Free Beer! Jaguars try new giveaway to fill their empty seats

This man may have received free beer. We're not sure that's a great idea. (Sam Greenwood/Getty Images) It's the standard and obvious way to get anyone to pay

Doug Farrar | Sep 27, 2013

Free Beer! Jaguars try new giveaway to fill their empty seats /

This man may have received free beer. We're not sure that's a great idea. (Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

It's the standard and obvious way to get anyone to pay attention to your sign, advertising campaign, or any other marketing concept. Put "FREE BEER!" on there, and the thought is that everyone with an internal Homer Simpson (which is far more of us than we'd like to admit) will come running. So it seemingly was for the Jacksonville Jaguars, who have historically had trouble getting people into their variously-named stadiums to watch their football product.

The Jags have not ranked higher than 20th in the NFL's attendance rankings since 2006 (when they ranked 19th), and with a team in a serious rebuild that is nearly incapable of scoring any touchdowns, it seems that owner Shad Khan and his marketing guys decided to go the "FREE BEER!" route for Sunday's game against the Indianapolis Colts.

Next 3 hrs only!

#DrinksOnUs

for

#INDvsJAX

from

@BudLight

(starts @ $45/ticket, 21+for beer). 2 free drinks w/ticket:

http://t.co/swklpUJOrY

— Jacksonville Jaguars (@jaguars)

September 26, 2013

To be more specific, anyone 21 or older buying two tickets in the $45 or over range during the Thursday timeframe received a ticket for two free drinks. Free beer and Jaguars football -- does it get any better than this?

It is unknown at this time how many extra sales the Jags were able to extract with this promotion. Jaguars spokesman Don Edwards told Bloomberg News that the team does not disclose sales figures. The team currently ranks 30th in home attendance, with 59,416 seats sold for its one home game this season, a 28-2 opening loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.

ROSENBERG: Do Jaguars have what it takes to go 0-16 this season?

Published Sep 27, 2013

DOUG FARRAR

SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009, Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine. He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.