The Jacksonville Jaguars are going to Disney World!
Jaguars Orlando Football
The Jaguars will play most of their 2027 home games in Orlando after NFL owners rubber-stamped a proposal Tuesday that has been years in the making and essentially a done deal for months.
Owners voted unanimously at the league's annual meetings in Arizona to allow the team to temporary relocate next year's home slate during the final stages of a $1.4 billion stadium renovation.
Jacksonville started searching for a home away from home when it unveiled plans for a "stadium of the future" in 2023.
The Jags considered playing at Daytona International Speedway, at Florida Field in Gainesville and at Camping World Stadium in Orlando.
Camping World was always the front-runner. And it became a no-brainer when Orlando leaders cleared a $10 million sports-incentive package to help land the Jaguars earlier this year. The aging stadium also is undergoing a $400 million facelift — a project that will give the venue a modernized, NFL-friendly infrastructure.
"I look at it as an exciting opportunity," Jaguars general manager James Gladstone said. "You have a chance to breach a region of the state that you otherwise wouldn't have the luxury of doing."
The Jaguars are scheduled to play 10 home games in 2027, including a preseason exhibition. But not all of those will be played in Orlando; Jacksonville can play up to three home games in London that season.
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So Orlando is likely to land seven or eight NFL games, including in-state matchups featuring Tampa Bay at Jacksonville and Miami at Jacksonville.
The Jaguars announced plans in February to play consecutive home games in London this fall, with ongoing construction reducing capacity at EverBank Stadium to 42,507 for the 2026 season.
The timing is far from ideal. The Jaguars are coming off a 13-4 season in which they won the AFC South in the first year of a new regime that features Gladstone and coach Liam Coen. Now, they essentially have to go two years without much of a home-field advantage.
"Hard for me to comment that far into the future," Coen said. "I can't go there. The only thing I can say is that I've been there. I coached there when I was at Kentucky; we coached at Camping World.
"I think it will be a cool thing because your average football fan is in Disney a lot. And so I do think it could be a way to connect with a new fan base. Are there going to be challenges and stressors and things that we have to work through? Absolutely. But I do think generally for our brand and for Jacksonville Jaguars football, I don't think it's going to kill us."
For Orlando, hosting the Jaguars — even as a one-year rental — provides the city a chance to showcase its capabilities. After all, Orlando is the largest U.S. media market without an NFL team and has the infrastructure (major airport, hotels, restaurants, nightlife) to handle big events.
AP NFL:https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
