Hundreds of Jacksonville residents have gathered to learn more about the city’s potential $775 million city investment in EverBank Stadium — a price tag earning mixed reviews and skepticism even as people celebrate the prospect of a renewed Jaguars lease.
Mayor Donna Deegan has led events with the city’s lead negotiator Mike Weinstein and Jaguars President Mark Lamping to answer questions and explain the long-awaited deal with the team.
“We have to decide what kind of city that we want,” Deegan said at the Beaches town hall. “There are some people, and that's a very valid way to feel, that want Jacksonville to stay the same, to not grow, to be a sleepy little southern town. I think that’s not where we are, but what we can do is we can drive the growth to the places we believe it can be the most helpful to us."
Proposed $1.4 billion dealfor EverBank Stadium renovations is in City Council's hands
City Council questionsDeegan's proposed $150 million for community benefits in stadium deal
They first presented the framework of the agreement at the May 14 City Council meeting. The deal would place new responsibilities on the team and put $1.25 billion renovated stadium costs at a 50-50 breakdown with the city. But, the city would additionally pay $150 million for upfront maintenance.
The city and team would also share the cost for a community benefit plan to pour $300 million in Jacksonville neighborhoods.
As City Council begins reckoning with the deal, here are the most asked community questions from town hall meetings so far:
Why doesn’t the city put the deal up for a voter referendum?
Deegan has repeated in each town hall that she does not favor putting the decision up to a referendum, in which Duval County voters would choose whether to fund the stadium agreement.
Her campaign for mayor informed voters of her position on keeping the Jaguars through a deal, she said, and arranging a referendum would be expensive for the city.
“As your mayor, it is my responsibility to make difficult decisions,” she said at a May 20 town hall. “It is the city’s responsibility, the council’s responsibility, to have a representative government. If we put every difficult decision up to a referendum in this city, we wouldn’t get anything done.”
Does the deal include the ‘sports entertainment district’?
The original Jaguars proposal included a sports entertainment district surrounding the stadium ranging in cost from $550 million to $668 million, but it was not negotiated at the same time as the stadium.
Downtown is a community redevelopment area, and the city would have needed to issue a request for proposals from other developers which would have taken additional time.
Instead, Deegan said they would revisit plans for the district after finalizing the stadium agreement.
“What we plan to do as soon as this is through, is we plan to go right back in and start looking at how we can accomplish the entertainment district,” Deegan said.
What will the new seating capacity be?
The renovated stadium will have around 64,000 seats, 2,000 fewer seats than the stadium has currently.
The lost seats will be around the corners of the stadium to help create the breeze tunnels planned to help with heat control.
Will the Jaguars still play in London?
The proposal would let the Jaguars keep playing one home game in London each season, as well as an additional home game abroad every four years if requested by the NFL for its international series.
In the NFL's current 17-game regular season schedule. That would allow up to five of 34 regular season home games over a four-year period to be played outside Jacksonville.
If the NFL goes to an 18-game schedule, the Jaguars would have the ability to play a second home game outside Jacksonvillein the second and fourth years of every four-year period. That would permit them to move up to six of 36 home games elsewhere over a four-year time frame.
What is included in the community benefits agreement?
Separately from the stadium, Deegan and the team agreed to an even split of $300 million for a community benefits agreement, meant to aid the neighborhood immediately surrounding the stadium and promote workforce development opportunities countywide.
The Jaguars $150 million will be paid out over the 30-year lease period.
The city’s contribution will be divided into $50 million for countywide programs for workforce development, affordable housing and reducing homelessness, and another $30 million for those same programs in the Eastside neighborhood near the sports complex. The city also will put upabout $47.2 million for three downtown riverfront parks, about $8.8 million for turning the flex field in the sports complex into an exhibit hall spot, and $14 million for park enhancements countywide.
The Jaguars’ share would go toward workforce development, affordable housing and reducing homelessness. Half the $150 million would be for countywide programs and half would be focused on the Eastside.
Mark Woods:A good deal with a big asterisk — by today's stadium deal standards
Will funding the stadium take away from other city construction projects?
Officials touted the stadium’s funding mechanism as a way to refrain from raising property taxes by utilizing the established Better Jacksonville Plan half-cent sales tax.
The tax was originally slated to last until the end of 2030, but officials were going to let it expire after 2026 in order for a different sales tax to take effect sooner to pay down the city’s pension debt.
