JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville area saw a big boom in business as the Jaguars made a deep run into the postseason. While some business owners were disappointed by the Jags loss to the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship, they saw incredible returns.
In the shadow of EverBank Field, there’s a local printer who makes hats, shirts and all things Jaguars. The owner said the store hasn’t seen so much business in almost 20 years.
The mood couldn’t be any sadder at Vivid Images, where ironically business has seldom been better.
News4Jax spoke with Vivid Images President Dan Tappers, who said business boomed in 2017 and just got better with every Jaguars’ win.
“We’d never had a million dollars in sales in merchandise in 20 years. This year, we hit a million in September,” Tapper said.
But there’s a downside. The boxes filled with blank T-shirts that were supposed to be AFC Championship and Jags Super Bowl shirts now have to be returned.
“They are the ones that we were going to print. We do 10 times more for the Jaguars than we do for the Patriots or the Eagles,” Tapper said.
Out at Jacksonville Beach, Sports Mania had a similar boom.
"The fans have been awesome,” Sports Mania employee Mathew Smith said. “They’ve been consuming the merchandise at such a fast rate.”
Jags swag is still flying off the shelves, which is why Smith is heading out to Las Vegas to stock up.
But before leaving, Smith spent the morning restocking the bare walls with what inventory he still has.
“They’ve been coming from Orlando, Georgia, the Northside, green cove, driving all the way out here to the beach to support this,” Smith said.
Both men are exhausted but said they will gladly work to sell as much as they can in the next season.
An interesting study was published by a company called womply.com that said if the Jags would have gone to the Super Bowl, businesses like restaurants, bars and transportation would have roughly the same amount of business during the Super Bowl as any given game day Sunday.
They determined that whether the Jags played in the Super Bowl or not, local revenue would be about the same.
Despite the loss, there is still a high demand for Jags gear that will last a while longer. However, there were a lot of returns from people who overbought, possibly expecting a Super Bowl.