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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The Jacksonville Jaguars have a new logo to signify a new era.
New video boards, which will cost about $50 million and will be the largest in the NFL, are next.
Billionaire owner Shad Khan, team president Mark Lamping, general manager Dave Caldwell and coach Gus Bradley unveiled the redesigned logo Tuesday, a minor facelift for a franchise that's making major changes.
"If the Jacksonville Jaguars are truly to experience a rebirth, it was time for a new logo," Khan said. "Not a radical change. We wanted to find the right look that was faithful to the past and respects the players and the fans, and also bring unmistakably a new energy to the Jaguars franchise.
"Our new symbol for a new generation."
The new logo, which comes on the heels of hiring Caldwell and Bradley following a 2-14 season, maintains traditional colors (black, teal and gold) and offers a more realistic and fierce jaguar head.
"Now that's a cool cat," Khan said.
The Jaguars also released their theme for 2013 -- "Stand United" -- and announced tickets prices for next season as well as a series of fan forums.
Arguably the biggest news of the day came with the release of concept drawings for the massive video boards, which would top those in Houston and Dallas. They are slated to be ready by the 2014 season, although the city of Jacksonville still has to approve the plans and organize funding.
"We want EverBank Field to be a destination where people are going to come to see it," Khan said.
Whether stadium upgrades and re-branding efforts help generate more revenue remains to be seen. The Jaguars rank 29th in the league in local revenue, a significant drop over a 16-year span.
Jacksonville ranked second in that category during its inaugural season in 1995.
"We need to fix this," Lamping said. "If we do not, we threaten the financial stability of the franchise in Jacksonville. ... Whether it's the National Football League or any other business, you have to compete economically. And to believe that local revenue is not important, then people are ignoring what is happened in the National Football League over the last 10 years.
"To believe that somehow you can be satisfied and be competing on equal footing with every other National Football League team by being at the bottom, I think that's not true."
In hopes of increasing revenue, the Jaguars are implementing a strategic price increase for season tickets. Although 80 percent of season tickets remain the same price for 2013, the team increased prices for low-cost, high-demand seats.
The team also plans to create all-inclusive ticket packages as well as on-field seating for next season.
"We know the No. 1 thing we have to do is put a better team on the field for our fans, but you can't expect that your focus can only be on it," said Lamping, who is charged with the business side of a franchise that has missed the playoffs 11 times in the last 13 years. "That needs to be No. 1, but there's other things we need to do to allow us to compete, because every team is trying to win.
"To somehow believe that one team is going to win each and every year and that's going to address all their issues, that's not realistic."
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Originally Posted by Avon Barksdale