Under the stadium plan, the city would continue the Better Jacksonville Plan sales tax and use it to pay cash for about $600 million in projects like road construction that are on the books now to be financed by borrowing. That will free up the city’s borrowing capacity for the stadium.
“This will not jeopardize any other project in coming off the list or schedule,” Weinstein, the city’s lead negotiator, said May 20. “This will be in addition to what’s already there.”
Speak out:Here's how to share your opinion on upcoming Jaguars stadium renovations
Will surrounding counties help pay for the stadium?
Weinstein said he had been in talks with surrounding counties about sharing stadium costs and would publicly disclose options after City Council votes on the deal.
“There are ways to bring other counties in that we’ve been discussing and will come to fruition,” Weinstein said at the May 20 town hall.
Currently, the only structure in place for residents outside Duval County to pay for the stadium is in ticket and parking fees that all game attendees will pay.
Who will cover cost overruns?
The Jaguars will pay for any costs over the projected expense for the work on the stadium, similar to how the team agreed to shoulder cost overruns on other joint projects with the city such as construction of the Daily’s Place amphitheater, flex field and Miller Electric Center.
Will the stadium need another renovation when the lease expires in 30 years?
The city and team will have to renegotiate in 30 years when the new lease expires, but Lamping said the stadium will be in better condition because of the new funding mechanism for capital improvements.
Under the new lease, the bed tax will cover the largest portion of maintenance. The city and Jaguars will split the cost of any remaining needs.
“We’re comfortable that the stadium will last for 30 years because of the makeup of the funding that’s going to be there for capital maintenance which doesn’t exist now,” Lamping said. “The reason the stadium has so many problems is that the city never maintained it or kept it up to date to the degree that it should. Now we’ve addressed that.”
Nate Monroe:Jaguars stadium deal is no love story between Jacksonville and Shad Khan
What if the Jaguars relocate during the lease term?
The proposed non-relocation agreement spells out the financial damages the Jaguars would pay if the team left Jacksonville during the 30-year lease. The team would have to repay the city for all its taxpayer contributions to the stadium work if it moved during the first 14 years of the lease. That repayment amount would drop to 75% in the fifteenth year and then go down by 5% each year thereafter.
Does the design protect the stadium from hurricanes?
The renovated stadium will include a series of columns, independent from the existing structure, that will support the attached roof, Lamping said May 20. The infrastructure will protect the additions in storms.
Will the cost of the proposed agreement require a tax increase?
Deegan said the stadium plan will not trigger a need for a property tax rate increase.
Why should residents who don’t follow football support the deal?
Deegan said having an NFL team is a “public good” similar to supporting the symphony. Even if people don’t go to the symphony or Jaguars games, the city benefits from having those offerings.
“These are all things that make our community as a whole more desirable to families that want to come settle here and frankly make our community more successful,” she said.
Will the stadium be enough for Jacksonville to host the Super Bowl?
Lamping and Deegan said the stadium will meet the standards for hosting a Super Bowl, but Jacksonville still needs more hotel rooms to repeat hosting the Super Bowl as it did in 2005.
How will season-ticket holders be affected during stadium work?
The Jaguars would still play home games in Jacksonville in the 2026 season, though the stadium would have reduced seating capacity. Then in 2027, the team would play home games outside of Jacksonville, possibly at the University of Florida’s stadium in Gainesville or Camping World Stadium in Orlando.
Lamping said season-ticket holders would not be required to pay for seats at any games outside of Jacksonville. He said season-ticket holders who opt against paying for seats at games played elsewhere won’t lose their seniority for buying season tickets. “No one will jump ahead of you,” Lamping said.
Will Jaguars tickets still be affordable for families at the renovated stadium?
Lamping the new stadium will have more “premium spaces” and add different price levels for those seats. He said more than two-thirds of the stadium capacity won’t be premium seating and “it doesn’t do us any good if people can’t afford to go to the game.”
“We have 64,000 seats to fill,” he said. “We have to make sure there’s a place for everyone in the city.”
When will City Council vote on the deal?
City Council has not yet received the document deals, which will be presented in the form of legislation and publicly accessible.
Council President Ron Salem has said he will host public council meetings outside of scheduled times to allow more debate and negotiation before the final vote. He hoped to vote in June.
When are the last community huddles?
The last town hall meetings to learn about the stadium will be May 29 at Sandalwood High School and May 30 at Westside High School. The meetings are scheduled to run from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
