Perspectives - Mark Lamping

In this episode, Brian Sexton sits down with Jaguars President, Mark Lamping.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
The following presentation of the Jaguars podcast Network. He's presented
by by start Credit Paer. There is a measure of
irony in Mark Lamping's role in Jacksonville. The Jaguars president
is a St. Louis native and was the president of
the Cardinals baseball club during the NFL's expansion derby in

(00:23):
the early nineties. Lamping eyed the race through the lens
of a civic leader who wanted what was best for
his hometown. What he couldn't know at that time was
how the decision to give the Jaguars to Jacksonville instead
of the Stallions to St. Louis would impact the course
of his life. This is perspectives, the story of the
Jaguars first twenty five seasons told by the people who

(00:46):
built the franchise. This is Mark Lamping. No one gave
Jacksonville a chance at the thirtieth franchise. When Commissioner Paul
Taglaboo announced Carolina as the twenty ninth team in late
October but didn't announce the thirtieth franchise that day, it
was a clear sign, but the decks were being cleared
for St. Louis. Shocked is probably not strong enough of

(01:10):
a word. Um. The Chicago Cardinals relocated to St. Louis
in nineteen sixty and the Chicago Cardinals are one of
the oldest franchises in the National Football League, dating back
to the UH eighteen eighteen ninety four or something like that,
late eight hundreds, obviously, and they moved to St. Louis

(01:30):
and then they left St. Louis UH in nineteen seven,
and it was devastating, and immediately the community started to
try to figure out how can we get the NFL
back into St. Louis. One of the persons that led
that effort was a gentleman by the name of Jerry Clinton.
Jerry Clinton was he and has a bush wholesaler for St.
Louis County. He was also, you know, a very prominent

(01:53):
citizen in St. Louis and nationally. You know, was was
also well known because he was actually a race car
driver as well. And uh uh he had a he
had a partner um in his race team who was
a fairly fairly famous football player by the name of
Walter Payton. So Walter and Jerry created this idea of

(02:17):
bringing a an NFL team to St. Louis. They got
into the expansion uh process. So you had a prominent
UH St. Louis in teamed up with a farmer, very famous,
very well respected, UH former NFL player in Walter Payton,

(02:38):
and through a lot of hard work, through a lot
of effort, UH, they finally put together a funding plan
to build a dome stadium in downtown St. Louis. So
that got rid of UH the angst in St. Louis
about the football team moving out to St. Louis County.
So stadium was under construction. Jerry Clinton had control of

(03:02):
this lease for the stadium because they had done all
the work to get to to get the financing of
the stadium put together, which we required fancing from the
State of Missouri, the City of St. Louis, Anne St.
Louis County, and things were rolling rolling right along. St.
Louis was continuing to make the cut in terms of

(03:24):
the expansion teams, you know, as those were narrowed. St.
Louis still stayed there. UM one of the NFL's biggest
sponsors at the time and even to this day, and
one of the more UH we wanted, one of the
biggest sponsors with individual NFL teams. Anne has your bush
was very very aggressive in terms of advocating on behalf

(03:45):
of of the city of St. Louis with then UH
Commissioner Paul Tagulebu, and it looked like it was a
sure thing. And then I believe what happened was I
think the original expansion the price was like a hundred
and fifty million, They may have been a hundred five.
Then they bumped it up two hundred fifty. And then

(04:06):
they bumped it up to two hundred million dollars after
Jerry paid what he did for the Cowboys. I think
that that was not certain, but I think that was
the sequence of events that occurred. And all of a sudden,
while he was very well funded Jerry Clinton, UH, they
didn't have the capacity to be able to UM, to
be able to make that work. So, all of a sudden,
you had a new state in a funding in place

(04:28):
for a new stadium in St. Louis, and think, in fact,
I think the stadium was under construction. UM, you had
a what appeared to be a really good owner teamed
up with a former NFL player, a really good combination,
and now all of a sudden, they don't have the
financial capacity to pay the additional fifty or a hundred
million dollars whatever that increment was. And I think at

(04:50):
that point, I think there was actually some behind the
scenes overtures to Wayne Weaver to see if Wayne would
move his interest to St. Louis because Wayne spent many
many years in St. Louis's head of has a head
of brown shoe. But you know, um, you know, thankfully
and not surprisingly, you know, Wayne uh was very loyal

