The NFL Finance Committee last night unanimously approved Shahid Khan's application to buy the Jaguars, and the "entire ownership will now vote ... on his $760 million purchase of the team" at a meeting next Wednesday in Dallas, according to Vito Stellino of the FLORIDA TIMES-UNION. The $760M price tag is the third-highest in NFL history. The committee members "were already familiar with ... Khan's background because of his pursuit of the St. Louis Rams last year." Jaguars Owner Wayne Weaver's sale of the team "had been under review by the league prior to the announcement" of Khan's agreement to buy the franchise last week. Khan, who attended the meeting "without any representation," was asked after the vote about fans' "comfort in the future of the Jaguars in Jacksonville." He said, "Let me just say let them wait until next week. They will be very comfortable next week (after the sale is formally approved). Hopefully, if the vote goes the way we are expecting, I will be happy to elaborate on it. They will not be disappointed." Stellino notes fans "have embraced his ownership, and many were wearing mustaches in his honor" at Monday night's game against the Chargers (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 12/7). Khan had "initially said he wouldn't speak publicly until after next week's vote, but he decided to answer a few questions on camera after two Jacksonville TV stations made the trip to New York for the finance committee meeting" (NEWS4JAX.com, 12/6).
REMEMBERING WEAVERS' IMPACT: In a special to the FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, former Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton wrote Wayne and Delores Weaver and their limited partners in the franchise "not only did the unthinkable by luring the NFL to one of the smallest markets ever to be awarded a team, they also embraced our community." Peyton: "They helped us believe in us, when no one else did. ... We will all be forever indebted to them for their leadership, their support -- but perhaps most of all -- their belief in our city" (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 12/4).
