Perspectives - John Delaney

In this episode of Perspectives, Brian Sexton sits down with former Jacksonville Mayor, John Delaney.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Jacksonville was long the bride's maid, never the bride, the
bold new city of the South, desperate to convert its
passion for the college game into the big leagues through
their lot in with the likes of the World Football
League in the nineteen seventies and the U s f
L in the nineteen eighties. However, despite league leading attendance
figures for the Express, Sharks and Bulls, the city's foothold

(00:24):
in professional football folded with those leagues. This is perspectives
the story of the Jaguars twenty five years, as told
by the people who built the franchise from the ground up.
This is John Delaney, the man who would be mayor,
grew up across the river in Arlington, and remember those

(00:44):
football flirtations plus failed bits to land the Houston Oilers
in Baltimore Colts in September of ninety Early in his
first term as Jacksonville's mayor, he understood why the city's leadership,
both public and private, worked so hard to bring professional
football to jackson Bill. I do remember walking into that
very first game, and you had people pouring from all

(01:06):
over the place, from the north side and the south side,
the beaches, Black white, and for the first time everybody
in Jackville was pulling for the same thing. And and
I said, you know, this is exactly what Mayor god
Bold wanted. Was was kind of a unifying sort of
an event. And I think it's been that way for Jacksonville.
I think it's been one of the best things that's
ever happened to the city. And Lenny found himself in

(01:27):
the middle of a serious effort to turn Jacksonville into
an NFL city, first as the city's General Council in
the early nineties and later as the chief of staff
to Mayor Ed Austin, who was the movement's champion. He
watched the process carefully and monitored the progress leading up
to the November announcements. You know, I didn't think we
had a prayer. Um. I didn't think we had a prayer.
And you know, it was pretty clear that Charlotte was

(01:49):
going to get a team, and then it was really
is it gonna be Baltimore St. Louis and um, Memphis.
I thought we should have ranked ahead of but they
had the FedEx money, um UM, which you know, gave
them a little bit of viability and UM. Then as
time went on, I went to the first selection up
in Chicago with with Mayor Austin and with Wayne Weaver
and the other owners and UM and I saw the

(02:11):
head of the Baltimore group, whose name was Boogie Wine
Glass Um, and he had a ponytail as hair, kind
of balding, and I said, they're not picking him, and
so Baltimore was kind of out of the mix. St. Louis.
Then they had an ownership fight, you know, somebody controlled
the stadium, the other kind of the the application and
then it's just downed. Okay, it's us in Memphis, and
I thought I thought we were gonna beat Memphis. But

(02:32):
I didn't go for the second selection. You know, they
picked Charlotte and tabled it for a month primarily to
allow UM St. Louis to get their act together, which
they didn't weren't able to do. And I didn't go
the second time because I was expecting that we were
going to get bypassed. And I felt that that I
needed to be in town to help spend the media,
to help help speak for him because the new Mayor,
Austin was going to be back up in Chicago with

(02:54):
the ownership group, and uh so I was that stunned.
I mean, I was sitting here trying to figure out
what we're gonna tell the media and how we were
going to explain it. And um, um, the town had
grown so excited about the prospects, um that it was
going to be a major, major disappointment. And that had
followed the other flirtations that ownership owner ownership groups have

(03:14):
had on maybe moving a team to town. Um. So no,
I didn't. I didn't think we were gonna get it.
I didn't think we were gonna get it. The process
was serious and well organized and run like a business
by incredibly successful men, but it was still a long shot, though.
The arrival of Wayne Weaver gave them a chance. You
originally had two sort of groups that were quasi fighting
over it, and then they merged together and that was

(03:36):
led by Tom Pettway, and um, they had enough finances
to really make make it work under the way the
terms of the NFL's deal looked at that time, but
they really felt they needed somebody with a massive net worth. Um,
and in walked Wayne Weaver, and of course his brother
Ron was part of the ownership group, and um, you know, Wayne,

(03:57):
Wayne changed the name of the game um. He was
sort of a known commodity among um, the hundred millionaires
and billionaires that were in the NFL ownership group. He
had a lot of he had some credibility with him.
And Chris just a decent guy, just a regular down
to earth guy, as was his brother. And that whole
ownership group. I remember sitting on the first Chicago visit