(05:11):
to Jacksonville. So um, the city of St. Louis didn't
found themselves in a situation where they didn't have an owner, uh,
and they decided they needed to go get a deeper
pocketed owner, and they put together a bunch of of
old guard in St. Louis and actually recruited a very

(05:33):
wealthy um individual who lived in mid state, in uh,
mid Missouri, in Columbia, Missouri. His name was Stan Cronkey,
and they brought Stan Crokey and because Stan had an
interest in football, was very wealthy. So now you had
Stan Crokey coming in with a lot of you know,
old St. Louis money, the old guard in St. Louis,

(05:54):
and all of a sudden, Jerry Clinton is wondering, you know,
what just happened, So he did all the work to
get the stadium built. He did all the work to
move St. Louis along through the expansion process. And now
there's a new entity that shows up because Jerry didn't
have all the money, but what Jerry had that was very,
very valuable was control of the stadium. He had the

(06:17):
least for the stadium. So you went through a period
where this new group that Stan Cronky was a part of.
Stan was recruited to be a part of it negotiating
with Jerry Clinton and as Bush Hoolesaler and his partner
Walter Payton to be able to get control of the
stadium lease and UH once again, they couldn't. They couldn't

(06:39):
resolve it. You know, Jerry thought it was worth a
significant amount of money. The new new owners didn't see
it that way, and all of a sudden you had
chaos in St. Louis. And it was during that period
that the the expansion vote was getting very close. They
actually had the vote it was supposed to be for

(07:00):
both teams and ended up awarding UH the first expansion slot,
UH to UH to Charlotte, and then decided to delay
on the on the second. I think they delayed for
thirty days and what they what they were basically doing
was giving St. Louis the last opportunity to try to
get their house in order. And uh, you know, it

(07:22):
was it was a foregoing conclusion. I was, I was.
I had just been named president of the of the Cardinals,
the baseball Cardinals at that time, and you know, we were,
we were well down down the line in terms of
negotiating for the baseball stadium to be the temporary home
of the team while the stadium football stadium was being completed.

(07:43):
The team name was picked out. It was the St.
Louis Stallions, the colors were picked out. They even had
the fight song that was being broadcast all the time.
So to to say that it was a surprise in St. Louis, retrospectively,
it shouldn't have been a surprise, you know, because it
was St. Louis's to win and lost it. But then
you look back, you know, you know, back over that situation,

(08:06):
and the NFL made the right decision, you know, to
believe in Jackson Building, to believe in in the fans,
and you know, if not for you know, the the
in fighting and the fumbling that occurred in my hometown. Um,
you know, Jacksonville would not have an NFL team, and
I and my wife and I are family never would

(08:28):
have been blessed to have the opportunity to live here.
Lamping focused on St. Louis, the Cardinals and building a
new baseball stadium until two thousand eight, when he moved
to New York to leave the efforts to build MetLife Stadium.
A phone call, ironically routed through the Gateway City brought
him to an interesting place. Well, it's a it's it's

(08:49):
a again another story that uh bisex St. Louis. Um.
You know, before a shot had the privilege to to
purchase the Jazz Wars Um he was working on buying
the St. Louis Rams and went through an extended period
of time in um Um in negotiating and all the

(09:13):
due diligence that would be a part of it. And
it's interesting once again, the name stan Cronki comes into
play here us the UM Georgia Frontier had passed away UM,
the owner of the team her estate, UM desired to
sell the team. Stan Cronkie was a minority owner of

(09:36):
the team and had an option to purchase the team. UM.
It didn't appear as though he was going to exercise
that option, and over the course of of many months,
I think it was almost as much as as eighteen months,
Shod was doing due diligence on the purchase of the
of the St. Louis Rams. And during that during that process, um,

(10:00):
you know, he he he also was began to be
thinking about how he might staff the Rams. And uh,
you know, this goes back to two thousand and ten,
two thousand eleven, I believe, and uh I had left St. Louis.
I was President of Cardinals from four to two thousand eight.
I just left to go to New York. And so

(10:21):
Shod was in St. Louis a couple of years later. UM,
he was. He was talking to people about, you know,
trying to fill um uh you know, the president's position
to run the day to day business operations of the Rams.
And somebody had suggested to him that, you know, maybe
I would be interested in in coming back from New
York to St. Louis. UM. I think everybody knows how

