The Jaguars will need an alternative site for home games, if they strike a deal to dramatically renovate their home stadium in Jacksonville. One possible alternative would be a place known not for football but for fast cars.
Via Don Muret of VenuesNow.com, team president Mark Lamping didn’t rule out playing at Daytona International Speedway.
“It would be an interesting solution, but would also require significant investment in terms of infrastructure,” Lamping said, per the report. “It can accommodate a big crowd. It would be a little wonky, but it’s worth considering. After the renovations, it’s nice.”
It can hold more than 101,000 fans. Lamping said he plans to meet with track officials in the next weeks weeks.
Other alternatives include more traditional football facilities.
“The closest stadiums are in Gainesville and Orlando,” Lamping said.
Two options in Jacksonville -- the city’s minor league baseball stadium or the University of North Florida’s track stadium -- would require a $125 million price tag for making them NFL ready, Lamping said. (That seems low, frankly.)
Lamping nevertheless views it as a good problem to have.
“I hope we have to deal with that issue because that means we would have a stadium deal,” Lamping said.
That’s the first issue, and it will require nearly $1 billion in taxpayer money. If not, well, there’s a stadium that’s ready to go in the place where the Jaguars already play one home game per year.