Tag: Mark Lamping

Jaguars reportedly considering back-to-back London games in 2023

The Jaguars may play back-to-back games in London during the 2023 season, according to team president Mark Lamping.

The Jacksonville Jaguars have been the NFL’s quasi-ambassador in the United Kingdom for a decade now, and that international effort may ramp up in 2023.

On Friday, Jaguars team president Mark Lamping told the Florida Times-Union that there’s a possibility the team will play back-to-back games in London during the upcoming NFL season.

“The stars are aligning with the Jaguars’ home schedule and the NFL schedule of London games for the first time,” Lamping told the Times-Union’s Gene Frenette. “There’s a much greater likelihood this year we could be asked to play as a visitor.

“The NFL knows who our road opponents are. We knew there was a possibility we could be asked to play [a second game in London].”

The Jaguars have played one home game in England in nine of the last 10 NFL seasons. The only exception was 2020 when the league’s international slate of games was scrapped due to COVID-19. The Jaguars will again play one home game overseas in 2023 and will reportedly only consider a second game in London if it’s as a visitor.

In January, the NFL announced that the Jaguars would host a game at Wembley Stadium in 2023 and both the Tennessee Titans and Buffalo Bills would play games at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. With both the Titans and Bills on the Jaguars’ list of road opponents in 2023, the possibility of consecutive games in London makes sense for Jacksonville.

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Jaguars president Mark Lamping not surprised by rat problem

Jaguars president Mark Lamping wasn’t surprised by the team’s rat problem or its horrible grades from the NFLPA, but he says solutions are on the way.

Many were shocked when an NFLPA survey revealed earlier this week that players on the Jacksonville Jaguars complained about a rat infestation in the team’s locker room during the 2022 season. Team president Mark Lamping, however, was not among those taken aback by the D-minus grades given by the NFLPA for the state of the team’s locker room and training room.

“I wasn’t surprised at all by the score,” Lamping told First Coast News on Thursday. “In fact, we’ve known about it for quite some time and we have a lot of work to do on this facility.

“If you look at the teams that scored the highest, they all had the same thing in common: There are new stadiums and new training facilities.”

The Jaguars hope the issue will be partly solved by Miller Electric Center, the team’s new training facility due to open this summer. Lamping also hopes that the new facility will set the stage for TIAA Bank Field, which he described as “substandard by NFL measures,” to get necessary renovations.

While the team is still working through designs for a facelift for the stadium, the expected cost is reportedly in the $600 million to $1 billion range.

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Jaguars explain why they sent fans surveys about stadium renovations

Jaguars president Mark Lamping explained to The Florida Times-Union why they sent fans a survey about potential TIAA Bank Field renovations.

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.

Jags’ Mark Lamping says decisions on London games are on hold and out of the team’s hands

Uncertainty seems to be looking for the Jags with the NFL International Series due to COVID-19.

The Jacksonville Jaguars’ Lot J project has garnered some momentum as of late as owner Shad Khan and Jacksonville mayor Lenny Curry revealed their plans for the district next to TIAA Bank Field in early October. However, with that came a lot of questions from the Jags’ citizens and Jags president Mark Lamping finally got around to answering them Thursday in a virtual town hall discussion.

Another important topic that Lamping addressed was the Jags’ future involvement with the NFL International Series in London, which he didn’t seen too certain of.

“Jacksonville is the home of the Jaguars. It has been the team’s home for the past 26 seasons, and it will continue to be our home into the future,” Lamping said.

“The London game has been extremely important to the Jaguars and has also provided benefits to the Jacksonville community. However, the NFL controls the fate of all games played in London and the teams assigned to play in those games, and the Jaguars’ current agreement to play games has expired. Any future decisions on London are on hold and out of the Jaguars’ hands.”

With COVID-19 being an issue in the league, this is understandable as the NFL might be at a standstill with the International Series. They’ve had issues with the coronavirus at several team facilities after opting not to take the type of bubble approaches other sports organizations have. That said, traveling across seas simply doesn’t feel like a responsible move.

Lamping’s comments also raises the question of whether it’s possible that the NFL is considering another team (post-coronavirus, of course) to make London their second home, but its simply hard to say.

In 2019, the Jags revealed that they would be having two games (as opposed to one) in London this season. It was a move that wasn’t well received by the fan base despite Khan’s notion of how financially important having the International Series in the organization’s back pocket was. Now, due to the circumstances, fans will have to wait until more becomes available on a potential extension, but clearly the fans would like to get their home games back in the future.

Mark Lamping says Jags’ most important priority is to bring a Super Bowl to Jacksonville

Jags president Mark Lamping joined Sirius XM Radio to explain Jags’ decision to play an additional game in London.

The Jacksonville Jaguars’ fanbase has been on edge the last few days after the team announced an additional 2020 game in London, and the fallout has made Jags president Mark Lamping a busy man this week. On Thursday, Lamping went on air with SiriusXM NFL Radio to explain the reasoning behind the organization’s decision on a national stage and to reiterate what Jags fans have frequently been told: the team will remain in Jacksonville.  

