After receiving final approval from the NFL owners group for the Jacksonville Jaguars’ stadium deal with the city, the team’s next steps include nailing down where to play when EverBank Stadium closes completely for construction in 2027.
Speaking to reporters after the Oct. 15 vote by the owners group, Jaguars President Mark Lamping said he expected to spend the remainder of the 2024-25 NFL season working on negotiations to play in either Orlando or Gainesville while the stadium is unplayable.
“At that point we’ll have a recommendation, and then we have to work through the NFL in the same process that we went through on the stadium,” he said.
The Jaguars’ timeline calls for construction of the team’s “Stadium of the Future” to begin in early 2025. The team will play in EverBank Stadium that year, with capacity virtually unchanged.
The 2026 season will see the Jaguars remaining at the stadium, playing before a reduced capacity of about 43,500 as upper seating sections are closed to facilitate construction. The team would play in either Gainesville or Orlando in 2027, with an option to play up to three home games in London that year.
The remade stadium will open in 2028.
Lamping’s update on the home-away-from-home site was one of several tidbits from a virtual media conference after the vote, which also featured Jaguars owner Shad Khan and Mayor Donna Deegan. In related news:
Four seasons
Lamping said construction of the stadium-adjacent Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences complex is on schedule.
He said workers have completed four floors of the office building that is part of the development and are expected to top out the building “within the next few months.”
Fairgrounds property
Lamping said Khan is scheduled to close on the final parcel of the fairgrounds property immediately west of the stadium in early 2025.
Sports and entertainment complex
An adjacent sports and entertainment development is on a back burner as Khan’s Iguana Investments and the team finish the Four Seasons complex and the stadium. However, it’s not forgotten.
“We think that at the sports complex is maybe the best location for it,” Lamping said. “But those things need to happen in the right time, I can tell you, least, from my perspective, our plate is pretty full right now. But I have no doubt that Downtown Jacksonville will have a sports entertainment complex. It’s just a question of where that is.”
'Jewel in the Jacksonville crown'
Khan said he envisioned the stadium designed to attract high-end concerts and other events in addition to NFL games, the Florida-Georgia college games and bowl games.
“The area we’re doing with the stadium – The Four Seasons, the Museum (of Science & History) – we want that to be the jewel in the Jacksonville crown. Frankly, you know, we’re headed that way,” he said.
Community Benefits Agreement
Deegan applauded the companion $300 million Community Benefits Agreement, which will provide affordable housing, workforce development, homelessness services and other benefits for the Eastside neighborhood and the county at large.
She said the agreement “will transform our community on so many fronts for years to come.”