(04:17):
and I think every one of the owners were married
to like their high school girlfriends, um And you know,
that's pretty rare anymore for people to be able to
stay married that long. And and there was an integrity
about what he what he brought to the equation. UM.
Some of what went on on that during this time
frame was Originally we thought a fifty million dollar renovation

(04:37):
to the old Gator Ball was going to be enough
to get us in the game to compete with the
other four cities for an NFL expansion franchise. But as
as the Jones Is kept getting more and more bills
and whistles on their facilities, it became clear that fifty
million wasn't gonna be enough. And then it was seventy million,
and it was eighty three million, and it was nineties
something million and a hundred and ten hundred, four hundred

(04:58):
and twenty three, and so town was was hit. Was
sort of schizophrenic. They thought we were being ripped off
by the NFL, but they wanted the team. And UH
and Mayor Austin was sitting here trying to get a
deal that the city could afford, which was to pay
for the stadium um by the same token. UM trying
to keep us in the game with enough accouterments in
the stadium and the facility to allow us to be competitive.

(05:21):
And you know, the deal kept falling apart. UM and
um UM I had recommended to Mayor Austin, who didn't
negotiate on behalf of the city. There was David Selden
Paul Harden on the other side, and and it was
oil and water. They just kept jabbing each other and
Snyde comments couldn't really get a deal pulled off. UM
and I remember going to going to Mary Austin. I

(05:42):
kind of had a little bit of a brainstorm, and
I said, you know, I think we've been looking at
this thing wrong. In reality, the hundred and thirty something
million dollar stadium was really largely being paid for by
ticket search charges and rent in effect, it was free
and uh um, other than the fifty million that the
city had already agreed to put into the stadium before
the NFL even came knocking. That was to help keep

(06:03):
the Flora Georgia game in town and and help with
the Gator ball game. And um and I remember calling
him up and I said, ed, um, what if forget
that we had this expansion thing. What if the commissioner,
Paul Taglabo called you up and said, Mayor, I see
that you're putting fifty million dollars into renovating that stadium. Um,
I want to give you an NFL team and they
will generate enough money to do another eighty eight five

(06:25):
million dollars worth of improvements to that stadium. So you're
gonna get a hundred and thirty million dollars stadium and
an NFL team for free. I said, I think we
take that deal. The problem was the number head kept moving.
But we shouldn't have been shocked by that number because
it was being paid for, in effect by the fans
that were going to the stadium. And um, and we
had a few kinks to work out, and it had

(06:46):
six kind of conditions. He wanted to try to iron
out Paul harden Um, who's a local lawyer and a
lobbyist and a very good friend of mine, and uh,
Paul and I got together and I said, look, I
think I can get Ed to agree to not go
on item five, but he's got to have items one
through three. Paul says, I think I can get Wayne
to agree with one through three, but he's gonna have

(07:06):
to have six. We kind of went back and forth
on that, and uh, Paul rented a conference room at
at the Pontevedrian and we met and kind of ironed
at a you know, some of the details of the
term sheet and it ended up jelling getting back together.
Tuesday November figured to be a day of significance for Jacksonville.
No matter what the NFL decided, the day the team

(07:29):
was selected would clearly go down on one of the
biggest days in Jacksonville's history. And uh close to two
hundred years now. And um, I'll go back real quickly,
Brian that that I actually grew up in Cincinnati and
my dad got transferred to Jacksonville UM in nineteen seventy
two and he picked me up from school that day,
which was unusual because he wasn't home normally that early,
and he says, we're getting transferred to Jacksonville, And I go,

(07:51):
which Jacksonville? Is it Alabama? Is it Florida? Is it
I think North Carolina or something like that, And UM,
that shows you how far off the national radar Jacksonville
really was USA today. I always would do a cover
story on kind of ranking the odds before the selections,
and and we would be fourth or fifth and virtually
every list, and only two teams were getting picked. So

(08:14):
you fast forward to um mayor god Bold in the
in the eighties saying, you know, this town has an
inferiority complex, one thing that I think will change it
as an NFL team. You had the flirtation with the
Colts and some others through Mayssouri and and and mayor Austin.
Then the expansion opportunity, and as I said, um, they
had a selection day, Charlotte got it and they tabled it.

