The Jacksonville Jaguars caught a lot of people off guard when they sent out a survey to fans about potential stadium renovations to TIAA Bank Field last week. John Reid of The Florida Times-Union spoke with Jags president Mark Lamping about the franchise’s intent behind the survey.
The organization hired CAAIcon, a strategic management consulting firm based in Denver, to administer and tabulate the survey results. They recently did the initial consulting for the Buffalo Bills who just reached an agreement with the state of New York and Eric County officials last week to build a new stadium.
Lamping said the Jaguars didn’t choose the firm just because of that. They liked them because they believed they were experts on fan surveys.
The survey consisted of 32 questions that were multiple-choice and mainly asked how important would additional shade be for all seats in the stadium and would they be more likely to attend a game in a renovated TIAA Bank Field.
The fanbase has complained for years about the lack of shade and heat on the stadium’s Eastside during games in the early part of September for years. The Jaguars said in the survey last week that they don’t believe a new stadium is necessary.
The franchise’s lease for using the city-owned stadium expires in 2030. Lamping said the importance of stadium renovations plans is something they’ve tried to stay ahead of for the last three or four years.
“The current stadium will not serve the needs of our fans, our football team for an extended period of time,” Lamping said. “Something is going to have to be done to the stadium. What we’re trying to answer now is what we believe needs to be done and then we will determine what it’s going to cost. Then once we have that we can have a productive conversation with the city regarding the responsibilities of costs.”
The Jaguars plan to take an assessment in a couple of weeks to see how many responses they have received from the survey.
One option could be to construct similar renovations to those that the Miami Dolphins had done in 2016. The biggest addition that came with the project was an open-air canopy over the stadium, but all of the seating was replaced, and new club areas were constructed. Reports vary on the cost, but most estimated the price to be around $400 million.