Jacksonville councilmember says giving $775m to Jags owner is fine, but what’s all this about spending $150m on housing?

We have our first sign of city council dissension on the plan to give Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan $775 million in city money toward a $1.4 billion stadium renovation — and it’s not about the $775 million for a privately used football stadium at all. Nope, councilmember Rory Diamond says he’s opposed to the deal because of the $300 million (sort of — more on that in a moment) in “community benefits” spending that would be split between the city and Khan:

“There’s simply no way I can support a deal that includes $150 million of totally unnecessary spending,” said Diamond. “There’s just no reason for it so for me it’s a non-starter.”

Uh, okay? The $150 million in city community benefits spending would go toward things like affordable housing and homelessness services, which, while I suppose you can debate whether they’re necessary, would certainly be public benefits. The $775 million in stadium spending, meanwhile, would benefit only Khan — unless there were some provision for the city to get a cut of increased revenues from the redone stadium, which right now there is not.

Also, the community benefits package is one of the few ways in which the city would be getting something back out of Khan, albeit not as much as it was initially reported. The Jags owner would kick in $150 million as well, but crucially, only in $5 million installments over 30 years, while the city would put up its share immediately. In order to generate $150 million over 30 years, Khan would only have to set aside $77 million now if he can earn even a modest 5% return on that money — meaning about two-thirds of the community benefits package would be covered by the city.

Still, getting $77 million in value from Khan would reduce the total city subsidy package to $698 million, which is still a whole lot of money, but better than $775 million. If Diamond is truly concerned about fiscal responsibility, maybe he could work on whittling down that $775 million city giveaway to the Jaguars owner — or demanding, in return for going halfsies on stadium cost, that the city get half the new revenues from upgrades, naming rights, the increased sale value of the team, whatever. There are lots of ways to make this a better deal, but “I’m okay with signing a nine-figure check to the local NFL team owner, but spending less than one-fifth that amount on affordable housing is a dealbreaker” isn’t any of them.

Unfortunately, it looks for now like the community benefits package is going to be what the council spends its time haggling over, which is government malpractice, honestly. This whole shakedown is looking like it’ll be summed up as “Rich guy hints about moving team to London, comes away with $775 million check from taxpayers, doesn’t even have to stop playing one game a year in London” — which while maybe not the biggest grift in recent NFL history, is still pretty impressive for a guy who ranks among the league’s most hated owners. It helps when the people on the other side of the bargaining table are mostly interested in getting a deal done at whatever the cost, but then, Kevin Delaney and Rick Eckstein already taught us that a couple of decades ago.

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4 comments on “Jacksonville councilmember says giving $775m to Jags owner is fine, but what’s all this about spending $150m on housing?

  1. I remember when Khan bidding for Frontiere’s heirs’ share of the StL Crams was viewed as potential savior who would keep team in town while ending fretting about Dome upgrades, and the resulting fear when Kroenke exercised right to match. Those were the daze. Shoulda known endgame would look the same.

  2. And it looks like Salt Lake City will push through the .5 percent sales tax on July 2nd with only one public hearing scheduled for tonight. No meaningful plans appear to be available for what could end up being a multi billion dollar arena and development. Hundreds of pages of zoning details are on tonight’s agenda for the Ballpark Station redevelopment, a much smaller project, after a 3 year long process. Ram through the welfare for billionaire Ryan Smith first, and bother with details later. Glendale tried that 23 years ago and….

  3. Last month Duval County said it would have to close 30 public schools just to fill a $1.4 billion budget hole. Then we find out about $1.4 billion allocated to rebuild EverBank Stadium. If it ain’t the disregard for public education, it’s the government subsidy for sportsball.
    All this as Gainesville and Orlando plot to see who’ll host the Jaguars come 2027. Gainesville may have the larger stadium, but Orlando has the NFL-standard facility and plenty more hotel rooms.

  4. It really sounds like Jacksonville’s elected officials have a contemptuous view of their constituents. I wish I could say that is be a rarity, but hating the voters you’re supposed to serve and the electorate being okay with that seems to be the norm these days.

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