(08:37):
And clearly that meant that they were waiting to try
to get it look like St. Louis, Um, if not Baltimore,
but I don't think they league like the Baltimore ownership group. Um,
it looked like we'd separated a little bit from Memphis,
but they were still sort of in the game. Um
so I again, I stayed in town, kind of wanting
to spend the bad news when the selection was made,
and I can't even remember who called me. Somebody gave

(08:59):
me a call. I think may have been Mike Weinstein,
um or may have been Paul Harden that they had
overheard I think the commissioner speaking to somebody like out
in the hallway, and he said, we got it, We've
got it, And are you serious? He says, we've got it.
He just kept saying it, We've got it, We've got it.
And then of course you're waiting to make sure that
you haven't gotten a bad tip, you know, on a

(09:21):
on a horse or you know, something like that, and
and and ah, the emotion of it when it hit,
and you almost heard a roar no matter what building
you were in, you could just sort of hear a
roar in the community. And you know, the news anchors
on the television stations they almost couldn't talk. It was
just so mind boggling, you know, what was going on.
And the chamber of course through through together kind of

(09:43):
a quick party and and uh, quick press availability and
Mayor Austin and Wayne Weaver and others came back into town. So, um,
it still was one of those things. It's it's sort
of like, um, most lawyers will tell you that that
they wake up with a dream that they overslept the
bargs and there's something or that they'd actually failed the bar.
I still get that dream, you know, thirty something years

(10:04):
later after taking the bar and that was sort of too.
I'm waking up the next day. Was that real that
I dreamed that? Um? And it was just it was
a heck of a run. It was a heck of
a day. When the euphoria died down in the days
that followed, the realization set in at the to do
list was overwhelming, starting with building a place with a
new team to play well. Of course, it's it's large
for an NFL stadium, and we needed to be able

(10:26):
to get it where it could be adapted for the
Florida Georgia game, which needed about eighty three thousand and
you know, it's kind of accepted now that that's as
many as thirty thousand seats too many for an NFL team. Um,
but it is the quickest a stadium has been built
in the history of the world. I mean, nobody has
put a stadium of that size together and that kind
of a time frame. And um, I was so naive.

(10:48):
I didn't think it was that big a deal at
the time until I saw what kind of a construction project.
The grounds were here, the west upper stands, that was
all that was remaining. Everything else gone, and um, and
you know, they kept saying, we're gonna make it, We're
gonna make it. We may not have everything quite ironed out,
maybe not every bathroom is working, and we're gonna have
to work the kinks out because we knew we were

(11:09):
going to have a packed house, you know, in that
first game or those first set of games, and um,
but it's incredible accomplishment. And I frankly credit David Selden
and Wayne Weaver on that. One of the conditions that
Mayor Austin had. He knew government couldn't build quickly and
on budget. Um, there's just too much red tape that
go get involved with government construction projects. So his deal

(11:31):
was that the Jaguars had to do it, and that
any overruns over the agreed upon price would be paid
for by the Jaguars. And that's probably the only way
it would have been done in time. And um, and
I don't even remember if we had contingency plans on
what was gonna happen if we weren't gonna make it.
We must have. I don't remember him. Um at that
point in time, you know, we moved the gate ball
game had to move really for one year, but we

(11:51):
did it for two because each each school needed a
home game with Georgia and Florida. But we had to
be able to afford it. And UM, I had you know,
I was a prosecutor for ten years. I was the
chief assistant state attorney here and so you're dealing with
criminal defense lawyers that you know, we're doing whatever they
can to get their their guy off, and it's usually
a guy, and so those could get acrimonious. And when

(12:13):
you're in a courtroom, you know, you're an arena and
you're objecting and shouting down the other and arguing. And
I we had had with Wayne and with David Selden.
I mean, you know, f bombs, probably more from me
than from them, but just horrific arguments and um, massive disagreements, shouting, matches,
pounding on the table and and I give Wayne this credit.

