Should Orlando or Gainesville (UF) impose conditions for the Jaguars to use their stadiums in 2027?

Not directly Gator football related, but indirectly since the Jacksonville Jaguars have their upcoming stadium construction. That will impact their schedule in 2027 as well as the FL/GA game in 2026 and 2027. The Jacksonville Jaguars might also end up playing at The Swamp for the 2027 season.

We know that it's going to be a massive project, similar to the Daytona International Speedway project, in that it will take several years to complete.

The Jaguars are still looking at their options for that 2027 season. There are no other options available in Jacksonville that could be used for an NFL team. Tampa and Miami would not allow it for obvious reasons. Tallahassee is probably too far away and too remote (just as far as Orlando from Jacksonville and not nearly as centralized of a location). Daytona International Speedway was being looked at as an option, but that now seems to be completely off the table.

That essentially leaves the Jaguars with two options. Gainesville at The Swamp or Orlando at Camping World Stadium.

The Swamp has far more history but in terms of facilities is kind of a dump nowadays. Hopefully that will be changing soon. But there's no denying facts, The Swamp still has mostly bench seating with only limited chair back seating. The field is grass, and sharing it with UF, it will get tore up pretty quickly during the season with two teams using it for games.

While Camping World Stadium isn't NFL level, the entire lower level of course was converted to chair back seating. It's more NFL ready than The Swamp as well as has Field Turf instead of traditional grass.

Orlando is the only major city in Florida without an NFL team. And as it stands now, Orlando will probably never get an NFL teams. The Jacksonville Jaguars, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Miami Dolphins alone would fight against it and try to never allow it.

This opportunity is probably Orlando's one chance to have leverage against both the Jaguars and the NFL.

If I'm Orlando and the Camping World Stadium authorities, I only allow the Jaguars to play the 2027 season in Orlando on the following conditions:

1. The Jaguars have to split the cost with Orlando (or fund the entire cost themselves) for any required upgrades to Camping World Stadium, hopefully making it more NFL ready (possibly to secure a franchise, not likely but not impossible).

2. The Jaguars, after the 2027 season, have to commit to play one home game in Orlando every year for 20 years. The NFL currently has 17 games, so teams either have an 8 home game/9 road game schedule or a 9 home game/8 road game schedule.

This would not be that hard for the Jaguars. The stipulation could be that Orlando gets a regular season Jaguars home game on years where the Jaguars have 9 home games, therefore still allowing the Jaguars to have 8 home games in Jacksonville (unless they play one in London as part of their London agreement). During years that the Jaguars only have 8 home games, then Orlando would get a preseason game that would normally be in Jacksonville instead of a regular season home game.

So essentially every other year Orlando would get a preseason Jaguars home game and every other year Orlando would get a regular season Jaguars home game. On a small scale it would at least bring the NFL to Orlando.

If the Jaguars don't agree, then I would say tell them to pound sand and head up to Gainesville. This whole situation might be the only time Orlando has any type of leverage against the NFL.

Gainesville really doesn't have any leverage, but they could use it as an opportunity to get the Jaguars to pay for some stadium upgrades. Any conditions you would impose for the Jaguars to come to Gainesville (UF) or Orlando to use the respective stadiums during the 2027 season?

 

I don't consider The Swamp a dump, but by NFL standards it would definitely be a dump. I mean heck you have stadiums like the Georgia Dome (built in the early 1990s) and whatever they are currently calling the Tennessee Titans stadium (built I believe in 1998) being called dumps and they weren't even 30 years old. The Georgia Dome didn't even make it to 30 years. But just for comparison only Lambeau Field I believe still has bench style seating and of course it's Lambeau so it gets a pass due to history.

I definitely don't think the field could handle two teams. Heck during the Texas A&M game the field already looked in somewhat bad shape. I think UF would have to get an exemption from the SEC for one year and have Field Turf put in so that both the Gators and the Jags could play.

I do think Orlando should impose the conditions I laid out above as Orlando really is the only true legitimate option IMO for the Jags in that 2027 season. No other main tenants, more NFL ready (it's already hosted the NFL Pro Bowl several times) and in a city environment. But it's definitely the only time Orlando will have any leverage against the Jags and the NFL and they should definitely try to use it.

 

Very true but in both of those cases the NFL team is the primary tenant. The college team works around the NFL team. And Pittsburgh has been criticized many times for the condition of its grass field, especially in the later months.

In this situation the Jags would be the other team with the Gators being the primary tenant. I don't know how much the Jags are ready to have to schedule around the Gators and play second fiddle. And again the UF field has had some rough games in recent years.

 

And that's the primary problem. The Bucs and Jaguars both consider Orlando to be their turf. Heck the Dolphins, while they don't consider it their turf, might still have a biggest fanbase there of all 3 Florida teams. But none of those three franchises want to ever put any effort into actually cultivating a fan base there.

The Bucs used to have their training camp in Orlando but haven't done that in years. The Bucs, Jags or Dolphins never even bother to have any preseason games in Orlando. IMO none of them should be able to consider Orlando "their turf".

The Bucs and Jags try to force their teams on the Orlando market (Bucs are pretty much guaranteed to be on except for the rare time they are on CBS and Jags are on CBS a lot as well) without giving anything in return. Heck when the Bucs won the Super Bowl they didn't even bother to have any type of event in the Orlando area for their fans there. I'm not a fan of any of the Florida NFL teams, but I thought that was pretty low. They should've at least done some sort of fan event a few weeks or a month later for the Bucs fans in the Orlando area.

Again if they aren't willing to give anything back, then they shouldn't be able to claim the Orlando market. My opinion is that Orlando should just get the national game of the week, regardless of market, and shouldn't be force fed the Bucs or the Jags.

That's why I would use this leverage against the Jags if I'm officials with the city of Orlando and Camping World Stadium. Force the Jags to play one home game every year in Orlando, rotating between a preseason game and a regular season game. It would force the Jags to actually give something in return and would probably, for the first time in franchise history, allow the Jags to develop a real fan base in Orlando.

If the Jags don't agree to the terms then they can go to Gainesville or seek another solution for their 2027 season. And if I was an official with the city of Orlando, if the Jags don't agree to the terms, I demand the NFL to strip the Jags of any preferential broadcasting rights (aka no more forcing Jags games in Orlando) in the Orlando market.

 

I thought about that as well. With the limited hotels in Gainesville there's pretty much no way you could do a weekend where the Gators play on Saturday and the Jags play on Sunday. Yes the Bucs share their stadium with USF and the Dolphins share their stadium with UM, but those are in metro areas with a lot more hotels.

The Jags and potentially even the visiting team would probably have no choice but to bus in from Jax or Ocala which like you said, they wouldn't like. Orlando would have plenty of hotels to accommodate. Heck one team could easily stay at the Marriott downtown and the other team at the AC Hotel downtown.