Jacksonville Jaguars (NFL) — Jacksonville, Florida

The Jacksonville Jaguars are the National Football League franchise based in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida, and one of the two teams — alongside the Carolina Panthers — awarded when the NFL announced a two-team expansion in 1991. The team played its first preseason game on August 18, 1995, and its first regular-season home game at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium on September 3, 1995, becoming the first expansion team to play an inaugural-season home game in a brand-new stadium, as documented by the EverBank Stadium official history. The Jaguars are owned by Shad Khan and operated under team President Mark Lamping, according to Action News Jax. Their home stadium, now named EverBank Stadium, sits on approximately 10 acres along the St. Johns River in downtown Jacksonville and also hosts the annual Florida-Georgia college football rivalry game and the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl, a bowl game tracing its roots to 1946. As of 2025, EverBank Stadium is the active site of the Stadium of the Future renovation — a $1.4 billion public-private project, the largest sports facility investment in Jacksonville's history, targeting completion before the 2028 NFL season.

Jacksonville's pursuit of an NFL franchise began in 1989, when local leaders formed the organization Touchdown Jacksonville! specifically to compete for an expansion team, as documented by Stadiums of Pro Football. When the NFL announced its two-team expansion in 1991, Jacksonville competed against Charlotte, St. Louis, Baltimore, and Memphis. The city was ultimately awarded the franchise, and construction on Jacksonville Municipal Stadium — built on the site of the former Gator Bowl Stadium, which dated to 1927 — was completed in 19.5 months at a cost of $121 million, with public financing covering approximately 85.8 percent of that total, according to Stadiums of Pro Football.

The EverBank Stadium official history records that the Jaguars' first preseason game took place on August 18, 1995, and the team's first regular-season home game followed on September 3, 1995 — a distinction that made Jacksonville the first expansion franchise in NFL history to open its inaugural home season in a newly constructed stadium. The stadium has operated under multiple names since then, including TIAA Bank Field (renamed June 4, 2018, per the Daily's Place official site) before taking the EverBank Stadium name.

EverBank Stadium occupies a 10-acre site on the south bank of the St. Johns River in downtown Jacksonville. Prior to the ongoing renovation, the stadium held a capacity of 67,264 with a grass surface, as noted in the stadium's official records. In addition to regular-season Jaguars games, the venue hosts the annual Florida-Georgia football game — one of the most attended college football rivalries in the Southeast — and the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl, a postseason college football bowl game whose history at the site extends to 1946, as the EverBank Stadium official history documents. The stadium is also designated as the headquarters for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and Ring of Honor (ROH), per the same official source.

A significant earlier renovation, completed in 2016, totaled $90 million and was a shared investment between the City of Jacksonville and the Jaguars, per the Daily's Place official site. That project produced Daily's Place, a 5,500-seat amphitheater and covered flex-field attached to the stadium complex, along with an overhaul of the Gallagher Clubs. The 2016 work represented the first major capital reinvestment in the facility since its 1995 opening and established the stadium campus as a multi-purpose entertainment venue beyond NFL game days.

On June 25, 2024, the Jacksonville City Council approved a $1.4 billion stadium redevelopment framework by a vote of 14 to 1, establishing a public-private funding split of $775 million from the City of Jacksonville and $625 million from the Jaguars organization, as reported by the Jax Daily Record. NFL owners unanimously approved the deal on October 15, 2024, as reported by Action News Jax. Mayor Donna Deegan was centrally involved in negotiating the agreement. The deal includes a 30-year lease committing the Jaguars to Jacksonville through 2054 and a community benefits component valued at $300 million.

The centerpiece design element is a translucent canopy engineered to reduce interior heat by up to 70 percent — described in project documents as a first-of-its-kind technology globally — along with expanded concourses, a park-like main entrance, and corner openings intended to improve airflow through the bowl. When complete, the renovated stadium is designed to hold 62,000 seats, with the capacity expandable to 71,500 for major events, according to the Jax Daily Record. The City's Better Jacksonville Plan serves as a key financing mechanism for the public share of the project, as the Jax Daily Record also reported.

By March 2026, the Jax Daily Record reported that the project was running approximately $100 million over its initial $1.4 billion budget, with the city issuing what it described as the final and largest Stadium of the Future construction permit, topping $696 million.

Construction on the Stadium of the Future broke ground in February 2025, according to Action News Jax. The Jaguars played the full 2025 NFL season at EverBank Stadium with a slightly reduced seating capacity while initial construction phases proceeded around the occupied venue. For the 2026 NFL season, the Jax Daily Record (March 1, 2026) reported that EverBank Stadium will operate at a further reduced capacity of 42,465. In addition, the Jaguars are scheduled to play two London games in back-to-back weeks during the 2026 season, per the same report.

For the 2027 NFL season, the team is expected to relocate temporarily to an alternate venue — either Gainesville or Orlando — while the most intensive construction phases are completed, as reported by both the ESPN and Jax Daily Record. The renovation is targeting completion before the 2028 NFL season. As of March 2026, the project's reported cost had exceeded its original $1.4 billion framework by approximately $100 million, according to the Jax Daily Record.

The Jaguars operate within Jacksonville's consolidated city-county government — the only such governmental structure in Florida — in which the City of Jacksonville and Duval County function as a single entity, a structure effective since October 1, 1968, as documented by News4Jax. This consolidated structure means that the public financing commitments for EverBank Stadium — including the $775 million city share and the Better Jacksonville Plan mechanism — are administered through a single municipal government rather than a separate county authority. The City Council's 14-to-1 vote in June 2024 reflected that consolidated civic decision-making structure.

EverBank Stadium is situated on the south bank of the St. Johns River, and the broader downtown sports complex anchors the city's riverside identity. The stadium complex shares the downtown waterfront with VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, home of the Jacksonville Icemen of the ECHL. The Jaguars' downtown presence connects to Jacksonville's wider sports calendar, which includes the Florida-Georgia game and the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl at EverBank Stadium itself, as documented by the EverBank Stadium official history. Jacksonville, with a population of 961,739 as of the U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023, is the most populous city in Florida, and the Jaguars franchise represents the metropolitan area's primary major professional sports tenant in one of the NFL's smaller-market host cities. The team's 2027 temporary relocation — to either Gainesville or Orlando — will mark the first extended period since 1995 in which the Jaguars play a full season outside of Jacksonville.