(12:36):
Outside of a sitting around a table, he never a
lot to get personal and it would take me a
few blanks to kind of say, Okay, you know that's right.
I like this guy, and you know we can set
that aside and leave it in there. And and um, um,
you know, and I think he made some mistakes and
I made some mistakes, and um, it was a big
jump for us to be able to finance it at
the time. And um, but again our frame of reference

(12:58):
really was wrong because the rents and the ticket search
charges are covering the nut and so the city has
been able to afford this and actually pretty easy. Um.
You know, some feel that the team is expensive and
a lot of academics right that, you know, pro sports
are not good for towns. That's just baldered ash. I mean,
it's just absolutely baldered ash. And in this case, we've
got some game day expenses for security. But we have

(13:19):
that for concerts. Uh, we have that for Gator Bawl,
we have that for uh, you know, if there's a
big event at the beach in the spring, or the
Air and Air and C Show when the Navy's flying
the jets overhead. So that's what you want is amenities
and activities in a town that appeal to people. Um.
I mean it may be the symphony. A lot of
people aren't sympathy people, but that adds a dimension to

(13:42):
a town that's positive. And this Jaguars. The Jaguars have
more than paid their freight and and it's part of
a feel good element of this town. That's that's just
a great story. I think people take it for granted
how quickly that thing went up, and um, it's got
a little bit of an industrial look to it, but
there's not a bad sight line in the whole stadium.
I mean, it's a great place to watch a football
all game and and uh and then with the new

(14:02):
ownership group, they're making it even better and better, you know,
I mean put in those swimming pools. I mean, who
would have thought that was kind of we were mocked
around the league, But those cameras are on them. Uh,
you know in September and October when people are in
there splashing around and and uh, Mark Lamping has really
brought a lot of creativity on the marketing. That's helpful. Uh.
You know, we're no longer really the league's smallest city

(14:23):
setting aside Green Bay. You know, we're bigger than New Orleans,
now bigger than Buffalo. Were kind of working our way
up a little bit, but it's still a mid market team.
It's still a very small city to be able to
keep and host an NFL team. It took nearly as
long to build a winning football team as it did
the stadium. They were four and twelve in the first
season and one eight of their first twenty seven games

(14:43):
by early November. It seemed more difficult to build with
people than concrete. A sudden series of fortunate events, though,
turned the Jaguars into a winner late in the second season,
which gave Jacksonville its first taste of football fortune. If
you want to be successful as a mayor, have an
NFL team, start your first year and win the second year.

(15:05):
It's great on your poll numbers. And uh. Um. The
NFL learned some lessons from you know, really go back
to Tampa Bay. When Tampa you know, they were horrible forever. Um.
You know, Spurrier was a quarterback down there. I think
they won a game one year. And so they realized
that they needed to make expansion teams more competitive, and
so they kind of loaded up on some of the
draft picks and some of the things to make make it,

(15:26):
you know, viable. And we were viable very quickly, and
in Charlotte or Carolina not that much longer afterwards. And um,
so that season was unbelievable. And um, you know Denver, um,
that was supposed to be Denver's year. You know, Denver
was supposed to go to the super Bowl. That was alway.
Um and there's this little upstart, second year team and

(15:50):
they got thumped. And um. If you talk to people
from Denver that were there during that era, they're still shocked.
I mean, it's a good thing they finally won a
super Bowl later because it was it was that was
the year they had all the cards put together. But
it it gave credibility to the team in the city.
You know, we were the Wall Street Journal doing articles

(16:10):
USA today, you know newsweek as as I recall all
of a sudden, you know what what is this place?
You know, what is this town? And um um and
then you know, heads is you know, some decent years
to round out that part of the decade and um uh.
And you know Tom Coughlin still is a sort of
a hero of mine. It wasn't just what he did,

(16:31):
it was the way he did it. He just had
a lot of character integrity. There were there were players
that we could have gotten, some that played safe for
the Dallas Cowboys that would have just torn this city
apart with some of their personal antics. And uh, and
the team Underwayne and Undershot a sort of said, no,
you know we we realized we've got a military town,
a southern town, and and we've got to play with

