Yesterday, the world was told about the Jacksonville Jaguars big stadium plans. For $1.4 billion dollars, the team will become Jacksonville’s “long-time home and spur downtown development”. According to the Jaguars, the city, and team would “share the expense” so long as both sides agreed on the renovations and a lease extension. Maybe you would be concerned about the amount of money that the city would spend on this project. But the Jaguars continue to remind all media outlets that the team “would not invest the amount of money that (they are) prepared to invest” unless they mean business.
With all of these pictures and videos and everything else, I can’t wait to see who is paying for what. Did the Jaguars include that part?
“The Jaguars have released drawings of their renovated stadium. They did not explain who would pay for it, or how much would be paid” – Jacksonville.com, 06/07/23
Yeah, why put in the most important detail of the project. Since nobody is putting any numbers in public view, how is the public going to figure out about the true numbers involved in this project? The only thing available for the public to see was an online document found by Florida Politics, which shows a proposed memorandum of understanding between the city and the team on several projects totaling a lot of money:
- The city will pay 67% of the stadium project cost, or between $800 million – $934 million and the team will pay the rest.
- The team will pay 86% of the entertainment district, or between $500 million – $668 million.
So, anywhere between $1.75 billion and $2.068 billion? As the Florida-Times Union wrote this week, the state of Florida will not be giving any money to this project, so the city will need to figure this out on their own. The memo also includes several underhanded threats by the team. You better agree to this deal or else. The team reminds the city that the current stadium “does not meet the present or future needs of the Jaguars” and the team “will not consider an extension to the current lease”, which expires after the 2029 season.
Next week, the team will begin 14 town hall meetings with the public to talk about the project. These meetings will amount to nothing and anyone who goes should realize ahead of time that what will be and won’t be included are already decided by the team.
The city has already given so much to the Jaguars. Remember when Jacksonville hosted the Super Bowl in 2015? The city gave the team around $40 million dollars to make the stadium better for that game. In 2013, the city gave the team another $45 million for upgrades and renovations. In 2015, the city split the bill with the team on a $90 million project….so another $45 million.
Don’t just blame the owner though, as maybe he is struggling with money?
Nevermind. Pay for it yourself, Khan.