Created: 11/18/2009 5:51:30 AM 
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The Jaguars have blacked out every home game this season.
But one businessman thinks it's the perfect time to bring another football league to town. The Arena Football 1 league is slated to kick off next March. For Jacksonville, it marks the return of arena football that last played here in 2002. Remember the Jacksonville Tomcats? They were part of arena football's minor league, af2, and were a big hit at the old coliseum from 1999 to 2002. They sold up to 7,000 tickets a game, among the highest in their league. "It's very high energy, fast paced. I like to say it's like drinking water from a fire hose," says Arena Football 1's Jeff Bouchy. Arena Football 1 will start playing in March.
The news comes as Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver struggles to sell NFL tickets. All home games have been blacked out so far and he's considering Orlando for out-of-market games. Weaver owned the Jacksonville rights to an Arena Football League in 2003. But this new league has now formed, Arena Football 1, which is a cheaper alternative to the NFL, even though they play at different times of the year. "Mr. Weaver has no involvement with the new team or the league so there is really no comment to make. He gave up his rights to an AFL team a long time ago," Jaguars spokesman Dan Edwards said in an e-mail response. When asked when Weaver gave up the AFL rights, Edwards replied, "Suffice it to say that he never pursued an AFL franchise and that league has since gone out of business." The planned name is the Jacksonville Sharks, according to our newsgathering partner, The Florida Times-Union.
Here's the deal: individual game tickets average just $11, with season ticket packages starting at $44.
The team is expected to have same name of World Football League's Jacksonville Sharks from 1974. That team played in Jacksonville for 14 games before the rest of the season was canceled.
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