(16:51):
character and that's as important as winning. And Uh, someone
who's been a mayor, I appreciate that the Jaguars were
a Cinderella of shorts arriving at the ball in style.
But what was already apparent was that the life of
a small market team in the big NFL would never
be happily ever after. There would always be floors to
mop City Hall in the franchise worked hand in hand

(17:14):
to build the stadium and would have to stay on
the same page in the years ahead. How come other
cities don't do that? Well, you can do that in
Dallas and New York and in in l A because
there's so much collateral revenue going in. You don't have
that in the small market towns and that's why governments
have to become partners on those constructions, on the construction
and bringing a team to town. Uh. Wayne Weaver in

(17:36):
the Jaguars really revolutionized the club seat area. Prior to that,
Joe Robbie had done it with the Dolphins where he
ran the clubs kind of around the upper rim of
the stadium. And Wayne's saying, well, you're in the end
zone and you're paying a premium, let's put them all
between the thirty five yard line. And all of a sudden,
it was like people slapt their forehead. Why didn't we
think of this before? Um, not long before there was

(17:57):
the realization that the Sweets Act sale where where there
could be the major money, where you'd get the major
corporate sponsors and headquarters. And um, it was a big stadium.
It was selling out. The clubs were really going for
a premium. But I give you one little anecdote of
some of what happened. UM. A friend of mine, um
Baryln Houston. She's from the McGhee mac paper family in town,

(18:18):
and her husband was a physician who had died some
years earlier. And she told me one time, she said,
you know, the only good thing about being a widower,
was no football. And she says, now where am I
on a Sunday, I'm sitting in a football standing watching
them watching a football game. And so, um, a lot
of people bought tickets early that couldn't really do it
beyond the first couple of years. I think usually think

(18:40):
there's a three or four year, five year sign up
on on some of those tickets. And so you still
had people, you know, in there in their forties and
older that were really more going to Gamesville and going
over to Tallahassee and you know, taking the whole day
to go to that game. So you had you had
a little windowing. And of course that coincides when you
get losing. Um, as Patton said, Americans level winner. And

(19:02):
and that's that's that's true of this town as well. UM.
I still maintain that this town has done a phenomenal
job of supporting a team when it's had some hard
times on the field in terms of a win loss record.
And and uh, um, I mean the saturation level, the
the TV ratings have always been very very high for Jacksonville,
you know, both home and away. Um, when you think
of the percentage of the population that has to be

(19:23):
in the stadium on on a on a home game
on a Sunday, it's immense and um and forget take
out little kids and elderly people that uh, you know
maybe you can't move. Um. So I I think the
city has been great with it and um and you know,
we've had two great owners. I mean that's that's a blessing.
Not every city gets at and um uh you know,
people that are interested in the town and interested in

(19:46):
in that game day experience. And uh so there was
some resistance in the early years to improving the facility.
Now I think it's sort of expected. You know, you've
got virtually every other city has either a new or
all actually brand new stadium, and you do have to
do some keeping up with the Joneses and so shot
and Lamping Mark Lamping. I think I've done a phenomenal

(20:07):
job and being creative and making this more and more
attractive for people to come through and you know, adjusting
the seat size and those kinds of things to make
it work. And uh but it's always gonna take work
in a in a smaller, medium sized market and um,
you know, I understand what it's like being being mayor
of the city that that you know, the cah A
is with those bigger cities that have longer, deeper history
or have old old money or old corporate old corporate money,

(20:30):
and um you know, pick on Indianapolis for example, essentially
that's the only city in that state and the capitals
there as well. You know, we have three NFL teams
in this state, and um so a lot of these
other places. They're kind of the player. Um Carolina with Charlotte.
That's kind of it really for two states when you
get down to it, and they can draw from the Greenville, Sparkinburg,

(20:50):
Columbia market as well to go to a go to
in a NFL game there. So, so we're up against
a lot to make this work, not the least of
which is University of Florida and Florida State that are
just a couple of hours away. The Jaguars became a
success three in their first five season, going to the
playoffs four times twice making the a f C Championship Game.
The partnership was clearly a winner. They put the band

