$40 million Jackson State stadium bill stalls in committee

A Mississippi house bill that would have allocated $40 million dollars for a new Jackson State football stadium has stalled in committee. Per a report by WLBT3 in Jackson, House Bill 117 was introduced by Mississippi Representative Robert Johnson during the most recent legislative session.

The 40 million dollars, allocated from the State Institutions of Higher Learning, the governing body for public higher education institutions in Mississippi, would have been an investment toward planning, designing, and ultimately starting the process of building a new stadium for Jackson State. Jackson State’s football team currently competes in Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium. The stadium is 75 years old and has become a point of conversation in political circles.

Per a November investigation by the Clarion-Ledger, the stadium has lost nearly $1.5 million in operating costs since 2019. The investigation also finds that the facility needs constant repairs to remain functional. Despite the problems in the stadium, Jackson State fans still routinely support the football team, as the team leads the FCS in attendance yearly.

The bill to allocate money to build a new stadium for the Tigers has been broached before, having been introduced in other legislative sessions over the past few years. Johnson proposed a similar bill in 2025 for a new Jackson State stadium, but it also didn’t survive committee.

The proposed building of a new stadium for Jackson State using taxpayer dollars caught the eye of Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves, who didn’t approve of the idea. In a 2022 interview, which came as Deion Sanders was the coach of the team and was finishing his last season before leaving for Colorado, Reeves spoke on the matter in a video captured by journalist Johnathan Allen, indicating he wasn’t supportive of taxpayer funds being used for the construction of the stadium.

“I don’t even like the state building stadium with general fund tax dollars. I’m not real excited about Jackson State building a football stadium. If you go to most of our universities, what you find is that they build their athletic facilities through donations from alumni. And, generally speaking, that’s what we outta do.”

But in early February, Jackson City Councilman Kenneth Stokes urged Tate Reeves and Jackson State officials to work on building a new stadium. Despite Reave’s past objections, Stokes believes that a new stadium for the Tigers would help in the building of a cancer center by the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

“Governor do your job. Give Jackson State this new stadium so we can have the cancer center built right,” Stokes said. “It will be built right now where the stadium sits… We do not need to shortcut this cancer center. People are getting sick every day…Jackson State: ask for your new stadium. Stand up. And let’s do it together and build a new Jackson, Mississippi.”

Representative Johnson has indicated that he will continue to push for money allocation for a new stadium for Jackson State.

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