(10:45):
that story ends. Shot ends up not buying the Rams.
S Dan Crocky, you know, at the very end of
his option period exercised his right to UH to buy
the Rams and then Shot uh but ends up in
a conversation not that long after that with Wayne Weaver
and uh um Um. The negotiations go very quickly. This

(11:09):
would have been um, you know, the end of two
thousand eleven, so early two thousand twelve, Shot closes on
the purchase of the of the Jaguars, and a few
weeks after that, you know, I received a call from
a third party asked me if I'd be number one

(11:29):
interested in meeting Shotgun. I had not met him before,
and if I'd be interested in coming down to Jacksonville
to talk to him about, you know, joining his his
team that he was putting together to h to run
the run the Jaguars. So Shad and I had had
not met before two thousand twelve. Um. I obviously was
well aware of him, you know, because because his his

(11:51):
his reputation you know is Stertling and and um everybody
had everybody, everybody knew who he was in the sports world.
So I was I was really really fortunate. You know,
once again you have something that ties back to St.
Louis that you know, but you know, had shot purchased

(12:13):
h the St. Louis Rams first, I think that would
have been that would have been you know, wonderful for St. Louis.
You know, really in in some respects, Um, the biggest
loss to what happened, you know with the Rams, Um
and and and Shots attempted to buy the team that

(12:36):
ultimately led to the Rams relocating to Los Angeles. Uh.
You know, I was born and raised in St. Louis.
You know, still still have very close ties back there
and still have family there. And in many respects, I
think the big the biggest loss for St. Louis was
not losing the NFL team, was not losing the Rams.
The biggest loss to St. Louis was losing the opportunity
to have shot Con as part of that community. And

(12:58):
it was you know, through through through those circumstances, you know,
Shot ends up owning the Jacksonville Jaguars. I was really
really fortunate to be asked to be a part of it.
And um, you know what what shod means to to
this community, you know, really speaks for itself. The challenge

(13:19):
was distinct and very obvious, but what was clear to
Lamping the first time the two men met was CON's
drive to build something unique, something special. It was really
shots vision. I mean, you know, we didn't we didn't
talk specifics, you know there. If we did talk any specifics,
it had more to do with, you know, things related
to the stadium and you know, uh, operational aspects the

(13:41):
business side of football. But when I walked away from
that conversation, it was clear that that Shod had really
really high ambitions and that he was fully committed to
not just maintaining the status quo, but to really grow, um,

(14:03):
you know, the Jacksonville Jaguars too, to make them a
very special franchise. And his commitment to Jacksonville was also
very clear. So while while you know, the strategy and
the tactics really weren't discussed at that time, the objectives
were and the objectives were that we're going to be

(14:24):
a stable, we're gonna be a growing, we're gonna be
a dominant and a well respected sports franchise. And uh,
I don't think you could say that that the team
that Shod bought were all those things at the time.
It was not. But it was clear that you know,
that was Shods. Uh. It really wasn't his vision, it

(14:45):
was his expectation and one way or the other, that's
gonna you know, that was gonna happen, and and and
you know when I left my first discussion with him,
it was it was it was with great excitement because, um,
you know, you had somebody that was that was that
was committed, that was willing to do you know what
it took to achieve and to meet those objectives. And uh,

(15:09):
it was just a really nice, pleasant guy to be around.
So um, it was. It was a it was a
really fortunate trip that I was up in New York.
I flew down on a Friday. I met with shod Um.
You know, we we we we had a home down
in the Jupiter area from the years, and I was
with the Cardinals. That's where Cardinals had spring training. So

(15:32):
as a weather turn cold up in New York, you know, uh,
you know, my wife would report uh to spring training
about two months ahead of the pictures and catchers and
then I would uh, I would commute down on weekends,
so you know, she drove from Jupiter up to UH,
up to Jacksonville. We met here. I met with Shot
on Friday. We hunt we hung around that weekend to
get a sense for the community. Had never been to