(21:12):
back together in two thousand to try and win again
for North Florida, this time Super Bowl thirty nine. That
is an incredible story on the landing of the Super Bowl. UM.
I did not really have an idea for how complicated
logistically that is. UM, whether it's the hotel rooms, the generators,
the cable um, UM, the security UM. UM. You know

(21:37):
they don't want planes flying over a stadium. UM that
they've they've really got a protocol. It's a thick notebook
they hand you when you're applying. This is what you've
got to do to be able to get a Super Bowl.
And that was really an act of will by Wayne Weaver.
That's another thing where where the ownership group their people too,
and relationships count there and the owners liked Wayne and

(22:00):
sort of another one of the revolutionary things along with
the way he rethought the club seats, UM was this
idea that you know, you need to move that Super
Bowl around, you need to reward a team or a
city that has invested to upgrade the facilities. And it's
a way for the team to start to make a
little bit of money back to be able to help
put back into the facility. And UM, so its revolutionary.
And I had no idea the amount of work that

(22:22):
that took. I mean I sat on that committee and UM,
the Tom pet way and Peter Rummel chaired, and and
they hired the right people to come in to to
make it work. Um, I mean cruise ships. We didn't
have enough hotel rooms, so we bring in all these
cruise ships and uh, which worked out great. People loved him.
It was kind of like having a party and and
uh um. You know, in a lot of the cities

(22:42):
other than the big, huge ones like say in Miami, Um,
you know, people will stays hours away to be able
to come in to go to a Super Bowl, and
drive to three hours to be able to come in.
And uh. I remember talking to the then mayor of Miami.
He kind of shrugged his shoulders about a Super Bowl.
He says, you know, it's kind of a pain in
the neck. And we've had so many of them. It
doesn't mother me if we don't get one this year. Um.

(23:03):
That's a little different when you're a big, big city
or a big metro area like Miami, you know, l
a New York, et cetera. And um, um, so ill
we'll get another one eventually. And um, I always had
the worry that we didn't have enough time. The one
advantage I had as I left office in July of
two thousand three. So it was Mayor John Payton's issue.

(23:23):
And and I often joke it's easier to get a
super Bowl and it is to put one on. And
so he actually had the harder job, although he was
of course mayor when the super Bowl was here and
and uh uh and was able to represent the city
well and all those you know, international and national interviews
that go on to kind of talk about the city.
So it was a good showcase for us. There's a
few hiccups, there's no question that that happens. I went

(23:45):
to Sam Musa, the the city CEO under me and
under the current mayor. Um we went to the Atlanta
Super Bowl um um to kind of get a little
feeling a vibe for it, the one that Emmett Smith
sort of just ripped it open to win. And and uh,
there's no question in Atlanta is a natural fit with
the amount of open space that it has in the downtown.
But Bay Street just turned into a big street party.

(24:06):
You know, from the Main Street bridge all the way
down to the stadium. That's I don't know a mile
and a half or two miles mile and a half. Um.
So we pulled it off the cruise ships were critical
to it. And uh, but you know, since then, we've
added the you know, the arena, the baseball park and um,
which are usable to be able to kind of be
able to you know, nurse those those games along, bring

(24:28):
them along. Tiny Jacksonville, the market everyone wanted. His second
guest found a way to win again. It required vision, passion,
and the special personal touches brought first by Wayne Villere's
Weaver and end Coon family. I grew up Cincinnati where
with the Cincinnati Reds, and I was there when the
Bengals came to the town. They actually had an NBA

(24:49):
team at the time. And um, of course I was
a kid. But um, they're kind of distant, you know.
And some of these other cities, the owners really don't
live there, you know. Or and um shots here a lot.
He may as well live here. And but he's kind
of a man of the world. Um. I don't know
if there's any owner in any sport, in any franchise

(25:10):
that worked as hard to be a part of this
community as wayned the Lord's Weaver. Um, you know, they're
worth a fortune that can live anywhere in the world
they want. Um, they fell in love with the town
and um um and you know, have given away tens
and tens of millions of dollars to try to make
the town even better. And they really don't want anything,

