JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Documents were made public on Thursday that spell out in writing how the city could spend $775 million on a deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars to help renovate EverBank Field and turn it into the “Stadium of the Future.”
Inside the documents are detailed plans for what the two sides have agreed to and in two weeks, the city council will be delving through it to decide what will happen.
There is a lot of legal jargon and numbers in the documents, but it says the city will be on the hook for over $775 million. It’s not a done deal because the city council still has to sign off.
DOCUMENTS: Jacksonville Stadium Development Agreement
The council also got the agreement, and Council President Ron Salem said Thursday afternoon he is still reviewing the documents and is not ready to talk at this point but will have plenty of questions when the council takes up the issue.
But News4JAX did talk to the city’s chief negotiator of the deal Mike Weinstein about how this could play out. Weinstein said he doesn’t expect a lot of pushback from city council.
“Basically, it reflects what we’ve been talking about. It just takes a long time to get it to where you think of everything that could possibly happen over the 30 years, and try to resolve it in the document rather than having it resolved at the time. And that’s what lawyers are doing,” Weinstein said.
The most controversial part of the agreement is the community benefits agreement that calls for the city to spend $150 million outside the stadium on parks and the Eastside neighborhoods. And it calls for the Jaguars to give an equal amount of contribution for the same over the years of the lease.
Council member Rory Diamond stated again on Thursday he plans to vote against that portion.
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News4JAX reached out to the Jaguars to ask if that part of the plan is voted down, would that have an impact, and the team did not immediately respond.
Special council meetings on the agreement will be held throughout June and next week the final two community meetings where the community can weigh in will take place.
Weinstein said no matter how the deal plays out, the city is still on the hook for millions.
“What I try to make sure everybody understands is that if we, you know, we spend the $700 million and change to do the stadium, they stay, we get a roof, we get a much better facility, we get lots of things happening. If we don’t come to an agreement, and they leave, we still have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to maintain our building that is 30 years old,” he said. “If we want to keep Florida-Georgia, if we want to keep the Gator Bowl, if we want to bring events like we’ve been having now with concerts, we got to keep it up. So either way, we’re going to spend money.”
It’s hoped a deal is reached this summer and the NFL owners sign off in the fall with construction starting next year.