Jaguars Will Not Have Naming-Rights Partner By Start Of Season

Jaguars Prepared To Go A Third Season Without Naming-Rights Partner

The Jaguars, who "have been looking for a new sponsor willing to pay $4[M] a year or more" for naming rights at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium, have "not been able to find a new sponsor and are prepared to go a third straight season without one," according to Mark Basch of the FLORIDA TIMES-UNION. Jaguars CFO & Senior VP/Stadium Operations Bill Prescott: "Right now, I'd say it's unlikely we will have a naming rights sponsor for the start of the season." Basch noted the team "would split money from a naming rights deal with the city of Jacksonville." Meanwhile, Prescott said that the Jaguars are "looking into a deal with the Florida Lottery for a scratch-off game." Prescott: "As the league opens up (new revenue) categories, we're taking advantage of them." The team is also "looking into sponsorships for its practice facility outside Jacksonville Municipal Stadium and its practice jerseys," but Prescott said that with the team's training camp "set to open in two weeks, it won't be able to get those deals done for this season." Prescott added that the team has "turned its ticket sales advertising focus away from full season tickets and toward more group sales and a new 'half pack' plan -- tickets to half of this season's games." And though the Jaguars "won't say how many season tickets have been sold this year," Prescott said, "We know that we're off significantly from where we were last year" (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 7/19). PRO FOOTBALL TALK's Mike Florio wrote the lack of a naming-rights deal for the Jaguars "might be more than the economy and/or a mid-size market that doesn't support its team like it should." Florio: "It could be that companies are realizing that having their names mentioned whenever the name of the venue is mentioned really doesn't do much to impact the bottom line." Naming-rights deals become a "chicken-and-the-egg proposition for many smaller companies looking to establish a national platform" (PROFOOTBALLTALK.com, 7/19).

Titans Fans Purchase All Of The Nearly 3,000 Single Game Tickets In About Three Hours

TITANIC INTEREST: TITANSRADIO.com's Jonathan Hutton noted Titans fans Saturday on the first day of single-game ticket sales "gobbled up the near 3,000 single game tickets in about three hours." Titans Exec VP/Administration & Facilities Don MacLachlan said that all 10 Titans home games for '09 "have sold out" (TITANSRADIO.com, 7/18). In Nashville, Gary Estwick noted that while tickets "did sell out, increasing the consecutive sellout streak at LP Field to 114 games," they "sold at a slower-than-normal rate, a fact Titans officials blamed on the economy." While single-game tickets "usually sell out in about 10 minutes," on Saturday it "took a little more than three hours" for all tickets to be sold (Nashville TENNESSEEAN, 7/19). Estwick noted the Titans were "expected to sell as much as 70[%] of their remaining single-game tickets online and another 20-plus percent through phone sales" (Nashville TENNESSEEAN, 7/17).