Jacksonville to Jaguars: Your lease is to be terminated (UPDATED with Denial)

Shad Khan

((ht: firstcoastnews.com))

Really? With all the tumult and rumors that the Jacksonville Jaguars might leave the city and the city terminates their lease with the team?

Huh?

Jaguars owner Shad Khan is asking the same question tonight after finding out in the Newspaper that the city has found his team in default of their lease and said lease is going to be terminated.

The reason: The city says the team violated the lease by agreeing to hire SMG to manage Everbank Field.

The L.A Jaguars?

Not likely. Although....

Khan is not so amused by the letter from the city of Jacksonville's attorney. So much so that he fired off a letter to the city's mayor, Alvin Brown. And since the city appears to have released their issue with the team to the paper, Khan released his perplexed letter to the media.

You can read it RIGHT HERE

Read the original story on this from a former employer, First Coast News RIGHT HERE

To his credit, Khan is saying all the right things. He says the city never gave him a chance to discuss the process with him. Thus far...the city hasn't commented.

We don't normally side with team owners on many issues, but the city of Jacksonville needs to be really, really careful here. Khan is stating that he just wants the termination rescinded and a chance to compromise, the city hasn't expressed that opinion yet.

If Mayor Brown isn't careful, he may chase the team to Los Angeles without realizing what happened. We truly believe that Khan wants to try and make a go of it in Jacksonville. And having lived there, we can tell you if the team starts to win, people will come.

But they'll come with a caveat. Pro football is not the king in Jacksonville. That's why the fans aren't AS loyal as they are in many other NFL cities. And the city got hit pretty hard by the recession. It isn't a town of mega-rich people. But the are passionate football fans. Very passionate.

We believe that the two sides here will work out there little dispute, but be forewarned, the table is being set and the team...and Khan...if they want it; now have their excuse to leave.

We were going to post this video as a gag, but if you listen to it closely, there are a few parallels here:



1930 UPDATE: After receiving the letter from Khan asking the city to withdraw a lease default letter, Mayor Alvin Brown promptly wrote back and said that the city does not want to terminate the Jaguars' lease.

"Let me be crystal clear: the City of Jacksonville has absolutely no intention whatsoever of terminating its lease with the Jacksonville Jaguars," Brown wrote in a response to Khan.

Here's the letter... thanks to our friends at FirstCoastNews...

And here's Donna Deegan with the breaker...