Jacksonville Taxpayers Are Committing $775 Million to Renovate the Jaguars' Stadium, Capping Crowds at About 42,500

The Jacksonville Jaguars are in first place in their division, with an MVP candidate at quarterback and Super Bowl aspirations. For the Colts game, only about 42,500 fans are expected inside EverBank Stadium.

The reason isn't fan apathy. The 31-year-old stadium is under renovation, and Jacksonville taxpayers are footing a $775 million bill for it.

Two mayors, one deal

Democratic Mayor Donna Deegan closed the agreement. The Jacksonville City Council approved it in June 2024.

The talks began under her Republican predecessor, Lenny Curry. His administration negotiated a memorandum of understanding with the team in May 2023 that would have split the cost of the stadium and surrounding development 50-50.

Curry later urged the council to pass Deegan's version. He called it a "win for taxpayers."

Both parties' fingerprints are on this one. Taxpayers still carry the $775 million.

The promised payoff

The case for the deal leans on a number. An August 2023 study by Tourism Economics, commissioned by the Jaguars, projected $21.7 billion in economic impact between 2028 and 2052.

That figure starts with $10.3 billion in direct spending, including team payroll, marketing and event operations. It then adds estimates of what suppliers and employees would spend in turn across the local economy.

Deegan later cited an even bigger figure, $26 billion over the 30-year lease.

Neil deMause of the stadium-subsidy watchdog Field of Schemes has a blunt view of studies like this. He told Reason they are often "PR missives meant to provide pretend numbers that elected officials can use as an excuse for handing over hundreds of millions of tax dollars to a private sports owner."

The city and the team have a different view, and it is on the record. Curry called the final deal a win for taxpayers, and Deegan used the $26 billion figure to sell it.

The Super Bowl line item

The study attributes about $700 million over 25 years to "mega events visitor & operator spending." Its examples include the Super Bowl, the NFL Draft and College Football Playoff games.

Jaguars owner Shahid Khan said something different in October 2025. Speaking to the British outlet talkSPORT, he said: "A Super Bowl now has really graduated to [an] event where it needs infrastructure besides the stadium, hotel rooms, infrastructure, and so on, and Jacksonville doesn't have that. It does have the ability to host other NFL events, maybe the draft, and maybe some other elements, but the city will have to develop before we can be in the mix."

This is not a new problem. The city docked cruise ships downtown to house visitors for Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005. Khan said in 2016 that a Super Bowl in Jacksonville was "absolutely not" happening.

So a team-commissioned study counts mega-event revenue, with the Super Bowl as one named example, while the team's owner has said the city is not in the mix.

Khan did leave the door open to the NFL Draft and other events. Even so, the study's mega-event line is only about $700 million of a $21.7 billion headline figure.

The headline number also compounds. Much of it comes from multiplying direct spending through the local economy, which is an estimate.

Hotels and more subsidies

Downtown Jacksonville's shortage of premium hotel space is part of why the city gave Khan a separate incentives deal worth up to $82 million in taxpayer grants for a luxury Four Seasons hotel.

That means the stadium money is not the only public dollars tied to the Jaguars' plans. The hotel grants are meant to close one of the gaps Khan himself cited as a barrier to the biggest events.

What happens next

The economic impact window in the study opens in 2028. Whether Jacksonville lands the events behind that $700 million line, and whether it builds the hotel and infrastructure base Khan says it needs first, will not be known for years.

The $775 million is committed now, and the crowds at EverBank are smaller because of it.