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Shahid Khan: The New Face Of The NFL And The American Dream
Forbes ^ | 9/5/12 | Brian Solomon

Posted on 09/06/2012 8:30:33 AM PDT by KingOfVagabonds

With sweat and smarts, Pakistan-born Shahid Khan built a $3.4 billion manufacturing juggernaut from the ruins of an Illinois auto parts maker. To celebrate, he just bought one of the worst teams in the NFL, with the pledge of a similar turnaround. Only in America, folks.

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...


TOPICS: Sports
KEYWORDS: shahidkhan
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To: Buckeye McFrog
I have known several Pakistanis who were all very decent people.

I remember hiring three in our company's stamping plant in Detroit. Two were skilled trades and one was a production metal finisher.

Shafiq, the metal finisher, never forgot me for providing him needed employment. Whenever he saw me out in the shop he'd always come over and shake my hand and ask how I was........He was a wonderful man and always complained to me how his fellow finishers were lazy....and it was true.

21 posted on 09/06/2012 10:03:15 AM PDT by Hot Tabasco (My 6 pack abs are now a full keg......)
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To: discostu

Because they had a stadium that seats 76,000, which made it one of the largest in the NFL.

Wayne Weaver, the first owner of the team, wanted to build a stadium that seated 65,000 - which is the capacity now. But the city balked because they host the Florida-Georgia game, which requires a greater seating capacity.

The current stadium seats more than Chicago, more than Pittsburgh. According to your logic, shouldn’t they be selling more tickets too?


22 posted on 09/06/2012 10:06:57 AM PDT by Jaguarmike
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To: discostu

Because they had a stadium that seats 76,000, which made it one of the largest in the NFL.

Wayne Weaver, the first owner of the team, wanted to build a stadium that seated 65,000 - which is the capacity now. But the city balked because they host the Florida-Georgia game, which requires a greater seating capacity.

The current stadium seats more than Chicago, more than Pittsburgh. According to your logic, shouldn’t they be selling more tickets too?


23 posted on 09/06/2012 10:07:15 AM PDT by Jaguarmike
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To: Jaguarmike

They were selling out before, then they stopped, now they’ve shut down over 10% of the stadium, and they’ve still don’t sellout, and still use an obscure NFL loophole to avoid blackouts. That is a problem selling tickets.


24 posted on 09/06/2012 10:14:48 AM PDT by discostu (Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends.)
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To: al baby

“Sorry Rush”

Yep. I’ll return to watching the NFL and buying their products when they offer Rush an opportunity to invest in a team and apologize for their previous mistreatment. If his conservative money isn’t good enough for the NFL, then neither is my conservative business.


25 posted on 09/06/2012 10:35:23 AM PDT by LaserJock
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To: SoCal Pubbie

“There were pro football teams in LA”

Exactly,”were” as in not now.


26 posted on 09/06/2012 10:50:39 AM PDT by V_TWIN (obama=where there's smoke, there's mirrors)
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To: V_TWIN

Yup, things don’t always stay the same.


27 posted on 09/06/2012 11:40:16 AM PDT by SoCal Pubbie
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To: discostu

Yes, they were overperforming for a market their size. Of course, they were also winning.

If you don’t think other team use those loopholes, let me introduce you to the Bucs, Bengals, Dolphins, Chiefs and Chargers.

The NFL lowered their blackout threshold this year to 85%. The Jags did not accept it.

Not even people who live in LA, who want a team in LA, believe the Jaguars are coming there.


28 posted on 09/06/2012 11:41:31 AM PDT by Jaguarmike
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To: Jaguarmike

I didn’t say other teams didn’t use the loophole. I’m simply pointing out that indeed the Jags clearly have a long term history of having trouble selling tickets. I also didn’t say I thought they were moving to LA, I don’t think ANYBODY is moving to LA. LA is more valuable to the NFL as a threat. Most of the stadiums that have been built using public funding (so not the Pats new stadium, and Pittsburgh and Dallas found other ways to get public funds) the team at one point threatened to move to LA id they didn’t get a new building. The lack of a team in LA is a revenue generator... well a stadium generator.