(15:53):
Jacksonville before. Both of us had been to a million
alland but neither one of us had spent anytime in Jacksonville,
so we got We took the opportunity to get to
know the community a little bit, and it was it
was a really, really fortunate turn of events from you
and my family. More perspectives following this from bi Star
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(16:39):
loan subject to approval, insured by n c U. A
to be blunt, Lamping was looking at an enormous job.
The Jaguars were a mess on the field, but the
problems extended far beyond football to a business model. It
had to be broken in order to be fixed. Somehow,
it didn't seem like an obstacle. It seemed like an
opportun entity and one he didn't want to miss. You know,

(17:03):
the idea of being able to work for somebody like Shot,
I mean there's you know, I've I've had the opportunity
to work for, you know, some of the best owners
in sports, you know, the Bush family, the Mayor family, UM,
Woody Johnson, UH, the DeWitt family. So some really really

(17:25):
top notchment very lucky to uh to work for those
types of owners. Not everybody is that lucky, you know.
There there there are some owners that are really difficult
to work for. UM. So you know, the idea of
of you know, being able to to work for Shod

(17:46):
um and also the you know, the only thing I
was really concerned about in in coming down here, and
and and and and Shod allayed those fears. The first
time I met him, I was just wondering whether it
it would be enough, you know, just working for a
football team in Jacksonville, Florida, you know, because I mean

(18:07):
I worked for a very prominent, very you know nationally
and internationally, had claimed baseball team in St. Louis, President
Sal's Karlos for fourteen years. And as I got near
the end of that, it didn't seem like there was
enough on the horizon too. You know, I want to
continue to be challenged, I want to continue to learn.
I think those are things that you know, help you know,

(18:27):
keep as young as as we age, you know, as
I age, certainly. And my only concern was would would
it get what you would I get bored down here?
And after talking with Shod, you know, the idea to
be able to you know, not only focus on fixing
the our base business, which is the Jacksonville j was
first and foremost were a football team that will always

(18:47):
be the most important thing. But then the idea of
knowing you know, you know what I did know about
opportunities here at the stadium. UH, the idea to be
able to be created, to be able to work in
an environment where you can be creative and and and
try to come up with new solutions to old problems.

(19:07):
And they have an owner that UM, you know, believes
in investing in the team and also believes that the
only reason you make investments is to make a return.
The alternative doesn't last very long. So UM first the
London initiative, it was very really exciting from a career perspective,

(19:28):
UM shots purchase of the Fulham Football Club UM is
very interesting from a career perspective, UM being much more
aggressive in terms of getting into the entertainment business, specifically
the music business with Daily's Place and now a real
focus on development here in Jacksonville, and particularly as it

(19:51):
relates to the Jacksonville development shipyards and lot J along
with Daily's Place. To be able to do something that
you know not only well is very important for the
long term viability of of the football team here in Jacksonville,
but it also gives you the opportunity to do something
very special for this community and for downtown, and those

(20:12):
types of opportunities don't don't come along every day where
you can do something that is really really supportive of
your business goals, but then you also have this huge
ancillary benefit of doing something outstanding for the community. In
November of con began to share his expansive vision for
the Jaguars with the city of Jacksonville. The commitment to

(20:34):
play games in London initially put the fan base on
its heels. They were worried about the future of their team,
but six games in seven years into the Jaguars relationship
with the United Kingdom, the title London has become one
of Jacksonville's strongest bonds. The early following the ground was
done by the National Football League and and and to

(20:55):
this to this day. Um. You know, the London strategy
from a football perspective, UM is really driven by the
league and the International Committee. Now our role is really
really important because not only are we serving the league
and it's in its attempt to develop the UK as

(21:16):
a as a as an NFL market, but also to
be able to to UH gain some knowledge as to
how how will that market respond to the repeated appearances
of a team. Okay, so one of the real benefits
of of the Jaguars UM playing in in in London

(21:40):
each year is first we're helping out the league. Second,
we're helping out ourselves because the obvious economic benefit of
playing there versus that game being played here in Jacksonville.
And third, our ability to work hand in hand with
hand with the league in terms of of how we
develop uh the market. So we have you know, four

(22:02):
full time Jaguar employees that are that are based in London. Um.
You know, we've gone from you know, pretty much an
afterthought of a franchise throughout the UK UH to UH
two in the top ten in terms of popularity UH
and that continues to grow. Um. Um. We've gotten very
involved in the community in London, just as we do

(22:24):
here in Jacksonville, working very hard h on charitable activities,
principally focusing on fighting uh, childhood obesity and doing it
in a way uh that you know, young boys and
girls in the UK are learning about American football. So
we've introduced something called jag Tag, which is basically flag football.

