Created: 10/29/2009 7:14:48 AM 
ORLANDO, Fla. -- So you want a blunt assessment of the Jaguars fan base outside of Jacksonville?
Here's Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer: "I don't think the audience from Orlando has ever materialized going to Jacksonville." Now, Florida Citrus Sports CEO Steve Hogan: "Orlando is a huge market in supporting all three teams and Jacksonville probably has the easiest path to claim it if they wanted to." The Jaguars expect to blackout every home game this season. So for the first time ever, Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver acknowledged interest in playing one or two regular season games in Orlando. "Wouldn't it make sense to play an out of market game to try to energize that fan base?" Weaver said last month. But the idea faces some hurdles. Chief among them, an aging Citrus Bowl that isn't up to NFL standards, lacking box seats and premium suites. The Citrus Bowl was built back in 1936. It only held 8,900 people. Over the decades it's gone through a series of expansions. One of the most recent, back in 1989, when the current seating capacity was reached at 70,000 people. Outside Steve Hogan's office are headlines trumpeting the approval of multi-million dollar renovations. Problem is, that headline is two years old, and there's still no progress on updating the Citrus Bowl. "We certainly understand that modern facilities in the lower bowl, which is now almost 70 years old, are what we need to address...it's not a dump," Hogan told First Coast News' Erich Spivey. Plus, the NFL would have to expand the regular season by one or two games, Weaver says. Now, Jacksonville is fighting off a bad rap as a lackluster NFL city, as Orlando seems prepared to jump into an NFL future. "Orlando is a football city, although the Magic are our only professional sport. We embrace all types of football," Dyer says.
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