Jacksonville gives green light to $1,400,000,000 stadium project for Jaguars

The Jacksonville Jaguars have been given the green light to build a new $1.4 billion stadium. According to ESPN, the Jacksonville City Council voted 14-1 Tuesday night to approve the agreement between the city and the Jaguars.

The next step is for the NFL owners to approve the stadium being built at the league's meetings in October in Atlanta. Jacksonville needs 24 of the 32 owners to approve the construction of a new stadium.

Should the approval happen, construction is scheduled to begin after the 2025 season and is projected to be finished for the 2028 season.

"This is a historic day for our city," Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan said, via ESPN. "As I said to the council, this is what we can do when we all row together and we focus on a goal together. Monumental. I think it's generational progress."

As part of the agreement, the city of Jacksonville and the Jaguars will each contribute $625 million to the new stadium. However, the city has agreed to pay $150 million over the next two seasons on maintenance, meaning the city will pay 55% of the total cost of the new stadium for the Jaguars. Jaguars owner Shahid Khan is responsible for 80.4% of the game-day expenses.

With the new stadium, the Jaguars will sign a new 30-year lease with Jacksonville once the new stadium opens, as well as a non-relocation agreement.

Jaguars thrilled to remain in Jacksonville

With the new agreement, the Jaguars will remain in Jacksonville for the foreseeable future.

Jaguars president Mark Lamping says the work started in 2016 to get a new stadium, and following the agreement, he is thrilled to have the football team remain in Jacksonville.

"The reason we started on it so early is that we studied those cities that had problems with their teams," Lamping said. "Unfortunately there have been cities that have lost their NFL teams and they generally all have the same thing in common. It's a smaller market.

"The team doesn't have a lease tying them to the city and they have an unresolved stadium problem. And Shad's commitment from the very beginning was to do everything that we could to ensure that doesn't happen to Jacksonville."

"We've been spending a tremendous amount of time and resources, particularly over the last four years, and we're thrilled that we could turn that goal," he added.

"It was a goal that Shad had and that the community shared to keep the Jaguars here in northeast Florida for generations to come this evening. We've turned that goal into a reality thanks to the mayor and her team."

The Jaguars will open the 2024 season on the road on Sept. 8 against the Miami Dolphins. Jacksonville's home opener will be on Sept. 15 against the Cleveland Browns.