(22:48):
But you know there's thousands of of of children that
are playing this through their elementary schools. It is spread,
Um started in London, it has spread outside London. Uh.
You know, we supported very aggressively from a funding standpoint
um and also we we actually have a partnership with
the with the British government where they actually fund this program.

(23:10):
So it was it was difficult at first because anytime
you go into a new market you have to you know,
you're gonna make a lot of mistakes just because you're
you know, you're not you're not wise to the ways
of that particular community. But you know, over the years
we've been going there, you know, it seems like a
second home for us. Without any question. You know, I'm

(23:31):
I'm over there, uh you know once a month, I'm
actually flying there this afternoon and and I'm coming back
a day and a half later, So it's it's a
it's a flight, but it's not like, you know, you
can't get there and have a couple of meetings then
come back the next morning. Um, And it's it's it's
it's it's from a career perspective, and I'm not talking
about by me here, but it makes working for the

(23:56):
Jacksonville Jaguars so much more interesting and appealing to people
who were thinking about joining this organization. And you know,
we're only going to be as good as the as
as the quality of the people that were able to
to recruiting an attract and develop here with the Jaguars
and the idea that we're involved in so many different

(24:17):
things with London, you know, being close to the top
of the list, it really makes this organization much more
interesting for people to to join that it would be
if we were just you know, another NFL team that
happened to be located in the state of Florida. That
their commitment has been questioned, truthfully, is constantly questioned, is

(24:38):
just part of my pan The NFL's smallest market, one
with unique challenges that require innovative solutions. Still for a
guy from the show me state, it would be nice
if people would look at what they've done. Jacksonville in
terms of its own somewhat self paranoia reminds me a
lot of my hometown and St. Louis. St. Louis is

(24:59):
the same way, I think, because it's a smaller market.
You know, we're all always sort of looking over our
shoulder a little bit and you know, wondering, you know,
when that that next storm is going to appear. And
I think that applies to people's view of the football
team because the uh, you know, the Jaguars arrived here
against all odds, and this the community, this community in

(25:23):
specifically NFL and Jaguar fans. You know, we're put through
a lot, through a lot at the beginning in terms
of if you don't do this, we're not going to
get an NFL team, if you don't buy eleven thousand
club seats, and of course of a couple of weeks,
then we're not going to get an NFL team. I
think the community for a long time felt they were

(25:44):
always being used, whether it was the Oilers coming down
here and um, you know, the Jacksonville was always the
city you'd go to negotiate to get the deal you
really want in a different city. And I think I
think the team, you know, inflicted some of it on
the community as well, where you know, there there wasn't

(26:07):
um an absence of talk about well, if we don't
sell these tickets, then bad things are gonna happen. The
games are gonna be on TV, the team may relocate,
and I don't, I don't. I don't know that there
was ever, you know, really clear evidence of the level
of equipment, although I know it, you know it certainly

(26:28):
you know existed. So so the fans went through a lot.
Now Shod comes in and it's very clear in terms
of what his goals are. In fact, one of the
early things that that that was determined was we're not
all the games are gonna be on TV. We don't
care whether we have to buy the tickets or not.
We're not gonna hold the the the broadcast of the

(26:51):
Jaguars game home game over the heads of our fans.
Um and and that he that he focused on investing.
And you know, we don't own the stadium, but you know,
Shot is invested just in the stadium alone, well in
excess of a hundred million dollars of his money. In
the stadium and then we UM develop a structure with

(27:15):
the London game. There really is was designed and has
worked out to be a win win both of the
Jaguars in London and locally here, uh for for Jacksonville
in terms of awareness, in terms of economic development, in
terms of additional tourism benefits, all those things have accrued,
all those benefits of a crew to Jacksonville as part

(27:37):
of this this this the London strategy. And then you
have the big investment in Daily's place and then you
have um a commitment to invest you know, hundreds of
millions of dollars more in downtown Jacksonville through the shipyards
and lot J And then somebody asked you while you're
moving the team. You know, it's I mean weird. You know,

(28:01):
we live in the criticism business. If you work for
a professional sports team, Uh that's you're you're always getting
criticized because there's no perfect team, you know, uh, there's
there there's always room to improve, and people talk about
our business all the time. You know, just turn on
the you know radio here in in uh in Jacksonville,

