Orlando Wants to Host Jaguars’ Games While The Jacksonville Stadium Is Renovated

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FILE - Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan on the field before an NFL football game against the Miami Dolphins at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, Sunday, Oct. 17, 2021. Over the past 100 years, around 110 men and a handful of women have owned controlling portions of NFL teams. Of that select group, all but two have been white. . (AP Photo/Gary McCullough, File)

Shad Khan will need a home field for his business in 2027.

The city of Orlando wants the National Football League’s Jacksonville Jaguars’ owner Shad Khan to bring his business for one year to the central Florida market while Khan’s stadium in Jacksonville is being renovated in 2027. Orlando will have a renovated stadium that could meet NFL stadium standards. The NFL knows the Orlando market as it plays its annual Pro Bowl Game in the city. Around $400 million dollars is being put into the building which was built as part of a Depression era Works Progress Administration project in 1936. The stadium was renovated between 1974 and 1976 but the new east upper deck swayed and was dismantled in 1980. There was another renovation in the late 1980s. In 2014, there was another renovation.

Area tourist tax money will fund the latest Orlando stadium renovation. Orange County, Florida officials have not signed off on the project as of yet but the signing will be a mere formality when it happens. Orlando has never hosted an NFL regular season game. Orlando lost in its bid to host the University of Georgia and the University of Florida annual college football game that was played in Jacksonville to Atlanta in 2026 and Tampa in 2027. The Georgia-Florida game will return to Jacksonville between the 2028 and 2031 seasons. The Jaguars’ business office is not only assessing Orlando as a possible temporary home but it is also checking out the feasibility of using the University of Florida’s football stadium in Gainesville. Just how many “home games” are needed for 2027 is unclear. If Khan’s team plays eight home games, instead of nine, three of those games could be played in London, England which would mean Khan needs just five games in Florida. In the NFL money talks, whoever has the best financial package in Khan’s mind will get the games.

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Orlando’s football stadium