Undervaluing the London Relationship

[ben says]

I don't post much anymore - apologies for that.

Ran into a dear friend from high school today...haven't talked much in the past 15 years. Turns out he's now working for the Jags.

Turns out that his boss and her team are headed to London today to work on Shad Kahn's other team, Fulham. Apparently SK is making a point of bringing JAX staff to LON and vice versa. He wants JAX staff to see how LON staff works. He is really trying to create an international marketplace between the two cities, and it's never been more clear than today.

Dozens of people flying back and forth, LON to JAX and more, is such a net benefit for the city. Being exposed to soccer, SK's international team, and more, really only benefit the larger JAX community.

All good stuff. I like what I'm seeing!

[Adam White]

I don't post much anymore - apologies for that.

Ran into a dear friend from high school today...haven't talked much in the past 15 years. Turns out he's now working for the Jags.

Turns out that his boss and her team are headed to London today to work on Shad Kahn's other team, Fulham. Apparently SK is making a point of bringing JAX staff to LON and vice versa. He wants JAX staff to see how LON staff works. He is really trying to create an international marketplace between the two cities, and it's never been more clear than today.

Dozens of people flying back and forth, LON to JAX and more, is such a net benefit for the city. Being exposed to soccer, SK's international team, and more, really only benefit the larger JAX community.

All good stuff. I like what I'm seeing!

I am not a Jags fan, but if I were, I'd worry if Khan were trying to have the Jags staff "learn" something from a club that very narrowly avoided relegation to the third division of English football (as of today, they have one match left and are safe in 21st place - 22- 24 are going to be relegated at the end of the season).

[ben says]

I don't post much anymore - apologies for that.

Ran into a dear friend from high school today...haven't talked much in the past 15 years. Turns out he's now working for the Jags.

Turns out that his boss and her team are headed to London today to work on Shad Kahn's other team, Fulham. Apparently SK is making a point of bringing JAX staff to LON and vice versa. He wants JAX staff to see how LON staff works. He is really trying to create an international marketplace between the two cities, and it's never been more clear than today.

Dozens of people flying back and forth, LON to JAX and more, is such a net benefit for the city. Being exposed to soccer, SK's international team, and more, really only benefit the larger JAX community.

All good stuff. I like what I'm seeing!

I am not a Jags fan, but if I were, I'd worry if Khan were trying to have the Jags staff "learn" something from a club that very narrowly avoided relegation to the third division of English football (as of today, they have one match left and are safe in 21st place - 22- 24 are going to be relegated at the end of the season).

Just to be clear, the people I met today headed to LON were all part of the Jag's marketing and finance team.

[Adam White]

I don't post much anymore - apologies for that.

Ran into a dear friend from high school today...haven't talked much in the past 15 years. Turns out he's now working for the Jags.

Turns out that his boss and her team are headed to London today to work on Shad Kahn's other team, Fulham. Apparently SK is making a point of bringing JAX staff to LON and vice versa. He wants JAX staff to see how LON staff works. He is really trying to create an international marketplace between the two cities, and it's never been more clear than today.

Dozens of people flying back and forth, LON to JAX and more, is such a net benefit for the city. Being exposed to soccer, SK's international team, and more, really only benefit the larger JAX community.

All good stuff. I like what I'm seeing!

I am not a Jags fan, but if I were, I'd worry if Khan were trying to have the Jags staff "learn" something from a club that very narrowly avoided relegation to the third division of English football (as of today, they have one match left and are safe in 21st place - 22- 24 are going to be relegated at the end of the season).

Just to be clear, the people I met today headed to LON were all part of the Jag's marketing and finance team.

