Jacksonville approved a deal by the Jaguars and the city for a $1.4 billion renovation of the team’s stadium.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville City Council voted 14-1 Tuesday night to approve an agreement between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the city on a $1.4 billion renovation of EverBank Stadium.
Jacksonville approved a deal by the Jaguars and the city for a $1.4 billion renovation of EverBank Stadium. John Rivera/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
This brings the Jaguars one step closer to ensuring the franchise’s long-term stability, with the final hurdle being for the deal to be approved by 24 of the NFL’s 32 owners at the league’s October meetings in Atlanta.
If that happens, construction is scheduled to begin after the team’s 2025 season concludes and finish in time for the 2028 season.
“This is a historic day for our city,” said Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan. “As I told the council, this is what we can do when we all row together and focus on one goal together.
“Monumental. I think it’s a generational progress.”
The Jaguars and the city each agreed to contribute $625 million toward the renovation, but the city also agreed to pay $150 million over the next two seasons in maintenance and repairs to prepare the stadium for construction. That means the city will be responsible for 55% of the total cost.
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Additionally, the agreement calls for Jaguars owner Shad Khan to be responsible for any cost overruns on the renovation, as well as 80.4 percent of game-day expenses.
In addition to the renovation, the agreement between the city and the Jaguars also includes a 30-year lease that would begin once the stadium reopens and a non-relocation agreement, which would end relocation rumors that have surrounded the franchise for the last 15 years. There is also a clause that limits the Jaguars to one home game a year in London, unless the NFL orders them to play in an additional international game once every four seasons, and that’s only during seasons in which the team has nine home games (every odd year).
The Jaguars have played a home game annually in London since 2013 (except in 2020 due to the pandemic). Last season they played consecutive games in London, but only one as a home team. They are scheduled to do so again in 2024.
Jaguars president Mark Lamping said the team began the process of working toward an eventual new or renovated stadium in 2016 and that Tuesday night’s vote was the culmination of eight years of work.
“The reason we started so early is we looked at those cities that were having problems with their equipment,” Lamping said. “Unfortunately there have been cities that have lost their NFL teams and generally they all have the same thing in common. It is a smaller market. The team does not have a lease that binds them to the city and they have an unresolved stadium problem And Shad’s commitment from the beginning was to do everything he could to ensure that didn’t happen in Jacksonville.
“We have invested a tremendous amount of time and resources, particularly over the last four years, and we are excited that we were able to achieve that goal. It was a goal that Shad had and that the community shared to keep the Jaguars here in Northeast Florida for generations to come tonight. We have made that goal a reality thanks to the mayor and her team.
The renovated stadium would be similar to SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, with a shaded canopy over each seat that would reduce the temperature by 15 degrees. Capacity for Jaguars games would be 63,000, but seating could be expanded to more than 70,000 to accommodate the annual Florida-Georgia game as well as attract other potential sporting events and concerts.
The plan is for the Jaguars to continue playing at EverBank Stadium at reduced capacity in 2026 and then play the 2027 season elsewhere. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville and Camping World Stadium in Orlando are the two options after the Jaguars eliminated the possibility of playing at Daytona International Speedway due to lack of infrastructure.
2024-06-26 01:16:47
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