Another day goes by and it’s another day I lose hope that Jacksonville will ever be considered a sports town. When I moved to the area five years ago I thought it would be easy to see passion for local teams. I quickly realized this was far from the truth. I was told this is a huge college football town, again I found that to be a lie. Truth is unless it says Gators, Seminoles, or trucks in the title most people don’t care.

It’s really pathetic that a major city in America with only 1 major professional sports team can’t even avoid blackouts. Maybe it’s because I’m spoiled growing up around Philadelphia where the passion for sports is unmatched. A city that just put its single game tickets for the Eagles for sale and they sold out the season in less than an hour. Now I know what you’re thinking, the Eagles are a good team if the Jags would win games I would go see them. Trust me the Eagles had some of the worst teams in the history of the NFL and I can honestly only remember 1 blackout ever.  Philly is a city that has a four major sports, indoor football, indoor lacrosse, soccer, major college games and still has no problem selling tickets. Sure Philly may have more people but they are struggling for money like everyone else plus they have to worry about state and city taxes taken out of their paychecks unlike the great residents of Jacksonville.

We all know that people don’t want to go Jags games, just look at ticket sales if you need proof but I get it. It’s expensive to pay for tickets, then at least 25 bucks to park, all the drinks and food, plus you have to sit outside in the heat. It’s easier to just stay home but why do the citizens of this city have to turn their nose up every time they hear the word sport and Jacksonville in the same sentence.  I mean I would love to see the Suns average attendance if you subtract the Thursday night dollar beer night. I bet it’s pretty low and that’s so sad considering they just won back to back championships. Even the Sharks got a bad rap when they were announced but look how far they have come. I bet they average 9-10 thousand fans a game and they have become one of the best franchises in the AFL with two straight division titles in only two years of existence.

Latest example is the new indoor lacrosse team coming to Jacksonville. I’ve been to many an indoor lacrosse game and they’re sick. It’s like the outside game on steroids, twice the goals, twice the action, and twice the excitement.  What I can’t seem to grasp is that this new team hasn’t officially been announced yet and people are already complaining. We put up the post on our Facebook page yesterday afternoon and here’s just a few of the comments.

 “Uh er um, Yeah! There's a big Lacrosse following here in Jax. It should do well.”,

“we can't support a football team and they want to bring in more sports!”,

“Just what this town needs, another sports team it won't support.”

Instead of thinking this could be a fun and more importantly CHEAP way to spend a night out with the family; this is the first thing that comes to mind.  I have two pieces of advice then I’m calling it a day. City residents stop crying about a new fun thing to do in Jacksonville that will create some jobs and bring revenue to the city and to the guys in charge of the new lacrosse team, name it the Jax Gators and maybe some people will accidentally show up and have a good time.