And one day after the Charlotte city council overwhelmingly approved $650 million in public spending to renovate the Carolina Panthers‘ 28-year-old stadium, the Jacksonville city council one-upped them by overwhelmingly approving $775 million in public spending to renovate the Jaguars‘ 29-year-old stadium. The vote was 14-1 with two absentions, and it came with all the expected trappings:
A terrible marketing name: The Jaguars’ redone stadium has been branded as the “stadium of the future,” which, aren’t all stadiums “of the future”? Since it’s, you know, where we’re going to spend the rest of our lives?
Democracy!!!1!: Of the council’s 14 Republicans and 5 Democrats, 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats voted in favor, with one of each absent. Republican councilmember Mike Gay cast the lone vote against the deal, saying there’s “a great deal wrong with it.” and that it wasn’t what voters had meant the city’s 0.5% sales tax surcharge to be used for. Meanwhile, two different councilmembers, Republicans Kevin Carrico and Terrance Freeman, abstained because of conflicts of interest, which was somehow two less than the last time the council voted on a stadium measure.
Intimations that the team would have moved without the money: Fox Sports ran with the headline “Jacksonville approves $1.4B ‘stadium of the future’ to keep Jaguars in town,” though there were never any offers from other cities to lure the Jaguars elsewhere. Also the Jaguars get to keep playing one home game a year in London under the new deal, so really the headline could have used an asterisk. (The team’s new lease extension runs for 30 years, at least, which makes the per-year cost less than the Panthers’ newly established record $43 million a year.)
Fresh stadium renderings: Including an image of Jags owner Shad Khan where even his moustache looks overjoyed to be getting a $775 million check from taxpayers.
Bad sports metaphors: “By your vote we have scored a touchdown,” declared council president Ron Salem following the vote, in a long tradition of trying to define giving public money to sports team owners as literally something fans should cheer about. (Councilmember Matt Carlucci appears to have gone even further, saying, “Let’s not go for a field goal, let’s go for a touchdown,” though that was only reported secondhand by a Jacksonville resident in attendance, so citation needed.)
Kicking the can down the road on community benefits: The council followed through on its promise to remove $94 million in affordable housing and homelessness prevention spending from the stadium bill — though at least Khan’s $77 million worth of community spending, which will still happen. (And the $94 million in delayed city spending may still happen as well, it just will be voted on separately later on.)
The $775 million in public cash could end up being the largest lump sum of public money ever for renovating an existing stadium, depending on how far Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti dips into his bottomless state slush fund. Coming just one day after the Charlotte vote, this is a clear sign that any thoughts that the tide has turned on sports subsidies were premature at best. But at least we have journalists rooting out the details of the deals to keep elected officials honest?
It’s only Wednesday, and it’s already a long week.
It reminds me of when San Antonio approved a 1 cent increase to build the Alamodome but in that case the boosters were straight up with the voters. I remember their rallying cry was “it’s just a penny to bring the NFL here!”
Over 30 years later the local fans are still waiting (temporary visits by NFL teams in need don’t count).
If an NFL team had moved to San Antonio 30 years ago, they’d now be in their second stadium and talking about a third.
Just like the Spurs!
Jacksonville particularly interests me since the city got the expansion team that was supposed to be slam-dunk (Mixed Metaphors, Activate!) for StL, but the lease situation there was a mess, and Jacksonville was the surprising choice after the league delayed the process to give StL time to get act together. Then there’s connection of Khan attempting to procure Crams.
Lo these many years (and beerses!) later, Jacksonville coughs up 775 mil, 15 less than the StL & Partners clawback lawsuit. In these Dark Times, raise a glass to Saint Louis’ ability – after erecting the fanciest stadium in the league (which sparked much envy and stadium building) and blowing insane amounts on PSLs to pay off Crams’ lease in Anaheim – to get out of the scam with full pockets rather than progressively emptier ones.
Jacksonville did have priors in regards to courting an NFL team in the years leading up to the 1995 expansion — it came pretty close to luring the Oilers to town in the late 80s before Houston intervened at the 11th hour — but even with that background, the fact that it got a team back in 1995 was seen as a miracle.
In an alternate version of 2024 where Jax isn’t on the NFL map, I don’t know if any existing NFL franchise — or really any of the “major league” franchises — would use the city even as a relocation stalking horse, let alone actually explore relocating there. (Then again, America may have already reached peak football, so the next relocation frontier for NFL teams may well lie beyond these shores.)
Ultimately, Jacksonville learned a cold and sobering lesson that every city with a expansion team eventually comes to learn: staying a “big league” town is orders of magnitude more difficult than actually becoming one.
Why the NFL was more attracted to suckering the politicians of Buffalo and Jacksonville to fork over a billion dollars than relocate to huge markets like Toronto and London is a mystery. A Toronto, London, New England and New York AFC East would have been awesome. Buffalo will still be crippled by 6 foot blizzards, over a billion dollars for an open air stadium in Buffalo??? Chicago and Cleveland finally discovered that doesn’t work on the Great Lakes. And Jacksonville, the armpit of Florida? 15 years later Jerry’s World is still surrounded by parking lots. 30 years, and $775,000,000 from now East Jacksonville will still be a wasteland. In about 20 years the owner of the Jaguars will be demanding that Jacksonville provide a multi-billion dollar domed stadium with air conditioning.
