The Jacksonville City Council recently approved $775MM in improvements to EverBank Stadium, the home of the Jaguars, as relayed by Ben Volin of the Boston Globe. Along with the funding comes a new lease tethering the Jags to Jacksonville for the next 30 years.
For those who are interested, more details on the agreement, including renderings of what the finished product will look like, can be found here. As Volin notes, one of the most notable components of the renovation will be the addition of a canopy over the field, which offers shade for fans and which can cool the stadium by as much as 15 degrees while still allowing for wind and other elements. SoFi Stadium, where the Rams and Chargers play their home games, has a similar feature.
For our purposes at PFR, the most important part of this development is the lease. Although the chatter had died down in recent years, Jaguars fans in particular will recall the persistent rumors connecting their team to a London relocation, and this lease will officially put that speculation to rest (for the next few decades, at least).
The NFL’s London games have generally been a tremendous success, and just last April, we heard that the creation of a four-team, all-European division was gaining steam among league ownership. The Jags are the only team to have their own international agreement, and they have played at least one game in London’s Wembley Stadium since 2013 (aside from the pandemic-altered year of 2020). As such, they were long considered to be the top candidate for relocation if the NFL’s goal of installing a permanent London-based outfit included relocation of a current club rather than expansion.
Plus, owner Shad Khan was at one time in talks to buy Wembley Stadium, and among his NFL owner peers, he had secured a right of first refusal with respect to a London relocation. So while Khan has consistently maintained that his goal is to keep the Jaguars in Jacksonville, it was always fair to wonder if the call of a move across the pond would prove to be too tempting.
Construction on EverBank will begin after the 2025 campaign, and the hope is that it will be completed before the 2028 seasons begins. The Jags will play at EverBank with reduced capacity (43,500) in 2026 but will need to play their U.S. home games elsewhere — Volin names Orlando and Gainesville as possibilities — in 2027.
In announcing the agreement, Jacksonville mayor Donna Deegan said it is “a historic day for our city,” and when the framework of the agreement was first announced last month, Khan said, “the belief and determination of Delores and Wayne Weaver to make the Jacksonville Jaguars a reality more than 30 years ago was reaffirmed today by the leadership of Mayor Donna Deegan, her team and the Jacksonville City Council. The message then, and now, should be clear. Never doubt Jacksonville!”
Taxpayers? And how do you feel?
They Bortle up their emotions. It will be fine.
According to the proposal owners and city are each putting 625 million, and the city says no new taxes. It’s all on google.
It was a question of emotion not financials. Some cities don’t need these big projects or cannot sustain them without future taxation. I don’t know much about the stadium, but just wanted to know how the people feel about it.
It was a question of emotion not financials.
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It’s a waste of time to consider their emotions. Most voters simply vote party line and don’t care about the issues. And then they will believe any article, no matter how biased, that supports that opinion.
No new taxes doesn’t mean it isn’t taxpayer money that could be going to something else.
Chicago is now paying people who get shot, or killed. So what’s the big deal about paying for stadiums?
link to abc7chicago.com
That helped my brother when he was a random bystander, lots of cities have these programs
They’re giving them up to $1,500 to cover funeral costs if they are killed by gun violence. The program, according to the article you posted, will cost about $10 million over three years. This stadium is $775 million over 30 years. What is your issue here?
Isn’t it nuts that a city is going to spend 10 million dollars on burying victims of gun violence? That’s ludicrous. Where do we live, a third world country. Take the ten million and get more police.
My point is these cities love spending taxpayer money. Why stop at stadiums?
And why not, get these taxpayers to fund something they use 8x a year and now those taxpayers can’t afford to take their families to see them even once. Yet the billionaire owners flip their franchises at multiples of what they bought them for. Is there any other business that can make as much profit off the sale as much as a professional sports franchise?
Politicians and their ability to be inside traders of stocks. Where else can you buy stock in a company and then give that company a government contract. Both parties make millions.
new tarps?
Ron Jeremy approves of this message.
Money!
And here I was thinking the Iran Sheik you Jabroni…LOL
Seems like a huge investment for a single purpose facility. I don’t think Jacksonville has ever campaigned for a MLB franchise but it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea. Shad may object to having to share the sports monopoly he now has in the city though.
Florida already has two MLB teams that they don’t support
yeah, add a 3rd ..
It’s not really single use. Most stadiums have concerts and host championships for minor leagues. They are a great asset for a community, and the sports team justifies the cost which then benefits everyone else who gets to use the stadium. The jaguars don’t own the stadium, they use it one day a week for 8 weeks of the year.
Maybe move the Rays. I was working in Tampa when they got passed over for MLB expansion in favor of the Marlins. You never heard so much crying and bitching on sports talk radio. A few years later they get the Rays and haven’t ever supported them, even though they’re one of the best teams in MLB.
I can’t really understand why the DRays have had that problem. Watched them in a playoff game a couple of years back and was shocked at how many empty seats there were. Was everyone on the golf courses?
Way to many things to do in Florida in the summertime. Their stadium is not the best and it’s in a bad part of town. Hopefully their new stadium will be better and closer to Tampa. It’s over an hour to get from Tampa to St Pete where Tropicana field is. Still, they should support the team.
Not Italian, but looks like the third Mario brother, Giuseppe.
Maybe Shad would have money if his son Tony didn’t spend $107 million dollars on washed up wrestlers
Why did they use Ron Jeremy as the thumbnail picture for this article?