The Jacksonville Jaguars “Stadium of the Future” deal could be up for a vote in 20 days.
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Paying for the stadium renovations is no small task as the roughly $1.4 billion deal would cost taxpayers up to $775 million.
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On Wednesday, Jacksonville City Council members, the ones who will cast the vote to approval the deal or reject it, heard from the Mayor’s administration and Jaguars officials to review some of the agreements. Two topics of discussion were the financing aspect of the deal and the non-relocation agreement.
There are nine total agreements in the package. Action News Jax heard from several council members who said they think the financing is creative, worth exploring, and several were relatively happy with the how it could be done, calling it “fair” for the taxpayers.
The council auditor’s office went through the payment method, through the City’s Capital Improvement plan and swap the projects and funding with the Better Jacksonville Program. The auditor’s office mentioned how it still would allow for other projects to get done while paying for the stadium.
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The council auditor’s office mentioned other potential funding mechanisms to pay for the stadium of the future, including how the city could cut costs in other areas, or increase taxes; the current plan is to do neither of those.
Council President Ron Salem said the auditor’s office likes the current plan and is very thorough, which gives him some comfort and he feels as if the city is moving in the right direction towards approval of the deal.
“I like it, I think it’s a good plan, it saves us a lot of borrowing cost and I think it prepares us down the road for possibly a second large vertical project like a jail,” Salem said.
Action News Jax also spoke with council member Nick Howland, who said he wants to look into it more but believes it’s a creative way to pay for the stadium.
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“I’m really pleased it looks like what we hammered out so far in draft is a very fair deal by taxpayers and we get to keep the jaguars here for 30 years, it’s important,” he said.
Something that will be discussed in a future meeting is the community benefits agreement, which includes $150 million from the Jaguars and the city to go toward community development around the county. It’s received some pushback and something Council President Salem said he still would like to see separate from the deal. It’s still possible there could be an amendment to change it or remove it.