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What's being builtQuoteAlmost a year after the Jacksonville Armada Football Club released renderings of the soccer stadium it plans to build Downtown, the professional soccer team applied to the city for a permit to build the project at a job cost of $18.2 million.
QuoteThe application comes after the city issued a permit Oct. 16 to clear the 4.84-acre site at a cost of $11.5 million.
QuoteThe site is at 1041 Albert St., at northeast A. Philip Randolph Boulevard and Albert Street, north of the Arlington Expressway on the other side of EverBank Stadium.
QuoteThe construction permit application shows a 14,000-square-foot stadium with 2,545 seats.
QuoteThe Armada plans to join the MLS NEXT Pro league, a step up from the National Premier Soccer League under-23 team it currently fields.
Full article: https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/news/2024/nov/07/jacksonville-armada-expects-stadium-land-deal-within-10-days/(https://photos.smugmug.com/Cities/Jacksonville/Development/Armada-Soccer/i-jtmpDLN/0/M84SHvQZGk4Q4qvbNz6NxVhg5WSR3GzBZ9nws5wxZ/L/Armada_Stadium_1_t1100-L.jpg)
Rendering of the long term vision[/img]
(https://photos.smugmug.com/Cities/Jacksonville/Development/Armada-Soccer/i-WN2s2p4/0/MGqjjT9Xvc5FtRQN3PwZngBsFXDDFvk45VKhLFJwW/L/Armada_stadium_1_t850-L.jpg)
Rendering of the long term vision[/img]
(https://photos.smugmug.com/Cities/Jacksonville/Development/Armada-Soccer/i-CXQv2vv/0/Mv2dKdQFfK3VnV49tvBCh244xKQDw8ZPK2HmKdFj2/L/Armada_stadium_map_t850-L.jpg)
Master site plan of the long term vision[/img]
This thing is a gigantic scam.
What's being built is a soccer field with 2,500 bleacher seats, a surface parking lot along APR and a gravel parking lot along Albert Street... not the flashy renderings with large buildings.
Basically, you are getting an equivalent of a high school soccer field with a few more bleachers.
For reference, JU's former football complex seats 5,000 people.. and this 'Armada' stadium will be more basic than that.
(https://www.perry-mccall.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/068dfa5a4518d835a550d58e045f3752.jpeg)
wow that "rendering of the long term vision" is a sneaky one, my initial thought was "huh that looks nice!" but if it's just gonna be a basic bleachers & field setup... that's super misleading. thanks for pointing that out
I've posted this in another thread, but also worth mentioning again. The Armada are playing in the MLS Next league, which is the 3rd division of US Soccer. MLS Next is basically just reserve/youth teams for MLS teams.
Sporting Club Jax will be in the USL Championship, which is the 2nd division.
It's really dumb that Jax may have 2 teams. Would be much better for the city and its residents to go all in on SC Jax, which is in a better league and has a brighter future. If/when US Soccer goes to a relegation system, SC Jax will have a legitimate path to the MLS.