NFL team to relocate 150-miles into 90-year-old renovated arena amid $1.4bn stadium project
The future looks bright for the Jacksonville Jaguars on and off the field.
Renovations of EverBank Stadium, which hosted a 27-24 loss to the Buffalo Bills in the wild-card round of the 2025 NFL playoffs, have well and truly commenced.
The EverBank Stadium renovations have a planned completion date set for August 2028, and after recently hosting the Carolina Panthers for a preseason game, images of the stadium as it undergoes a dramatic transformation recently emerged.
Despite staying put in 2026, albeit at a limited capacity as construction on the ‘Stadium of the Future’ ramps up, the Jaguars will have to play at least one campaign elsewhere.
Where will the Jacksonville Jaguars play in 2027 amid EverBank renovation?
Having submitted a report to the NFL earlier last season on potential homes for the 2027 season, the Jaguars’ temporary home will be in Orlando, Florida.
They will play six homes games at EverBank during the 2026-27 NFL season. Their first will come in Week 1, against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, September 13.
The Jags will return in Week 3 to host the New England Patriots, the team beaten in last season’s Super Bowl.
Two ‘home’ games will take place in London, at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Wembley Stadium in Weeks 5 and 6. That will give the Jags a five-week gap between games at EverBank to make a start on some of the renovations.
As of July 2026, steel framework is rising around the stadium, with a concerted effort to use American steel and local workforce.
“There was a desire on the part of both the Jaguars and the city to stress American-made materials in the building,” Sid K. Perkins, senior vice president of field operations for a AECOM Hunt, said.
“The steel that you see up, structural steel, that’s all American-made. We’ll be looking hard at the finishes to try and utilize all American-made tiles and items inside to create our finish.
“The Jaguars and the city have provided us with the opportunity to put a whole lot of local tradesmen in there. You look across our job site, I would wage that 70 percent of the workers are better on this job site are from the surrounding three or four counties.
The Jaguars will then officially make the 150-mile trip down south to Camping World Stadium, located in the West Lakes neighborhood of Downtown Orlando, Florida.
An iconic building of old, the 90-year-old arena regularly hosts the Florida Classic between Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman universities.
It was also one of the nine stadiums used for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, has hosted the NFL Pro Bowl on five occasions, including from 2017-20, and was used in the soccer Club World Cup too.
Ahead of any temporary NFL hosting duties, the stadium has already undergone a revamp of its own.
Capacity is set to be increased to over 65,000, with upgrades to the fan experience throughout.
What changes are being made to Orlando’s Camping World Stadium?
Earlier this year, work started on the $400m transformation, and officials are confident the project will be completed by the time the Jaguars hope to move in later this upcoming season.
The upgrades are being made as part of an approved $626m Orange County funding package directed towards both Camping World Stadium and the Kia Center, home of the NBA‘s Orlando Magic.
What is now a 63,000-seat stadium will soon be expanded to 65,000.
Upper decks will be removed and replaced, with premium spaces and suites to come.
The south endzone will be revamped to better cater to sporting crowds, and major concerts and entertainment events beyond that.
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Updates will also be made to back-of-house fixtures, and a new events centre is set to be built.
What will the new Jaguars stadium look like?
While playing in Orlando for a year will mean a five-hour round trip beyond EverBank Stadium for many fans, the extra effort will surely be worth it.
In 2024, the Jaguars announced that their stadium renovation project would keep the team in Jacksonville for ‘decades to come‘, with plans to make it a venue worthy of consideration to host a Super Bowl at some point.
However, Jags owner Shahid Khan — who boasts a $13.9 billion empire as he also owns English Premier League club Fulham — cannot see that happening any time soon.
“Obviously, you design a new stadium, you do it to meet all the needs,” Khan exclusively told talkSPORT in October.
“But a Super Bowl now has really graduated to a event where it needs infrastructure besides the stadium, hotel rooms and so on, and Jacksonville doesn’t have that.
“It does have the ability to host other NFL events, maybe the draft, and maybe some other elements, but the city will have to develop before we can be in the mix, but it’s a covered stadium, it’s in Florida, a lot of attributes, but it doesn’t qualify.”
The redesigned stadium is set to be open-air and will have a flexible seating capacity of up to 71,500 spectators.
It will feature a next-generation transparent canopy that will provide sun, wind, and rain protection.
The new building will also house widened concourses that will also offer panoramic lookout decks to give fans an upgraded game day experience.
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