The City of Jacksonville and the Jaguars continue to work through Stadium negotiations, aiming to reach a tentative agreement by early May 2024.

As many at this point may already know, the Jaguars’ current stadium lease with the city runs through the 2029 NFL season, unless extended. Nine months ago, the Jacksonville Jaguars presented fans with the team's vision of the 'Stadium of the Future’ in Jacksonville - a project that has been three years in the making.

Since then, the Jaguars and Sidley Austin LLP, the negotiating group representing the city of Jacksonville have been negotiating behind the scenes through the finer details to hammer out a tentative agreement. Here is where we are currently.

Renovations versus new stadium:

The initial projections for a new stadium construction would be around $2.1 billion. In place of building a brand new stadium, the team and city agreed that a top-to-bottom stadium renovation, with a price tag of approximately $1.2 to $1.4 billion, would be the best route for the team and city to pursue moving forward. This is currently being negotiated with the details being mapped out.

Where will games be played?

As previously covered by Big Cat Country's Simon Carroll, the team has worked through many scenarios on where the team could play in 2026 and 2027. This includes multiple in-city options: Daytona, Orlando, or even potentially Gainesville, Tallahassee, or London. This is an outstanding item awaiting tentative agreement from the team and city. The team is set to play the 2024 and 2025 seasons at EverBank Stadium.

Per Jacksonville.com's Hanna Holthaus:

If the team played at home in 2026, the stadium could only fit around 45,000 people, instead of the projected 60,000 after renovations. The team will, however, have to play away during home games in 2027 if sticking to the current timeline.

Projected Timelines:

The city’s lead negotiator, Mike Weinstein, gave the city Council an update on Tuesday, March 12th during an advising of a projected early-May tentative agreement. Once the negotiating group and the team have reached a tentative agreement, it will be presented to the City Council for review.

The City Council will then review the agreement and make any amendments. However, there is no true timeframe for the Council contract review process. The group has however asked for any contract amendments from the Council to be completed within 60 days, if possible.

Per Jacksonville.com:

During that time, the city will request community feedback through its own events, much like the Jaguars did after announcing their design plans. To reach a deal, the city, the team, City Council and 75% of NFL owners will have to agree. The Jaguars will not be able to finalize a deal in time for the national spring owners’ meeting, but Weinstein said they will either take the deal to the NFL during the October meeting or request a special meeting during the year.

After the team, the negotiating group, the City Council, and the NFL are all in agreement, the City Council will have up to a year and a half to discuss the financing options.

Expect changes:

In June, Jaguars President Mark Lamping aptly stated:

"There’s going to be a lot of give and take, and the lease negotiations will be happening at the same time as the negotiations on the renovation."

With that in mind, within the negotiations, there may be changes to the stadium renovation vision and offerings and also the 'community benefit' aspect of the negotiations, before final approval by all parties.

It's a long, winding negotiation process -- but progress is being made on getting answers to fans' lingering questions. We will provide future stadium negotiation updates as they occur.