be home,” she said.
“Assure everyone that we are here. People are stuck with us. We have no plans to go anywhere,” she said Wednesday, a day after Wayne Weaver announced the sale of the Jaguars to Khan. The deal could be completed in January.
“We do plan to take a little time off to do a little traveling that we haven’t been able to do the past 18 years,” she said.
The Weavers moved to Jacksonville upon buying the franchise with a partnership group in 1993.
While Wayne Weaver has told media the past few years that he eventually would sell the team, the timing seemed unexpected to much of the community.
“There is a time for everything, and this happens to be the right time and the right person,” Delores Weaver said.
“We have talked about this the past few years. Wayne didn’t ever entertain or speak with people who called from California because we didn’t want the team to be in California,” she said.
Weaver said Wayne Weaver met Khan five or six years ago through Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt, who died in December 2006. She said Weaver and Khan remained in touch.
She said that Wayne Weaver learned that Khan would like to be part of the National Football League and was trying to buy the St. Louis Rams, but “that did not work out for him.”
In August 2010, NFL owners voted for Missouri native E. Stanley Kroenke, a Rams ownership partner, to buy the remaining stake in the team.
She said the 18-week NFL labor dispute and lockout earlier this year “stopped all conversation because who would be interested in going forward with a team not knowing” when play would resume.
“Once that got past, the conversations began again,” she said.
She said the announcement was planned for this week, but word was spreading late Monday afternoon.
“We began to hear rumors that people were getting phone calls and people were speculating,” she said. “Wayne decided to pull the trigger.”
Also at the Tuesday noon news conference, Wayne Weaver announced that head coach Jack Del Rio was fired.
“I don’t think the plan was to have those things together at the same time,” said Delores Weaver.
“Jack without question knew what was coming and to have him hanging in the breeze was not fair to him and his family,” she said.
Delores Weaver wants the community to continue to support the team.
She said Wayne Weaver “has every confidence when he says the team is going to stay,” she said, referring to Khan.
“That’s definitely the feeling that Wayne has and he has said he will keep the team here. It will be business as usual,” she said.
“Perhaps his family will not be around as much as ours. He’s keeping all the staff and he will need that leadership,” she said.
Weaver said Khan has run many businesses, “and is very, very successful.”
Asked if the community will quickly adjust to the changed ownership, Delores Weaver said she was “not sure any change is quick.”
“Change can be difficult at times. The Khans will not be the Weavers, and that could be a good thing. Everyone has a different leadership skill,” she said.
Weaver said the plan is for the Khans to have a home in the area. “They won’t be here 24/7 like we are,” she said. “They are not going to live here, but they will be here enough.”
Khan is planning to buy a house in Ponte Vedra Beach, the Daily Record has been told.
Khan owns Flex-N-Gate Corp. in Urbana, Ill.
Weaver said the Khans appear to be “very philanthropic.”
“They want to be a part of the community, and they will be,” she said, “if fans give them time to settle in and find their way in the community.”
She said Khan will continue the Jaguars Foundation. Its executive director, Peter Racine, has been promoted to president and will continue running the foundation, she said.
She said the Weaver Family Foundation remains “alive and well and will be here to do its good work as well.”
The Jaguars Foundation is focused on serving economically and socially disadvantaged youth, she said, while the Weaver Family Foundation has a broader scope.
“We want to calm the community as much as we can about our philanthropic work,” she said.
The Weavers also will continue to be team supporters. “We will be great Jaguars fans, for sure,” she said.
They also will acquire a suite, moving from the larger owner’s box.
“We do know there are some available,” she said. “It will certainly be much smaller and I will look forward to not entertaining 45-60 people on game day. It will be less stressful for us,” she said.
“When a receiver drops that perfect pass I won’t have to say, ‘I’m paying you to catch that,’” she said.
Weaver said she and Wayne Weaver will be “great fans.”
“We want them to win and make a Super Bowl one day,” she said.
Asked about the Weavers’ long-standing wish for the Jaguars to reach the Super Bowl during their ownership, Delores Weaver responded.
“If there is one disappointment, that probably is it. We’ve been really close at times. In 1999, we were half a game away from making the Super Bowl,” she said.
In 1999, the Jaguars finished with the NFL’s best record, a 14-2 regular season mark, and the team hosted the AFC Championship game in Jacksonville in its fourth straight postseason appearance.
The Jaguars went into halftime with a 14-10 lead, but the Tennessee Titans returned to win 33-14 to earn a trip to the Super Bowl.
She said ownership has been a “roller-coaster,” and it was time to change.
“We are going to have withdrawal symptoms,” she said.
356-2466