For whatever reason, there's been a whole lot of London-Jaguars talk this offseason. And it has made Jaguars fans quite salty. So how is owner Shad Khan and the Jaguars organization going to lift spirits of #DUVAL? How about by announcing a $63 million renovation plan for Everbank Field?
Yeah, that's a nice start. The Jaguars and -- quite importantly -- the city of Jacksonville announced on Tuesday the plan to, following the 2013 season, pump quite a bit of money into renovating Everbank and turning it into what Khan called "the best gameday experience on planet Earth."
That gameday experience will include the addition of several CABANAS and SWIMMING POOLS at the stadium -- which you can see in the photo above if you look at the concourse below the video board. So bring your bathing suit, but bring it in a clear bag of course or the NFL won't let it inside the stadium.
That experience will also include the elimination of the dreaded "tarps" that covered seats at Everbank and gave rise to the incorrect notion that the Jaguars couldn't fill a football stadium.
This sort of investment in the city of Jacksonville -- and from the city of Jacksonville -- should begin to quash the notion that the Jaguars are destined to move to London.
It won't completely end the speculation, of course. When there's a semi-logical, somewhat tangential connection to be made, people are going to make it no matter how loudly it's shouted down.
People don't want to believe that the Khan family wants the Jaguars to stick around Jacksonville despite repeated positive proclamations about the city and the "loyal fans."
Owner Shad echoed Senior VP's Tony's statement on Twitter, calling the city "world-class" during his press conference.
"We're making a statement to the nation and world that Jacksonville is world-class," Khan said.
No amount of renovating can ever guarantee a team is locked into one place forever. But it's hard to see the Jaguars bolting any time soon given this level of commitment from the city and ownership.
Back in February, the St. Louis Rams won a stadium arbitration decision against the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission, the company that runs the Edward Jones Dome.
In April, that same arbitration panel ruled that the St. Louis CVC must pay the Rams $2 million to cover the team's legal fees. On Tuesday, the CVC confirmed that they've paid the Rams the $2 million stemming from the arbitration case.
What all this means is that if they decided to, the Rams could potentially leave St. Louis as soon as March of 2015 when their 30-year lease at the Edward Jones Dome becomes a year-to-year lease.
Under terms of the Rams' 30-year lease agreement signed in 1995, the team can get out of the lease 10 years early if the Edward Jones Dome isn't deemed to be in the top 25 percent of NFL stadiums, meaning the Rams would have to have one of the top eight stadiums in the league.
Both the Rams and the St. Louis CVC proposed renovation plans. However, the Rams' plan cost slightly more -- actually a lot more. The Rams' renovation plan -- which would have cost at least $700 million, included the installation of a new sliding roof and a glass wall similar to the one the Colts have at Lucas Oil Field.
The St. Louis CVC's renovation plan included a new scoreboard and would have only cost about $124 million.
The stadium arbitration panel sided with the Rams' renovation plan in February, which led to the Rams lease becoming year-to-year in 2015 and the $2 million payment from the St. Louis CVC to the Rams.
The Rams won't be getting out of their lease before March 2015, but after that, it's anyone's guess.
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