A.G. Gancarski
When it comes to the Jacksonville Jaguars‘ stadium renovation, there are plenty of unknowns regarding the project.
Among them: what the cost will be for the renovation project, and how much of that cost taxpayers will be expected to absorb.
Jacksonville City Council President President Ron Salem said at May 14’s meeting the Stadium Renovation Agreement will be presented by the Donna Deegan administration. Negotiator Mike Weinstein and Jaguars’ President Mark Lamping will be with the Mayor to make the pitch.
“I look forward to the presentation at our City Council meeting on Tuesday from the Jaguars and the administration. The Council expects to receive a complete agreement soon thereafter. My colleagues and I will begin a process to vet and finalize a stadium and lease agreement that is fair for the citizens of Jacksonville and will secure the Jaguars as our team for decades to come,” Salem said in a statement.
Beyond that, details are elusive. Salem, unlike the Deegan administration, responded immediately to a public records request regarding documentation of the deal, saying he didn’t have anything.
Salem did address the timing, noting that the Mayor’s Office will begin “town hall” meetings to sell the proposal next Wednesday, and that the goal was to “make sure Council had the facts” on the deal before then.
He stressed that this is an agreement between the administration and the Jaguars, and he will not be at the town hall events where Deegan will try to sell the deal.
The Mayor’s Office isn’t going out of its way to provide draft documents as Sunshine laws would require, meanwhile, compounding the mystery.
“We have reached an agreement on the framework of a deal. The negotiating team is currently putting the final details on paper, and we will release that information as soon as it is available,” Deegan said in a statement from her office.
The Jaguars and the Shad Khan vehicle “Iguana Investments” previously envisioned a total investment that could cost as much as $2.068 billion, a number that could include stadium improvements costing between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion, as well as between $550 and $668 million for development of a “sports district,” an option supposedly off the table.
Jacksonville was proposed to foot the bill for two-thirds of the cost of stadium improvements in the original term sheet.
The City Council will vet the proposal on an extraordinary 60-day cycle, with Council auditors and members digging into the deal while the Mayor sells it around town.
Legislative approval is not a sure thing.
The Council offered a surprise when the Jaguars wanted money for an entertainment district in the so-called Lot J deal. A 12-7 vote fell one shy of the necessary 2/3 supermajority, and former Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry and Jaguars owner Shad Khan took a shocking loss unimaginable for that Mayor and that franchise in previous tries.
The proposed entertainment zone at the Sports Complex would have come with a hefty city obligation, with upwards of $245 million on the project.
In previous recent years, Jacksonville taxpayers authorized $88 million of city-funded capital improvements to the Jaguars’ stadium: $43 million for the world’s biggest scoreboard during the Alvin Brown administration, and under the Curry administration, half of a $90 million buy-in that secured a new amphitheater, a covered practice field, and club seat improvements.
3 comments
Frankie M.
May 8, 2024 at 5:07 pm
What a blessing for the community!
the Truth
May 8, 2024 at 7:00 pm
Frankie, you must be joking, a blessing, its a mess. The city cannot afford the money for a stadium. The firefighters and police pension fund is underfunded. The city needs a new jail. And what about the septic tank phase out.. So many more important things than a edifice for Shad Con. Make Khan use some of his billions to pay for the stadium. He has enough money for a new 400 foot yacht at a cost of $400,000,000, yet he wants the taxpayers to fund his stadium. The vast majority of the taxpayers do not go to the games or cant afford it.. What is in it for them.. Their tax dollars need to used more wisely. This is just one of the reasons that Deegan will be a one term mayor, and those on the city council who support funding the stadium, might just be one term members as well, so go ahead
C.o.d.
May 9, 2024 at 12:37 am
The atlantic had an article about the scam of using taxpayer money to enrich private profit for billionaires and how even the money they borrow to pay for it costs the country because the bonds are tax free. But taxpayers are saddled with generations of debt they are still paying for long after the team is demanding a newer shinier one or has left for greener pastures because they are only in it for the money! Shocker! So the billions in debt keep compounding while the city falls apart. Congress has had multiple chances to close the loophole because they know it’s a scam and should be illegal but they’re too chicken to do anything. There is zero return on investment except to enrich the crony billionaires who are too smart and too crooked to use their own money and instead profit off of literally breaking cities for generations.
Many people will be leaving Jax soon. It’s the worst combination of crooked and stupid, high taxes and unfunded liabilities. They can’t collect the garbage and the schools and roads are falling apart and half the city floods every time it rains because they don’t even practice basic maintenance, but boy howdy they’ll get their stadium and all their free tickets for themselves. Cronies and crooks the lot of them.
Jax is a renter majority city now so taxpayers don’t mean squat to the mayor’s office or the city council. They won’t bring it for a referendum because they know people are wise to the scam. The mayor’s office acts like it doesn’t have to answer to anyone and the city council is useless, all compromised.
the atlantic dought com, sports stadium subsidies taxpayer-funding May 08