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TPC and Timberlake: Which councilmembers got the most free event tickets in 2024? Here's what city records show
News4JAX obtained a list from the City of Jacksonville detailing who requested tickets and how many they received.
Tarik Minor, Anchor, I-TEAM reporter
Eric Wallace, Senior Producer, I-TEAM
Published: August 21, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Updated: August 21, 2025 at 9:06 PM
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As the political tug-of-war between Mayor Donna Deegan's office and the City Council over who gets free tickets and perks to events at city-owned venues continues, News4JAX dug deeper into who got free tickets last year and how many they received.
From Jaguars tickets to concert seats and parking passes, the News4JAX I-TEAM obtained a spreadsheet — released by the City of Jacksonville through a public records request — with detailed information regarding its free ticket distribution, including the names of those who requested tickets, how many they received, and the events they attended.
The ticket controversy started with legislation introduced by Councilman Ron Salem, which would have split all City perks evenly between the Mayor's Office and City Council. On Friday, Salem said he was asked to look into authoring the legislation at the request of Carrico and introduced it on Aug. 12 after Carrico ran into issues getting free tickets to events from Mayor Donna Deegan's office.
Deegan told News4JAX she would support new legislation that would eliminate free tickets to events at city-owned venues for city councilmembers and mayoral staff.
"At the end of the day, if we want to do it for Jaguars tickets, we should do all events," Deegan said on Wednesday.
Carrico now says he opposes the legislation that was written by Salem and on Tuesday called for the elimination of the long-held practice related to Jacksonville Jaguars tickets.
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The back-and-forth debate over the perks distribution now begs the question: Who's been asking for the free tickets and how many did they receive?
City Council tickets
According to the spreadsheet, city councilmembers—along with their assistants—made a total of 116 requests. Most of those requests were made for events at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, with a total of 59 events requested at the venue.
Records show Councilman Terrance Freeman made the most ticket requests, counting totals from both the city council and the mayor's office, with 74 tickets across 19 events in 2024 — including several requests for groups of six or seven tickets to concerts.
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In third came Council President Kevin Carrico, who got 22 tickets to six events. The events requested by Freeman include several concerts, including Lionel Richie & Earth Wind and Fire, Boyz II Men and Luke Combs. Carrico's requests included Justin Timberlake's and Anthony Hamilton's concerts. Gaffney Jr.'s requests included tickets for Nicki Minaj's concert and Jeezy.
https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2025/08/21/tpc-and-timberlake-which-councilmembers-got-the-most-free-event-tickets-in-2024-heres-what-city-records-show/
Interesting. So Freeman is using his tickets on his family, based on his response. Carrico likes the freebies too. This exercise is backfiring on Carrico. However, I agree with Carlucci. We have much bigger fish to fry.