(28:24):
and if you're if you're listening to a sports talk station,
you know, of the discussion throughout the entire year, not
just during the football season. The entire year is gonna
be about football, and of that, you know, it's gonna
be talking about the Jaguars. So, um, you know it's
you know, I've said, I guess I have the benefit

(28:45):
of of having worked in sports for a long time,
so I sort of under understand that. And you know,
you you you you should have really thick skin as
it relates to this, you know these types of things. Um,
you know, and and nobody feels sorry for you that
you work for a professional sports team. There's not a
person here in Jacksonville that you know would reach awe,

(29:09):
you know, the burden you have of having to work
for the local NFL team. That just doesn't happen. Okay,
So people don't feel sorry for you North should they? Um?
And then you know when you're actually writing big checks
and this is shot when Shod's writing big checks and uh, all,
all all he's ever asked, and all as an organization
we've ever asked is judges by our actions, not by

(29:30):
you know what someone informed pundent you know out of
New York or Los Angeles may write judges based on
what we say, but more importantly judges by what we do.
And then you know, sometimes you'll get those questions and yeah,
I can I can see how Shot and others would
hire of that very quickly. What the Jaguars did is
what they said they were going to do. They attacked problems,

(29:52):
look for new solutions, didn't blame their poor record or customers,
and waited for their effort to pay off, which seemed
to happen until an inadvertent whistle in New England. The
athleticism that Miles Jack showed just to be able to
run down the runner he was little, literally on the
other side of the field, he caught up to him,

(30:15):
he created the fumble. He was self aware enough to
stay away from him, so he wasn't touched down. Um
recovered the fumble and was on his way to scoring,
perhaps not not knowing what may have happened that had
we gotten to the Super Bowl, but perhaps the most

(30:36):
impactful touchdown in the history of the franchise. And when
you look back on that, had that call been playing,
had that call been made the way it should have
UM this year, I believe we would be recognizing that
play as the as the biggest play in the history
of the franchise. I mean, you think about that, you

(30:58):
go from an official who fortunately they're they're human too,
but an air is made. But the consequences of that,
you know, you know, we can talk about the Super
Bowl everything beyond that, and and and and every team
goes through this. Look at the Saints this year, but
that that play would have I think, you know, you

(31:18):
would know better than better than than me, but that
would have been the most that would have been the
biggest play in the history of the franchise, just like that. So, um,
we've been we've been spending a lot of money investing,
you know, in the in the business side of the
Jaguars since shod bought the team. Investing in facilities, but
almost you know, probably more importantly, investing in people, investing

(31:41):
in products, all those types of things. And because there
was a great opportunity to increase you know, what I
would describe as the revenue infrastructure of the Jacksonville Jaguars,
and um, you know that that takes time, you know,
redoing the clubs, redoing the stadium, h removing seats, um

(32:02):
creating new seating products, all those types of things you
can't do overnight. So we you know, we we finished
most of that work, and then we have two thousand
seventeen happened and and and the impact on our business,
particularly going from seventeen to eighteen was really really significant.
And the reason it was so significant was a huge

(32:23):
increase in terms of interest of UH interest in the team,
but also we had the revenue infrastructure in place to
fully capitalize on that, UH and that led us into
two thousand eighteen. And as you know, as we've talked about,
you know, UH most recently at the State of the
franchise UM the the seven highest individual ticket UH gates

(32:50):
the amount of ticket revenue that we collect on a
game by game basis, the seven seven highest in history
of the franchise. All happened in two thousand eighteen as
a result of interested in the club and also are
being able to to take advantage of the of the
revenue infrastructure that we've invested in built and also quite honestly,
you know, the opportunity to sell through a price increase,

(33:12):
which has been difficult to do in this marketplace. So
seventeen was really really important. UM, you know, eighteen, UH,
you know was you know, certain I don't think anybody
would describe as anything other than a huge disappointment. But
because of the investments we've made in the past, and
because of the residual impact of of of two thousand
and seventeen UM, you know this, this, this, this year

