Jacksonville leaders unveil ‘historic’ agreement for BankField Stadium renovations with Jaguars

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan, Jaguars President Mark Lamping, and the city’s chief negotiator Mike Weinstein presented a “historic” agreement with the Jacksonville Jaguars for its new BankField stadium renovations.

Tuesday night’s city council meeting included a presentation from Deegan’s office on the stadium renovations nearly one year after the Jaguars unveiled their renovation plans and began stadium negotiations as Deegan took office.

“Jacksonville has the privilege of being an NFL town and this deal will ensure our citizens can enjoy the benefits of that privilege for decades to come,” Deegan said. “At the same time […] It will also infuse much needed dollars into the historic east side and into our entire community.”

The $1.25 billion agreement will entail an even split, with the Jaguars committed to covering any cost overruns, surpassing their initial proposal significantly, according to Deegan.

Additionally, Jacksonville will bear $150 million in deferred maintenance expenses.

The Jaguars renovation plan was originally around $2 billion.

She stated that the city would reap a $26 billion economic benefit over the 30-year lease period, describing the new agreement as the team meeting halfway, beneficial for both Jacksonville and the Jaguars.

“We said from the start, this lease had to be very different,” Deegan said. “It had to be fair to the taxpayers. We asked the Jaguars to meet us halfway and I am grateful to tell you tonight that that is exactly what they have done.”

Lamping said the new stadium, or the “Stadium of the Future,” will represent the “largest public infrastructure investment in Jacksonville’s history and the largest private investment in the history of downtown Jacksonville.”

He said it “doesn’t come as a big surprise” that the current stadium is “reaching the end of its useful life.”

Lamping said the concourse of the stadium has more than doubled in size.

Weinstein voiced that the city’s pension tax, activated post the Better Jacksonville Plan, would retire the legacy pension debt. He proposed reinstating Better Jacksonville Plan projects under the tax to leverage this funding mechanism.

He also mentioned that $600 million from the current capital improvement plan could be allocated on a pay-as-you-go basis, thus releasing borrowing capacity for the stadium.

He said the previous administration wanted to end the plan before its expiration of 2030.

“If we weren’t doing a stadium, we should consider putting back into the Better Jacksonville Plan and using it’s about $125, $130 million a year that we will give up if we ended early,” Weinstein said.

During the meeting, city Councilman Rory Diamond said on social media that Deegan now wants to “undo [the city’s] pension fix (police and fire) and divert the Better Jacksonville Plan funds to pay for other ‘projects.’”

“This is insanity. It’s also not legal. The voters voted,” Diamond said.

“We need to keep our commitments to our firefighters and JSO officers,” he continued. “We need to protect our taxpayers from wild new spending and even more debt.”

Council President Ron Salem said he will “try to obtain a consensus on each agreement” and council members will vote on one piece of legislation.

In total, there were six Jaguar agreements and Salem’s goal is to complete the vote for each of those by the June 25 council meeting.

Ultimately, NFL owners will need to grant approval for the final deal, pending legislative approval.