Once-Retreating Jacksonville Goes Pro in a Stunner : Pro football: Longshot Jaguars beat out St. Louis, Memphis and Baltimore for newest NFL team.

ROSEMONT, Ill. — The biggest upset of many NFL seasons was pulled off Tuesday by a group that four months ago had no office space, no employees, and no chance.

Its stadium was deteriorating. Its ticket revenues had been returned to senders. Its potential mascot had died.

No wonder J. Wayne Weaver nearly fainted when Commissioner Paul Tagliabue called him into a room in midafternoon here and handed him the keys to the wealthiest league in sports.

Welcome the NFL’s 30th team, the Jacksonville Jaguars.

That’s Jacksonville, as in Florida, the nation’s 56th-largest TV market. It is 30 minutes south of the Georgia border--and miles from nowhere as far as NFL types were concerned.

The Jaguars, from the second-smallest market in the league, will begin play with the other new team, the Charlotte Panthers, in 1995.

“I am blown away,” Weaver, head of the Jacksonville ownership group, said after drying his eyes. “I am in a state of shock.”

Those same feelings reverberated throughout football after the league’s owners, by a 26-2 vote, shunned larger markets in St. Louis, Baltimore and Memphis for a group that recently didn’t even want a team.

In picking Jacksonville, the owners are betting that what has worked so well in smaller markets such as Buffalo and Green Bay will work in a market that is only getting bigger.

“Jacksonville is a hotbed of football interest, the Southeast is one of the fastest growing regions in the country, and this will be the only game in town,” Tagliabue said.

“I have to say, I’m a little surprised,” said Bob Harlan, president of the Green Bay Packers. “I came to these meetings thinking we would take Charlotte and St. Louis.”

Walter Payton, the Hall of Fame running back who had been promised 2% ownership of the St. Louis franchise, was more than surprised.

Early Tuesday afternoon, Payton was talking about recommending his former running back coach, Johnny Roland, as head coach of the St. Louis Stallions.

Late in the afternoon, Payton looked as if he had been gang tackled.

“I want to get on the floor and cry and kick and moan,” he said.

While prospective St. Louis owner Stan Kroenke said he wanted to let the dust settle before plotting his next move, the other losing groups were already discussing the future.

Officials in Baltimore and Memphis both hope that future involves the Rams, who have already said they will listen to offers to relocate.

“If someone has made a firm decision to relocate and is not just using us as a bargaining chip, then we’d be foolish not to talk to them,” Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke said.

Added William Dunavant, leader of the Memphis group, “I hear the Rams are looking . . . and my desire is still to bring a major league franchise to this city.”

John Shaw, Ram vice president who quietly left town shortly after the meetings, said, “We will explore our options at the end of the year.”

The Rams would need the usual three-fourths majority vote to move. At least one owner, Pat Bowlen of the Denver Broncos, refused to rule out such approval.

“There will certainly be the temptation for teams to move now, and if a team qualifies to move, it can move,” Bowlen said.

When asked if the Rams qualify, Bowlen said, “No comment.”

The Jacksonville Jaguars need to get moving, but in another direction.

They were so caught off guard that they have no general manager. Mike McCormack had been working in that capacity for Charlotte for the last three years.

The Jaguars, with colors of teal, black, gold and silver, will begin selling season tickets today. Construction on the renovated Gator Bowl will begin next week. The search for more office space began immediately.

Of course, from July 21 to Sept. 3, Jacksonville wasn’t even in the race.

Touchdown Jacksonville! Ltd. rescinded its bid for an expansion franchise because it couldn’t come to an agreement with city officials on improvements to the aging Gator Bowl stadium.

Suddenly that little exclamation point seemed pretty silly.

“We had locked the doors and turned out the lights,” said David Seldin, 32, president of the Jaguars.

City officials finally agreed on $121 million in renovations to the 73,000-seat, grass-field stadium. Most of it will come through NFL-generated income such as taxes on tickets and lodging.

The group rebounded to make a mid-September presentation, then simply waited for the other proposed expansions groups to fall apart.

Baltimore couldn’t decide on one owner. Memphis couldn’t prove it was a football hotbed.

St. Louis, the heavy favorite before Tuesday, apparently was discounted in meetings of the expansion and finance committees because of lukewarm fan interest and fractured ownership that could have led to lawsuits.

“The changes in the ownership were unsettling for (the NFL owners),” said Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Missouri). “Perhaps they feared lawsuits. Perhaps Fran Murray (a former proposed owner) warned them of legal difficulties if they chose St. Louis.”

That St. Louis was the largest TV market without a team, 18th, apparently meant little. When the committees made their recommendations to the general ownership, their vote was 10-2, Jacksonville.

St. Louis received only one vote in the committee, and one in the general ownership.

“When we talk about the size of markets, we aren’t talking about bodies, we’re talking about football fans,” Bowlen said. “It’s a mistake to assume that St. Louis had a bigger market than Jacksonville.”

Here’s what Jacksonville offered in the way of football fans:

--In 1979, when Robert Irsay discussed moving the Baltimore Colts to Jacksonsville, 55,000 fans filled the Gator Bowl just to watch him land his helicopter .

--The Jacksonville Bulls led the United State Football League in attendance during their two seasons.

--The Jaguars sold out their 68 proposed skyboxes and 10,000 club seats not once, but twice.

They sold them before they dropped out of the race, refunded the money, then sold them out again when they got back into the running.

The next league matter involving the Jaguars and Panthers is their division placement. Tagliabue said Tuesday he was given permission by the owners to put the teams in any division he wishes, although realignment would still require approval.

If there is no realignment, an issue that will be discussed next spring, Jacksonville will probably join the NFC West and Charlotte the AFC Central.

Those are the only two divisions with vacancies, and Charlotte will almost certainly be placed in the AFC because that conference needs stronger TV markets for NBC.