“Shad Khan’s been very clear,” Lamping said about the team’s owner to SiriusXM NFL Radio. “The most important thing he wants to do is bring a Super Bowl to Duval County, and obviously we have a lot of work to do on that front. But the other thing he wants to do is ensure that there’s NFL football in Northeast Florida for many generations to come.”

Lamping continued to mention the Lot J project, which has been in the works for many years and is nearing a point of a funding and construction agreement according to him. He said that the project will basically be “Patriot Place on Steroids,” and that it would be another unique stream of revenue to help both the Jacksonville community and the Jags. 

Even with the city and team working on its own localized version of Patriots Place, fans have expressed that they don’t think another game in London is the answer for the team’s revenue problem. Instead, they’ve argued that a team that can win consistently would be the answer, something Lamping seems to disagree with. 

Until Lot J can get done, it appears that Khan and Lamping feel trips to London are the best supplement for revenue. However, even if Lot J thrives, some fans have concerns over whether it would be enough to prevent a two-game commitment to London in Khan’s eyes — or more games being played there in the future. 

Mark Lamping’s comments about Jags’ market not sitting well with fans

Jacksonville Jaguars president Mark Lamping recently provided an update on the progress being made towards the development of Lot J, and it certainly looks like things are trending upwards. According to him, the city and Jags organization are hoping …

Jacksonville Jaguars president Mark Lamping recently provided an update on the progress being made towards the development of Lot J, and it certainly looks like things are trending upwards. According to him, the city and Jags organization are hoping to break ground on the project this spring as a $700 million development deal towards the project is close to being completed. However, as interesting as that news was, it was his comments about the Jags’ market that caught the attention of fans.

Lamping admitted the Jags haven’t done their part during an exchange about the team’s lack of success on the field and how it’s affected their local revenue. 

“I can tell you there’s no way the organization can sit here today and look at their fans and say we’ve delivered the type of product on the field you’d expect,” Lamping said via the Florida Times-Union.

However, he added that he didn’t believe winning would be a silver bullet for the Jags’ revenue issues due to its market size, using the Jags’ 2018 season as an example. During that time, the team sold 52,000 season tickets after going to the AFC Championship in 2017. 

“To sit back and say winning is going to cure everything — not in this market,” Lamping said.

Much like Shad Khan’s comments about Jacksonville not having enough of an “appetite” for football to get a true home game back from London, Lamping’s comments struck a chord with Jags fans for the simple fact that the Jags haven’t really shown consistency, and 2017 was Khan’s only winning season out of seven. In fact, Khan’s second best showing as an owner was during the 2019 season when the Jags won only six games. 

Here are just a few of many reactions from the fans and media:

It’s hardly fair for Lamping to base his comments off of one winning season out of seven — in fact, it’s not even necessarily based on sufficient evidence. When looking around the league, the Green Bay Packers are a prime example of the potential a small market can have if the product on the field is consistently competitive. 

That said, it would be extremely worrisome if Lamping based the premise of his statement off the 2017 season alone. After all, the fans and the local market haven’t been given the chance to show how they’d react to two .500 seasons, let alone anything better. 

Since Khan’s aforementioned comments in London, there has been a growing perception that the Jags’ higher ups are out of touch with the fanbase, and Lamping’s comments certainly won’t help the situation.That said, until there is more open and honest communication between the fans and organization, fans will likely continue to feel as though Khan is prioritizing other things over winning, and that doesn’t bode well for a good relationship.

Jags president Mark Lamping says team, city close to a $700 million deal for development of Lot J

Jacksonville Jaguars president Mark Lamping has been a busy man as of late. In an article by the Florida Times-Union, Lamping announced that a development deal is “very close” to being finalized to be sent to the City Council with hopes to break …

Jacksonville Jaguars president Mark Lamping has been a busy man as of late. In an article by the Florida Times-Union, Lamping announced that a development deal is “very close” to being finalized to be sent to the City Council with hopes to break ground on Lot J (adjacent to TIAA Bank Field) in the spring. 

There was a great deal of progress made towards the project in the summer of 2019 when Jacksonville mayor Lenny Curry announced a financial framework for the city’s contribution towards funding the project. It was  then revealed that the city would fund $233.3 million towards the project, which is a neighborhood centralized around an entertainment district, with $208.3 of that being hard money.

The development of Lot J has long been a goal for Jags owner Shad Khan dating back to 2018. He partnered with Cordish Companies for the development of the district. The national developer has worked on various project like the Jags’ with different sports franchises such as the Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, and Texas Rangers. 

Lamping also said the cost for the project, which was originally projected at $500 million, had risen to $700 million. However, he didn’t say that any additional money would be needed from the city and added that Khan and the Cordish Companies were able to finance their portions of Lot J and would split the private investment with each other on a 50-50 basis. 

Back in January of 2018, we previewed what we believe the project could look like when completed based on the Cordish Companies’ projects in the past. In all probability, the project could also include a high-end hotel, various sports bars in the entertainment district, and restaurants.