JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- There's no question that the Jags new owner, Shad Khan, is all in. He wants to see a fan base that rivals his passion for the team and a plan is already in the works. Action News has learned, it's his goal to remove the tarps at EverBank Field.
"The best way to remove them is to sell those tickets and fill the stadium and that's what we really want to do," said Dan Edwards, Jaguars Vice President of Communications.
But that's going to take some work. At least five of eight home games were in jeopardy of a black out last season and team executives were forced to get an extension. Edwards went over last years home ticket sales with us and we discovered that EverBank can hold up to 67,000 people with tarps. The average number of tickets sold last season at each home game was 63,385. Take away the tarps and you're looking at a capacity of 80,000 seats.
"It's going to take a little bit of time. That's something that needs to build and grow and hopefully we grow that over time," said Edwards.
Edwards admits, EverBank is a big stadium for a market of our size. Under Khan's leadership, the team is now considering using alternative, more useful ways to block seats.
"Finding ways like they did in the old Busch Stadium in St. Louis and putting a manual scoreboard up that covered about six thousand seats. But it was apart of the stadium, apart of the event on game day."
So until fans can fill EverBank without the props, Edwards is focused on one goal for game day. "To have people realize that the place to be on Sunday afternoon is in the stadium."
In an effort to help boost ticket sales, the Jaguars hired Legends Sales and Marketing, which is jointly owned by the Dallas Cowboys and New York Yankees.