NFL TV money is all national, so the benefit to an individual owner of moving to a larger market would be almost nothing. It might or might not be in the interest of the league as a whole to have a team in London, but for whoever owned that team, they would just be buying a whole lot of jet lag without getting any payoff.
It’s far easier for a league like the NFL to strong-arm small markets like Buffalo and Jacksonville, where the local teams are often the only identification markers at the national level (or even the regional level), than it is to try and force larger markets like Toronto or London to its will. Keep in mind, this is the same league that once told the *second-largest city in America* to kick rocks, abandoned said city for 20 years, and still managed to go from strength to strength in terms of money and popularity.
Hell, you could even argue that having 31 US-based NFL teams instead of 32 would hurt the league the next time the TV rights go up for negotiations with the major US networks, because the fanbase/audience for the one team that decides to move abroad would immediately crater in America, which is, and always will be, the primary market for pro football.
I don’t want to encourage sprawl, but realistically, the NFL could put its stadiums just about anywhere as long as there are interstates and enough parking and or public transit (but mostly parking).
Which is why it seems absurd for Charlotte to go to such lengths to keep the team near uptown.
Really, the best place for the Panthers might be somehow adjacent to the speedway. That way, they could both use the same parking. And if they still wanted a soccer team, they could build a more MLS-appropriate venue that could also be used for other things – FCS football, etc.
That also shows why FedEx Field is such a disaster. It’s not far from DC and yet it is hard to get to.
The fanbase for whatever team moves to London might no longer be their fanbase, but most of those people would probably still watch the NFL anyway. The 20 years with no team in LA showed that.
But I don’t think the NFL is looking to move a team and now that all of these stadium shake-downs appear to be done with, I don’t think any owner is either. So if London happens, which it probably won’t soon, it will be expansion.
The Panthers could almost get away with a stadium between Mooresville and Statesville near the crossroads area at the junctions of I-40 and I-77.
Are the stadium shakedowns really done? At about 20 years old, stadiums start showing symptoms of concrete cancer, major structural problems and are suddenly, Wizard of Oz style, moving to undesirable locations. Gazing into my crystal ball, I see those sliding panels and roof at Lucas Oil Stadium start to fall apart. $850 million in desperately needed repairs will be needed to insure its safe for the Colts to play in Indianapolis. Better cave in fast or start saying New Albany Colts, take that one, Indianapolis. State of Illinois, the NFL could care less about your bond rating and pension debt. Come to your senses and fork over a couple billion for the dome on Lake Michigan that could have been built 30 years ago, but Ed McCaskey was too smart to actually ask for a dome when he could have a stupid flying saucer that would be obsolete in less than 20 years. Lake Forest is closer to Kenosha than Chicago, now that’s the ultimate threat, Wisconsin 2, Illinois 0.
Also, there’s a great what-if about what the Rams (and the Jaguars) fate would have been had Shad Khan been allowed to take over the former. Even after the stadium “commitment,” Khan’s relationship with Jacksonville still feels like it’s entirely transactional, whereas he still has real affinity with the Midwest, given that’s where he originally built his empire.
I believe he would’ve been much more proactive and expressive about keeping the Rams in St. Louis, in contrast to the air of indifference he often gave about where the long-term home of the Jaguars would ultimately be.
Will the Chef of the Future be preparing food for the concession stands in the Stadium of the Future?
Nah, it will still be Levy or one of those other anti-customer concessionaires.
I have always been glad not to live in Jacksonville, but even more so today.
“Can it core a apple?
“Oooh, It can core a apple.”
This is definitely a legacy city council, Jacksonville is no longer a third rate city! Jacksonville is now a third rate city with a $1.5 billion football stadium that will be used 7 days a year and a white elephant the other 358 days!
15. You have a bowl, the Florida-Georgia game, 10 NFL games (hope part of the deal ends the Jags game(s) in London, and Monster Jam.
The deal extended one home game in London plus some road games, so Jacksonville is only guaranteed 7 games a year. Preseason games are worthless. No matter what kind of stadium Jacksonville builds, it will never host a national playoff game with so many real cities that NCAA officials enjoy visiting that have real air service, hotels and gold plated stadiums. The Georgia Florida game is staying in Jacksonville regardless of what stadium is offered, what’s the competition? Valdosta?
Nitpick.
Preseason games are not worthless to the owners.
In the negotiations with the players, the owners never want to get rid of preseason games any unless they can be replaced with real games. So apparently, somehow, they make money.
But still, 15 events a year is not much ROI for a billion dollars.
Maybe Jacksonville can host weekend flea markets in the stadium parking lot during non-season months.
or become a leading pickleball hub????