JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It will be an important game for the Jacksonville Jaguars this weekend as the team fights to make the playoffs, but there are also some important talks happening about the future of the team in the city.
The stadium lease agreement, along with negotiations for $2 billion worth of upgrades to the stadium and surrounding area are still underway.
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By this time next year, Jacksonville’s “Stadium of the Future” could start to become a reality. What it will end up looking like and the cost is still being negotiated. The stadium itself will cost an estimated $1.4 billion.
Katrina Vousar said she supports the stadium upgrades.
“I think it’s important for the city because we can have growth,” Vousar said. “A lot of people come down here for us to bring some positivity to Jacksonville. So I’m looking forward to the work on the stadium.”
Jaguars President Mark Lamping on Friday gave News4JAX an update on ongoing talks.
“There’s no angst, there’s no drama in our discussions at this point,” Lamping said. “It’s proceeding pretty much as we expected. And I think the pace of the discussions will pick up quite a bit as we turn the page into 2024. And, you know, as we were at the start of this, both the city and the Jaguars’ interests were aligned. And when you start with that, it’s OK to have confidence that you’re going to be able to get something done.”
For now, the talks are centering on just the stadium, not the surrounding areas though Lamping said the city could be missing an opportunity for growth if they did not address the areas around the stadium.
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Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan spoke with News4JAX anchor Kent Justice about the stadium negotiations on a taping of This Week in Jacksonville which airs on Sunday.
“So far, our discussions with the Jaguars have gone very well,” Deegan said. “I think we’re right on pace where we want to be in our discussions. I’m very pleased with where those conversations are right now. We’re hopeful to have some framework of an agreement that we can come out with sometime in the spring… and then I know that for [City Council] President [Ron] Salem, he’d like to get it done during his presidency… We’ve seen a history in Jacksonville of when we kick the can down the road on things, very often they don’t get done.”
The city’s chief negotiator Mike Weinstein agreed with Deegan that talks were right on schedule and pointed out some things that they need to consider in these talks, such as the exact cost, the stability of the current stadium, the number of home games and what happens if the team leaves.
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There should be more concrete answers to those questions by the spring or summer, and then it’s up to the city council and NFL owners to decide if the agreement is a go.
But with a lot of attention on the team right now, News4JAX asked Lamping how important it is that the Jaguars win against the Titans on Sunday to increase the public’s enthusiasm about the deal.
“Well, I would hate to have a project of this magnitude come down to what happens in one individual football game. I can tell you that, you know, Mondays in Duval are totally different after a victory than they are after a loss,” he said. “And, you know, we obviously want to win this Sunday, but more so for our fans and our players then what impact that might have on, you know, how the city addresses the aging city-owned stadium.”
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