(33:35):
will be a very difficult year compared to two thousand
and eighteen UM, but it's gonna be a year compared
to prior years. UM. You know that's that's still okay.
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(34:18):
forget that it's your money. All loan subject to approval,
insured by n c U. A. Lamping has worked in
the world of professional sports long enough to know how
things work. His career began in one of America's great
baseball towns, and it continues today in a city that
loves football as much as St. Louis loves its game.
His way of thinking, time is the only variable for

(34:39):
Jacksonville to be to football, but his hometown is to baseball. Well,
we we need to start having consistent success on the field.
I apologize for keep on going back to St. Louis,
but born a razor, and that's that's what I know.
One of the one of the reasons St. Louis is
such a great baseball too, is that it didn't It
didn't developed overnight. In fact, for a long time Saint

(35:02):
Louis had two baseball teams and lost one of them.
Saint Lois Brown's went on to become the Baltimorials. But St.
Louis has has had the Cardinals for well and access
of a hundred years. But most importantly from my perspective,
um they've they've had uh generational success, which means no
matter what generation you are as a as a St.

(35:24):
Louis and as a Saint Louis Cardinal fan, there there
there were there were teams that one World Series and that,
and there were players that became Hall of Famers. If
you grew up in St. Louis, you know no matter
what age you are during during your your formative years,
you came across a championship team and you came across

(35:46):
some Hall of Fame players, and you know, in order
to do that, you need to have success on the field,
because you're not gonna have success on the field without
great players. So first and foremost, this franchise needs to
win more frequently. In addition to that, we need to
continue to get a little age on us. You know,
we you know, we still have, you know, uh, relatively

(36:06):
young franchise when you compare it to some of the
more historic franchises. The fact that you know, this is
a bit of a transient town and so many people
move here that are that are really fortunate to move here,
but sometimes they bring their football allegiances with them. So
there's no no reason why if if we can have

(36:26):
success and we can become an even more important part,
in an integral part of this community. I think this
downtown development is really an important part of this. What
we should aspire to is to become the Green Bay
of the South. That's what we should aspire to. And
you know, people look at Green Bay today and there

(36:48):
a lot of people assume it's always been that way.
That's not the case. You know, there was there was
a period not that long ago where they where they
played close to half of their schedule at Milwaukee County
Stadium in Milwaukee. They didn't even play all their games
at the lambeau Field. But now you know, they're they
are the true definition of a regional franchise and national franchise.

(37:08):
And uh, you know the reason that occurred, there's there's
a lot of reasons why that happened, but one of
the point of the key reasons is they had success.
And they had success not every year, not even not
every decade, but they had constant success up there. He
wasn't sure if Jacksonville would be enough, and at times

(37:28):
he had to wonder if it might be too much,
but he isn't backing down, and his confidence in the
present and the future drives the franchise towards CON's vision.
This job is so different than what I had originally
anticipated that it could have could have been. And I'm
so thankful and and all the thanks goes to Shot

(37:50):
for having the the ambition, UH to take on a
problem that not many people would have osen to take
on the easiest thing in the world would have been
for somebody to come in and just move the franchise
to a bigger market. Are you kidding? Let me look
look in some respects that That's the thing that I
think all of us are are most proud of, is

(38:12):
that you you know, you go through a period that
you know, maybe as much as almost twenty four months
where you had active discussions, really active discussions about uh
team relocations and who's gonna go to Los Angeles? Is
it gonna be the Rams, is it gonna be the Chargers,
Is it gonna be the Raiders? And you go through

(38:34):
that whole process, and the Jaguars weren't afterthought. I'll guarantee
you if that same process had been going on before
Shot I bought the team and before the Jaguars would
have been prominent in those discussions. Does that mean does
not mean that the team would have relocated. I'm not
suggesting that, but I guarantee they would have been prominent
in those discussions in terms of what team's gonna go
to l A. Okay, even even if there was no

(38:56):
nothing happening here that would have suggested that the speculation
would have been because what what what people would have
been speculating about is Let's look over the recent history
of the Jaguars blacking out the games, tarps on the seats,
um appealing to the community that if you don't buy tickets,
then you made lose your football team. So so all things,

(39:17):
all things considered, you know, I think this community is
blessed to have shot Con as the owner of football
team because he has staying power and he also has
high ambition. Uh and uh, you know there's we've we've
we've made a tremendous amount of progress. We still have
a long way to go, but you know, I can

(39:37):
say with a thousand percent confidence, you know our better
days are endless