JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Following a trip to the AFC Championship Game, the Jaguars' on-the-field expectations have risen dramatically. Those high hopes for the future have led to a revenue boom for the area's only major league franchise.
Jaguars President Mark Lamping has overseen the franchise's operations since owner Shad Khan bought the team in 2012. The early years were rough but the franchise is now seeing the benefits of a massive turnaround.
The Jaguars have sold more than 12,500 new season tickets for the upcoming season, an increase of 7,500 new season-ticket members from one year ago.
"It's a big increase," Lamping said during an interview with First Coast News on Wednesday.
"The best of it is that it's a reflection of the optimism that exists in the marketplace. As we go into next year, we have well in excess of 50,000 season tickets, which is a big increase over a year ago, so hopefully, that can translate into what we had last year and that's a really strong, positive home-field advantage that can help support our objectives of dominating at home."
With added interest in the team, the Jaguars have been able to get a chip off their shoulders, or more specifically, tarps off thousands of seats at TIAA Bank Field.
Despite the team's out-of-nowhere turnaround last season, the Jaguars organization isn't concerned about taking a step back. While the added seating exposes the team to new sellout goals, the franchise isn't concerned about fans jumping off the bandwagon if the squad suffers a brief losing streak.
"I think the psychology of getting the tarps off was just as important for this fan base as it was for the Jaguars and I don't think we're going to operate this organization with a sense of fear of failure," Lamping said.
"We're not going to base decisions on what's the worst possible thing that could happen. If that was the way we operated, we wouldn't have invested all of the money in the stadium. We certainly wouldn't have invested all of the money into Daily's Place ... No, we don't have a fear of failure. We like to make sure we evaluate risk appropriately, that we accept reasonable risk and we shy away from reckless risk. We don't think increasing the capacity this year at TIAA Bank Field was a reckless risk at all."
Along with the team's impressive TIAA Bank Field slate - which includes matchups against the New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers - the Jaguars will also host the Philadelphia Eagles in London at Wembley Stadium. Lamping believes that the marquee matchup will be watched more closely on a national basis but will not have a ton of bearing on the overall success of the international game.
"We've had other high-profile matchups, we played the Cowboys in London, we played the 49ers," Lamping said.
"The Eagles, the defending Super Bowl champions, is a big game but I don't think the fact that it's a marquee opponent puts anymore focus on the game. I know the country as a whole will be following the game more closely, presuming that we're doing well and the Eagles are doing well heading into that game. What's most important is that we're playing a game in London and that is a really important part of our strategy to be stable here in Jacksonville."
As of late, national media pundits haven't shied away from the long-standing discussion of a potential Jaguars move to London. Lamping said the team's investment in Jacksonville speaks for itself.
"We can't control what people say any more than we could have controlled national media seven or eight years ago when they were predicting the Jaguars we're going move to Los Angeles," Lamping said.
"All we've asked and I think the overwhelming majority of our fans in Jacksonville have been very supportive of what we're doing and judge us based on our actions and not on what could potentially happen. Shad wouldn't be doing the things he's done if he wasn't focused on having a consistently competitive, financially stable NFL franchise here in Jacksonville, Florida."
Quick Hits
Lamping on the national anthem's impact on fan experience: "We certainly expect and encourage everyone to take that moment - during the national anthem - to honor the anthem, to thank those who have served to give us the freedom that we do. If you're someplace where you can hear the anthem, perhaps see the flag 100 percent, you should be focused on that and I think the overwhelming majority of our customers do that. Now if you're out at the parking lot or if you're someplace in the stadium where you're disconnected, it's hard to expect customers to take that moment to honor the anthem if they have no idea that it's happening."
Lamping on potential goal changes with increased interest: "Our goals have been the same since the first day Shad purchased the team and that's to have a consistently competitive, financially strong team. And the single most important aspect in accomplishing that is generating the revenue that a sold-out stadium brings and creating a home-field advantage that a sold-out stadium brings and that's what our goal is. Are we closer to achieving that this year? Absolutely but the goal hasn't changed."
Lamping on the success of Daily's Place: "We think it's a significant addition to downtown Jacksonville. So far, it has exceeded all of our expectations, in terms of the number of shows, the number people attending those shows and the financial benefit that the Jaguars receive from the operation of Daily's Place. It's been one of those projects that has met all of our important objectives: helping downtown Jacksonville and doing it in a way that makes the Jaguars more stable."
Follow Mike Kaye on Twitter: @Mike_E_Kaye.