Jaguars Support Revenue Sharing To Help Small-Market Teams

Jaguars Feel NFL Needs To Come Up With New Revenue-Sharing Plan

The Jaguars are “hoping the NFL will come up with a new revenue sharing plan to help small-market teams at a league owners meeting at the end of this month,” according to Mark Basch of the FLORIDA TIMES-UNION. Jaguars Senior VP/Stadium Operations & CFO Bill Prescott said the team “probably had a slight loss” in ’06. He added that the Jaguars “aren’t looking to make big profits from the deal but to just about break even every year.” Prescott said, “Even if you have a slight profit, it goes back into the team.” He said that the team’s goal is to spend 65% of its revenue on players. Prescott “doesn’t expect a consensus on revenue sharing among the league’s owners. But he’s hoping NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will step in with a plan that the owners will accept.”

CLUB SEATS: Prescott said that in addition to revenue sharing and selling naming rights to the team’s stadium, another concern is the sale of club seats. Prescott noted 78 of the stadium’s 83 luxury suites are sold, but the 11,200 club seats, which cost $126-200 per game, are “most important to the team’s financial success.” The Jaguars sold out the club seats for some of their “bigger games last season but there were [600-800] unsold club seats for less popular games.” Prescott also suggested that the Jaguars are “targeting annual payments of $4[M] for the naming rights” to the stadium, which would be shared by the team and the city (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 3/6).