Oh, okay. They'll learn how to market a losing team to yuppies and American tourists, then 

[RattlerGator]

Adam, I think you're looking at this entirely the wrong way. They are going over there to teach Fulham how to achieve against the odds. That's the Jacksonville Jaguars story, business-wise. On the field product should catch up with the business side this season. I know soccer folks can have a truly outsized sense of their sport but no professional sports league in the world rivals the NFL. The Jaguars are led by a President, Mark Lamping, who has experience at the top with one of the best-run baseball clubs in the nation *and* experience running the number one football stadium in the number one media market in the world, New York City. It looks to me like they (Shad Khan and his underlings) are about to do a patient rebuild there in London just as they have done here.

http://www1.fulhamfc.com/news/2016/may/06/slavisa-jokanovic-rebuild-the-team

Though some of the artsy-fartsy people on this board are incredibly ignorant about the Jaguars, we're extremely lucky to have world-class leadership with our team. Few enterprises in Jacksonville can confidently make that "world-class" claim and back it up. I'd expect Fulham to have things pointed in the right direction soon and I look for Shad to do something really interesting with his renovation of that Craven Cottage facility.

[Adam White]

Adam, I think you're looking at this entirely the wrong way. They are going over there to teach Fulham how to achieve against the odds. That's the Jacksonville Jaguars story, business-wise. On the field product should catch up with the business side this season. I know soccer folks can have a truly outsized sense of their sport but no professional sports league in the world rivals the NFL. The Jaguars are led by a President, Mark Lamping, who has experience at the top with one of the best-run baseball clubs in the nation *and* experience running the number one football stadium in the number one media market in the world, New York City. It looks to me like they (Shad Khan and his underlings) are about to do a patient rebuild there in London just as they have done here.

http://www1.fulhamfc.com/news/2016/may/06/slavisa-jokanovic-rebuild-the-team

Though some of the artsy-fartsy people on this board are incredibly ignorant about the Jaguars, we're extremely lucky to have world-class leadership with our team. Few enterprises in Jacksonville can confidently make that "world-class" claim and back it up. I'd expect Fulham to have things pointed in the right direction soon and I look for Shad to do something really interesting with his renovation of that Craven Cottage facility.

RG, I think you're looking at this entirely the wrong way: I was joking.

That said, I really couldn't care less about the Jaguars or Fulham.

I'm not "artsy fartsy" though. I just stopped caring about the NFL about 20 years or so ago and never liked Fulham in the first place. I have been to their ground, though. It's nice enough - even though there is practically zero atmosphere. But that's down to the fans, not the space. I wouldn't expect Khan to do too much to the stadium. But no matter what he does, it won't change the fact that it's full of toffs and tourists. Well, not "full": you can always get tickets to a Fulham match, even when they were in the Premier League.

[Murder_me_Rachel]

Though some of the artsy-fartsy people on this board are incredibly ignorant about the Jaguars, we're extremely lucky to have world-class leadership with our team. Few enterprises in Jacksonville can confidently make that "world-class" claim and back it up. I'd expect Fulham to have things pointed in the right direction soon and I look for Shad to do something really interesting with his renovation of that Craven Cottage facility.

As neither an artsy fartsy nor ignorant about the Jags, I'd like to say WRONG.  Wrong, wrong, wrong , wrong.  The team is lucky to have US.  There is nothing lucky about having an almost billion-dollar corporation exploit your taxbase and engage in the most blatant corporate welfare in the nation.  If you're a fan, it's great the team has seeming smart individuals running it. But the city isn't "lucky" to have a team, nor is any city in America with an NFL team.

[Adam White]

As neither an artsy fartsy nor ignorant about the Jags, I'd like to say WRONG.  Wrong, wrong, wrong , wrong.  The team is lucky to have US.  There is nothing lucky about having an almost billion-dollar corporation exploit your taxbase and engage in the most blatant corporate welfare in the nation.  If you're a fan, it's great the team has seeming smart individuals running it. But the city isn't "lucky" to have a team, nor is any city in America with an NFL team.

True dat.

[RattlerGator]

Adam White -- gotcha.

MMR, we'll have to disagree. The team is definitely not lucky to have us -- they'd have a broad choice of other locations from which to choose in this country if they decided to leave, especially with one of the richest owners in the League at the helm. Choice / options objectively determines whether one is or is not fortunate it seems to me. I'm quite sure we could argue about that too.

And yes, artsy-fartsy was a poor choice of words. Sorry 'bout dat.