JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Even though the last Jacksonville Jaguars “Huddle Up” to get community input was held at the Jacksonville Zoo, no one was monkeying around with questions.
People who attended the community meeting on Thursday had concerns about the stadium and how this would impact taxpayers and the nearly $2 billion it could take to improve the stadium and the surrounding areas.
“Don’t allow a select few. Choose what happens with the money paid in by the taxpayers,” Matthew Fields told Jaguars President Mark Lamping.
“I understand that there should be a tremendous amount of focus on this. And there’s a lot of people that simply say, I don’t want one dollar of tax money going to a stadium where a football team is going to play. That’s fine. It’s the city’s stadium. It’s not our stadium,” Lamping responded.
There was support for the project and during the course of meetings, the city was questioned as to why it should be just Jacksonville that pays. Benny Winslow from Kingsland, Georgia was there Thursday. He’s been a season ticket holder from the start.
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“We are helping pay for it by buying tickets. I mean, that’s helping to pay for it. We do come down here and spend money,” Winslow said.
Now that the meetings are complete, News4JAX asked Mark Lamping what he’s going to do with all the information. Lamping said there should be a report out around July 4.
“It has played out exactly as we hoped it would. A lot of people came to the meetings, a lot of comments, nobody pulled any punches. We heard the good, we heard the bad. And the desire is to end up with a better plan, which we will. I said today the number one thing that has come up in every meeting is what’s going to happen with parking. That’s something we need to work on, in terms of accessibility to the stadium,” Lamping said.
There is currently no time frame on when negotiations on a new contract will start with Mayor-Elect Donna Deegan, who takes office on July 1. The Jaguars want to have a deal in place by mid-2024.