Florida athletic director open to hosting Jaguars for two seasons while NFL team is displaced

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The Jaguars are expected to be displaced for two years while TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville is being renovated.

Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry announced this week that the NFL team likely will need to find a place to play in 2025 and 2026.

Speculation about the Jaguars’ temporary home has centered on Orlando and London. The Jaguars will become the first NFL team to play two home games in London when they play back-to-back weeks overseas this season.

But the University of Florida makes the most sense for the Jaguars during the renovations.

Ben Hill Griffin Stadium seats 90,000 and is located 75 miles from downtown Jacksonville.

Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin said the Jaguars have expressed interest in having conversations about playing at The Swamp.

“It would be worth exploring hosting games at The Swamp,” Stricklin said, via Kevin Brockway of The Gainesville Sun. “There are a lot of Jags fans in Gainesville given the close proximity to Jacksonville.”

In 2002, the Bears played on the Illinois campus at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, while Soldier Field was being renovated. In 1998, the Titans played at Vanderbilt Stadium in Nashville before moving into their new home.

The Florida-Georgia game, which annually is played in Jacksonville, likely will move to campus sites in 2025 and 2026 while TIAA Bank Stadium is being redone. The college teams last played on campus in 1994 and ’95 when Jacksonville last renovated the stadium.

7 responses to “Florida athletic director open to hosting Jaguars for two seasons while NFL team is displaced

  1. Not a fan of Florida, but they got a damn good stadium.

    Anything is better than London.

  2. The Titans should have done the same thing … renovate Nissan(Adelphia) colosseum and forget a new one.

  3. Do the Jags draw enough to worry about this? Couldn’t they play in a park or a high school field and still have to tarp over half the stands?

  4. There is a reason why the Jags will never leave Jax… Jacksonville has 841 square miles of taxpayers and a very fast growing population. No other city in this nation can match that. It’s the reason we got the team in the first place. Taxpayers pay for it.

  5. Vikings also played at University of Minnesota’s stadium while their new stadium was being built.

  6. “Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry announced this week that the NFL team likely will need to find a place to play in 2025 and 2026.”
    Mayor Lenny Curry did not “announce” any such thing. He was on a radio show and he was speculating. It’s far more likely the Jags will continue to use the stadium as it is being renovated. Just like Miami did.

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