Jacksonville, Florida — The city's first round of nearly $2 billion in funding for the cost of renovating EverBank Stadium was released Friday. That's according to a court document filed by the Jacksonville City Council.
The City Council introduced a bill to allocate $10 million for the massive renovation. This is funding that has already been approved and comes from $20 million already approved in the capital improvement plan.
The cost of the renovations is estimated at $1.4 billion, half of which comes from the city and the other half from taxpayers.
Gallery: Renderings of “Stadium of the Future”.
The bill states that the funding represents a $10 million appropriation from the project’s engineering and design appropriations to cover costs associated with major renovations to the “Stadium of the Future.”
Pushpajed Kanwar was visiting San Marco Square on Friday night and said he supported the move.
“If it creates more jobs for people, it's a good idea,” Kanwar said.
While some support it, others like Joseph Burtner, who was visiting from New York, oppose paying taxpayer money for the stadium.
“They need to pay players less, and the owners need to take responsibility and stop taking all the tax money, period,” Burtner said.
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When News4JAX reached out about the bill and received this statement:
“The $10 million described in Bill No. 2024-0170 comes from a $20 million line item already approved in the FY24-28 Capital Improvement Plan for stadium planning. This funding covers services provided by Gilbane, an engineering firm They were appointed through a competitive RFP process to complete the design process initiated by the Jaguars and undertake structural and structural analysis of the refurbishment.
Phil Perry, Jacksonville
Kanwar was accepting the price because he felt the stadium needed a facelift.
“There are better stadiums than this one, so I'm not saying it doesn't need improvement but as long as it creates jobs and as long as people actually believe $10 million is needed for it then it's OK,” Kanwar said. .
However, Burtner feels Jaguar needs to foot the full bill for the upgrades.
“I'm not a local. I know how you can take advantage of that and I think it's ridiculous… It's bad enough that people are paying so much for tickets. I think it's terrible,” he said.
Current construction plans call for renovating the stadium during the 2026 and 2027 seasons, with the Jags returning home in 2028.
Negotiations between the team and the city of Jacksonville are still ongoing and may not be resolved before this summer.
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