Jump aboard, Orlando.
I just fired up the engine on the Jagwagon, and it’s ready to roll.
Next stop, 2027, when hopefully we will be the temporary home of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Correction: Next stop, 2027, when we WILL be the temporary home of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
We HAVE to make this happen and prove to the Jaguars that we are serious about painting our town teal and living up to the recently acquired title given to us by The Sports Business Journal: “Orlando: America’s Best Sports Business City for attracting and hosting events.”
Earlier this week, the Jaguars and the city of Jacksonville agreed on a stadium project in which EverBank Stadium will undergo a $1.4 billion makeover with the city and the team splitting the cost 50-50. The new deal, pending the expected approval of Jacksonville’s City Commission, is actually a win-win for both the Jags and Jacksonville.
The Jags get a renovation of their outdated stadium that will bring it up to par with the newer, nicer stadiums in the league. Jacksonville, one of the league’s smallest markets, will get the peace of mind of knowing its NFL team is locked in at least for the next 30 years with the added benefit of having a palatial new stadium to host other big-time sporting events and concerts and hopefully keeping the Georgia-Florida game in the city for years to come.
Jaguars president Mark Lamping says that if/when the Jaguars get council approval to begin their stadium project, construction would start in the 2025 season, with the Jaguars playing in front of a reduced capacity in 2026 and then hosting home games in either Orlando’s Camping World Stadium or Gainesville’s Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in 2027.
“They’re both very good candidates,” Lamping told me Friday. “Gainesville is closer and we have a pretty deep relationship with the University of Florida and are thankful for their annual commitment to the Florida-Georgia game. As for Orlando, Camping World has hosted NFL games in the past and the NFL is very familiar and obviously comfortable with the management of the facility. And, logistically, for visiting teams, Orlando is a little less complicated than Gainesville. There are pros and cons to both sites.”
I grew up in Gainesville and graduated from the University of Florida but have lived in Orlando for the last two-plus decades. I think I’m about as unbiased on this topic as anybody, and to me this is a no-brainer: Orlando should be the obvious choice to host the Jags in 2027.
The logistical problems Lamping speaks of for visiting teams traveling to Gainesville are obvious — a small airport, a paucity of hotels and a college stadium where the Gators are obviously the top priority. And just think of the hotel/stadium issues if the Gators are hosting, say, Tennessee on a Saturday night with the Jaguars scheduled to play the Texans at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
The Swamp, while storied and historic, is also badly outdated with uncomfortable bleacher seating throughout and a visiting locker room that is not up to NFL standards. The Gators are planning major stadium renovations of their own although there is no timeline for when these updates will begin.
Orlando, meanwhile, already has got the $400 million funding from the tourist development tax to renovate Camping World Stadium, and that project almost certainly will be ready by 2027. When the renovations are complete, Camping World still won’t have the bells and whistles of the billion-dollar NFL stadiums but will be up to NFL standards. And without a full-time tenant, the Jaguars will have the run of the place.
“Except for the number of suites, Camping World is going to be a building that lines up very nicely against other NFL buildings in terms of the general fan experience and the sheer capacity to conduct NFL games,” said Florida Citrus Sports CEO Steve Hogan, the man in charge of bringing major sporting events to the stadium. “We’re not going to have 300 suites — maybe we only have 75 or 80 — but this is going to be a building we can be proud of … and can host anything.”
While Lamping is non-committal, he does say the NFL’s league office will have a major say on where the Jaguars would play in 2027. That, too, should benefit Orlando considering Camping World Stadium has hosted five Pro Bowls in recent years and preseason games previously.
However, it’s not just about the stadium, Lamping said, it’s also about community support and wrapping its arms around the Jaguars.
“Wherever we go, we want it to be a real positive for that community,” Lamping said. “We want it to be something the community would embrace.”
I’ve said and written many times, Orlando sits smack dab in the middle of the third most-populous state in the country and has been waiting for the Jags, Bucs or Dolphins to show us just a little love and give us a reason to embrace them. As someone who lived and worked in Jacksonville when the Jaguars first became an NFL expansion franchise, I’ve always thought the team has done a lousy job of cultivating the Orlando market.
Orlando is the 16th-largest media market in the country (bigger than Miami) and the nation’s biggest market without an NFL team. Orlando is unquestionably the largest TV market in the Jags’ coverage area and will become even bigger in future years when you consider that Central Florida is one of the fastest growing areas in the country.
There was actually a time when former Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver, concerned at the time about the team’s sagging attendance, said Orlando was a prime candidate to start hosting one Jags regular-season game per year if the NFL ever expanded to a 17-game schedule. Weaver, of course, sold the team to current Jags owner Shad Khan, who has since started playing annual regular-season games in London.
Khan’s decision to start playing overseas was an astute business move that has given the team a huge financial boost, cultivated an international fan base and enhanced sponsorship and business opportunities globally.
On a more regional basis, the Jaguars have a chance to make a similarly smart business decision by playing in Central Florida.
“This market is too important to ignore,” Hogan said.
Now it’s up to us as a community to convince the NFL and the Jaguars of that.
I am doing my part by not only cranking up the Jagwagon but driving this baby from Duval to Disney.
Jump aboard.
Next stop, Orlando, 2027.
Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on X (formerly Twitter) @BianchiWrites and listen to my Open Mike radio show every weekday from 6 to 9:30 a.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and 969TheGame.com/listen
