JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – For the second day in a row, the Jacksonville Jaguars organization held a public meeting to answer questions and get input on a proposal to renovate TIAA Bank Field.
But it comes with a $2 billion price tag when you add in the surrounding redevelopments, like the sports entertainment district. A new sports district development, in the mold of Lot J, could possibly be folded into the deal and cost between $550 and $668 million, placing the combined cost between $1.75 and $2.068 billion.
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According to preliminary negotiations with Mayor Lenny Curry’s administration, Jaguars owner Shad Kahn wants the city to pay half the cost. Khan has said he also wants to spend his own money to help redevelop the Eastside and downtown community that surrounds the stadium.
While there appears to be overwhelming support for renovating this stadium, there is also concern over who should foot the bill, the billionaire who owns the team or the city that owns the stadium.
In a hotel conference room packed with Jags fans and Jacksonville taxpayers on Tuesday, Jaguars president Mark Lamping explained a proposed 50/50 plan to pay for turning TIAA Bank Field into a renovated state-of-art in-closed stadium.
“The city will invest a little more in the city-owned stadium and we’ll invest more outside the stadium and the end result will be 50/50,” Lamping said.
Basically, the city taxpayers would be on the hook for 67% of the stadium project but only 14% of the sports district, according to the Jaguars proposal seen in city documents.
One woman who attended the meeting suggested the Jaguars reach out to surrounding cities to help offset the costs.
“Have them help us support this stadium rather than just the citizens of Duval County,” the woman said.
Lamping said it’s rare to have an NFL owner in a small NFL market like Jacksonville be willing to spend billions of his own money to improve Jacksonville’s Eastside and downtown in exchange for asking the city to pay half the costs of renovating an NFL stadium.
“I think the support for these types of initiatives, particularly downtown, I think the real level of support for these projects hasn’t really risen to the appropriate level,” he said. “We keep on rehashing Lot J. The facts of Lot J are that 12 city council members voted for it. Seven voted against it. At least one of those seven had nothing to do with Lot J. It had to do with the mayor’s office.”
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Lot J was supposed to be an entertainment district outside the stadium. And one of the biggest investments in Jacksonville’s history. But the plan died when the city council failed to reach a 13-vote majority to approve the proposal.
At the time, Mayor Curry blamed the failure of the deal in 2021 on “council members with personal beef.”
Lamping brought up another hurdle that could hamper renovation plans. Even if the Jaguars and the city reach an agreement, the NFL as a whole will still have to sign off on that agreement.