(25:31):
you know. And and uh but it's beyond that to
the other ownership group, you know, Laurie Dubo and Tom
Petway and and uh. Um you can kind of run
down the list that they are people that are here
in town. I think, what Wayne Way, they're nice people,
you know, do you start with that? They're they're not
you know, aloof haughty, better than better than that, That's

(25:52):
just not who they are. And um and of course,
when you've got to town this size, um to be
able to buy those suites and buy blocks of club tickets,
you are integrating with the bankers and the realtors and
the manufacturers and the you know, the businesses that make
up the backbone of the town. And um and and
Wayne was willing to go and talk to people. UM.

(26:12):
I don't know if many owners do that, you know,
maybe for one big sponsorship naming the stadium. But Wayne
was willing to talk to, you know, blocks of people
that were looking at buying a few club seats. And UM,
I think as as you look too. He knew early
on a small market midsize city is going to be work,
but he sure was willing to do it. And and
his wife too. I mean, they're very much partnership. They

(26:34):
were co owners. Um Um. You can't really mention Wayne
without mentioning Dolores and vice versa. It hasn't always been easy.
Life rarely is, but it's always been rewarding for Delaney
and the city of Jacksonville, who in twenty nineteen celebrate
twenty five seasons with the Jaguars, twenty five seasons in
the NFL. Well, you know, I think what we've got

(26:56):
to keep, and it's it's a great frame of reference,
is how much it really has changed. You know, the
practice fields used to be on the south end of
the of the stadium where that Pepsi Plaza has been,
and what now is the Daily's place, the Amphitheater. Uh,
we've got an enclosed practice facility, which you really need
in the south because of the of rainstorms and and
the temperature is not not necessarily the issue. Um Um.

(27:20):
How deeply seated the the the owners, the consecutive owners
have been in terms of supporting the community and and uh, um,
I just like the integrity of the team. I mean,
you know, obviously, you know some players are going to
get into trouble, but but overall, the team has really
kind of put some values on what its role in
the community. And and uh, but yeah, it's it's hard

(27:40):
to imagine that old Tinker Toy Gator Bowl stadium. You know,
it was metal. Um you know, you bang your feet
when you know if you were a bulldog or a
Gator for the Florida Georgia game or in the Gator
Ball game. And and to have the thing we've got
now with the amenities and the clubs, it's it's really
the arena next door. I said, it's like watching a
sporting event in the luxury home till it's a it's

(28:01):
a great way to go. Um. I thought doing the
big jumbo tron TVs were crazy. I was crazy. It's
they're spectacular. I mean, they're absolutely spectacular. And um uh
the Dailies placed the Amphitheater. It's a phenomenal place to
watch a concert in the show. It's just it's just,
you know, additional amenities the Jaguars have helped bring to
this town and so many of the players stay in town.

(28:23):
There here, they like this town, they like raising a
family here in town. And that's quite a compliment. Um.
I think I think Jackson has been good for the NFL.
And it's sure as vice versa as well. I've often
said l as l a with her without an NFL team,
um Um, the same could frankly be said for New York.
But um uh, this is a big part of our
identity and our psyche and and we need to do

(28:43):
our best to keep this town that this team in town.
And uh, things change, you know, TV starting to starting
to have a little impact on attendance, whether it's college
or or in the NFL. And and just like anything,
it's a competition. You gotta keep up to uh to
make that entertainment dollar work. And so um it's fun
for my kids and my grandkids to be a Jaguar.
They're growing up as Jaguar's first and um, and it's

(29:06):
just becoming very it's it's become a very big part
of the town in the time of town psyche and
to be wearing the jerseys and the hats and the
colors and those kinds of things, and it makes it
a special part of this town and and uh, um,
you know the near run to the super Bowl. You know,
one or two whistles, bad whistles or lack of whistles
away a year before last we would have been in

(29:26):
the super Bowl. And um, and should have been in
the super Bowl. Um. And you know that's gonna happen
with his team, and it's gonna, it's gonna The city
is just gonna love it. It's gonna rise up and
enjoy it.