29 posted on 09/06/2012 12:56:00 PM PDT by discostu (Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends.)
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To: discostu

Again, the Bengals, Chargers, Bucs, Dolphins, Rams and Raiders also clearly have a long term problem of selling tickets. Every one of those teams had a blackout last season. (The Raiders, I believe, had 8, and the Bucs had 7.) The Jags haven’t. And every one of those teams fielded a winning team at least once since 2007. The Jags haven’t.

Last Thursday, the Jags had 63,000 fans in the stadium. For a preseason game.

The Jags aren’t going anywhere.


30 posted on 09/06/2012 1:09:31 PM PDT by Jaguarmike
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To: Jaguarmike

And again I DIDN’T SAY THEY WERE THE ONLY TEAM. the conversation was:
You - they don’t have a problem selling tickets
me - here’s evidence they do

It doesn’t matter if they’ve got the highest sales of any team in the league for that conversation, the evidence shows that they do indeed have problems selling ticket, even if they had the least problems in the league (which they clearly don’t) it wouldn’t change the fact that they do have problems.

And again I DIDN’T SAY THEY WERE LEAVING.

Stick to what’s actually written and stop saying I said things I didn’t.


31 posted on 09/06/2012 1:15:33 PM PDT by discostu (Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends.)
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To: discostu

Your evidence is the tarps. And we’ve been over that.

By the way, I’m a thirteen year season ticket holder of the team. Can you give me just a little credit for knowing what I’m talking about?


32 posted on 09/06/2012 1:42:10 PM PDT by Jaguarmike
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To: Jaguarmike

That’s the start of the evidence, then there’s the constant buying of their own tickets to avoid blackout even AFTER the tarps.

If you actually knew what you were talking about I’d give you credit. Problem is the facts are readily available and the facts are that the Jags have a hard time selling tickets.


33 posted on 09/06/2012 2:04:52 PM PDT by discostu (Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends.)
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To: discostu

It wasn’t constant - it was twice last year, against the Bengals and Texans. In 2009, there were no such buyouts. And there won’t be this year either.

Yes, the Jaguars face a challenge selling tickets. So do a lot of other teams, which I’ve listed.


34 posted on 09/06/2012 3:57:20 PM PDT by Jaguarmike
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To: Jaguarmike

Right there were no buyouts in 2009 and only 1 home game wasn’t blacked out. We don’t really know how many times since then they’ve done the buyouts because that’s not published. We know at least a couple of times they came close to being blacked out but right before the deadline enough tickets were sold, sold to who... And as for this year who knows, they aren’t publishing sales data.

Ah see finally you admit the truth. That could have been the entire conversation. You said they didn’t have a problem selling tickets, I pointed out that they did, then you threw out a bunch of red herrings and now finally admitted, yeah have problems selling tickets. Other teams don’t matter for this conversation, that’s just the red herring again.


35 posted on 09/06/2012 4:06:42 PM PDT by discostu (Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends.)
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To: discostu

Yes, I believe I mentioned that the Jags haven’t had a blackout in two years - which goes back to the last game of 2009. And since then, they’ve had a strong community outreach - lead by Tony Boselli. In fact, Boselli’s group was formed during that horrific 2009 season, and its original goal was to sell out that last game - against the Colts. They did that, and expanded their support.

What does it matter if the Jags need last minute sales to lift the blackout? That’s a lot better than the half a dozen teams who’ve had blackouts.

And yes, the Jags have published their ticket sales. As of July, they were ahead of last year’s pace.


36 posted on 09/06/2012 4:19:03 PM PDT by Jaguarmike
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To: Jaguarmike

Because those “last minute sales” were likely to themselves:

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-09-10/sports/30155324_1_home-opener-jacksonville-jaguars-nfl-fans

Games don’t have to be sold out to be on television. Teams are allowed to buy unsold tickets at 34 cents on the dollar to lift the local TV blackout.

Which means they really weren’t sold.


37 posted on 09/07/2012 8:14:07 AM PDT by discostu (Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends.)
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