A.G. Gancarski
Jacksonville’s Mayor is taking the deal her team negotiated with the NFL Jaguars for a stadium renovation on the road, with the first “community huddle” slated for next week.
The city notes that “Mayor Donna Deegan; Mark Lamping, President of the Jacksonville Jaguars; and Mike Weinstein, Lead Negotiator for the city of Jacksonville, will present at each meeting.”
All five events start at 6 p.m.
Mandarin High School will host the first event on Wednesday.
The next day, the show comes to Northwest Jacksonville’s Legends Center.
The beaches are up after that, with a May 20 show-up at Fletcher High School.
From there, nine days will pass, before the May 29 presentation on the Southside at Sandalwood High School.
Westside High School closes out the schedule the next day.
When it comes to the Jacksonville Jaguars‘ stadium renovation, there still are plenty of unknowns regarding the project, including the cost and anticipated taxpayer burden.
Some answers should be available by Tuesday, when Deegan, Lamping and Weinstein offer a presentation at a City Council meeting.
Yet despite the deal being struck and there certainly being draft versions of term sheets, the administration is maintaining the mystery about what could be the biggest capital spend in Jacksonville history.
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.
Council will take at least 60 days to vet the deal upon introduction next week, meaning decisions will be made after Independence Day at the earliest.
11 comments
Scheme scam
May 9, 2024 at 5:43 pm
Scheme.
Michael Sullivan
May 10, 2024 at 4:10 pm
Crooked. Typical liberal. Lacks a moral compass. Ask her faithful ex-husband. Can’t stand the sight of her.
the Truth
May 9, 2024 at 7:11 pm
Make Khan the Con, pay for the stadium from his billions of dollars. Tell him to sell his four hundred million dollar yacht.. There are many more items to spend a billion dollars on: police and firefighters pension fund, new jail, septic tank phase out,,, just to name a few, Take your team and leave you con artist
MH/Duuuval
May 10, 2024 at 4:57 pm
This left-of-center old fart couldn’t agree with you more.
rick whitaker
May 10, 2024 at 6:52 pm
MH/DUUUVAL, this left of left of left old fart agrees too. let the rich pay for their own toys.
MH/Duuuval
May 10, 2024 at 9:16 pm
The yacht named Kismet was sold in 2023, but no one knows if Kahn got the $199 million he was asking.
the Truth
May 10, 2024 at 10:36 pm
Khan ordered a new yacht, a 400 foot one, for $400,00,000, make him pay for the stadium or take the team to Pakistan, and Kismet, means, the will of Allah
Stadium = scame
May 9, 2024 at 9:55 pm
The mayor doesn’t appear to believe she has to answer to taxpayers or do anything “hard like math” or following state sunshine law. She is just like DeSantis. One term is enough to ruin the city for the next 40 years (best case scenario). When somebody’s name is Con and their “investment” portfolio is named after a reptile, maybe somebody should be paying attention. You are about to get bent over by the mayor and city council to make a billionaire even richer and you and the city a lot poorer. People who stay in Jax are either renters who don’t pay taxes, old and grandfathered in at such a low rate they don’t care, or from areas where they’re used to paying through the nose and don’t know the difference. They will find out fast that paying taxes in Jax means jack-nothing. Anybody left with a job and a brain will find a way to leave, like they already are, at an alarming rate. Why do you think the mayor is paying people who make good money $25k in down payments free money to buy a house and stay for only 3 years? That money comes out the the general fund, just like the money for the stadium sucks any and all remedy away from police and fire who earned their pensions but now are left holding jax’s unfunded colostomy bag and there is nothing–read zero–left over to actually run the city or pay its bills. People will see what comes of all this soon. Democrats only get elected to one term in jax as a general rule. One term is enough.
MH/Duuuval
May 10, 2024 at 5:00 pm
You imagine that DD can rule without the votes of a devoted MAGA Counci. (One need only recall “King” Curry’s first term in office when he ran up the score on nearly every vote. But, then, he tripped and stumbled in his second term, badly.)
MH/Duuuval
May 9, 2024 at 10:46 pm
Any point in showing up for the huddle if you oppose the giveaway?
Jaxson
May 11, 2024 at 2:00 pm
If the mayor is really who she promised to be for the people she would not be doing this to the city. Nobody who cares about the city would allow this to happen. The jags have to have some place to play and nobody wants them. But the city is too bootlicking and dependent to con for their election campaigns to call that bluff like any smart city would. The mayor lied when she said she would help the city. She is helping herself and con. The city council is full of stupid selfish people who don’t care about the city at all and don’t even want to do their jobs. They are afraid to lose votes if they don’t pass it and they don’t care about any consequences. Superfans in the city who want this need to understand what it means for the city and I don’t think many people get it and that’s what the city and big con is counting on. They know if they put it to a citizen vote it would lose. This is such a dishonest way to go about it I don’t think the mayor has any integrity.