jaguar tax breaks

[Garden guy]

Why would public money ever be  used to prop  up a multimillion dollar business.
I call shinanigans...

[Dapperdan]

Are you referring to the 2 million the state just agreed to give? I beleive that was to the city of Jacksonville to help maintain their bowl games and Fl/GA game. It is still sports related. I do see the irony in the closing of libraries and laying off of police, yet the state wants to throw money to sports leagues and towns. It, to me, is a difficult subject.

[copperfiend]

Another report came out showing the Jaguars contribute about 200 million dollars to our local economy.

Why would public money ever be  used to prop  up a multimillion dollar business.
I call shinanigans...

What multimillion dollar business doesn't get tax breaks?

[Shwaz]

Yeah... it's not like they're 7-11 or something 

Dear Friends,

There have been a number of press reports in recent weeks regarding potential expenditures for Jacksonville Municipal Stadium. I wanted to take a few minutes today to clarify that issue and also to provide you the details associated with legislation that has been introduced to the Jacksonville City Council proposing an amendment to the city's contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

First though, I wanted to take a minute to talk about what having the Jaguars in Jacksonville means for our city. Jacksonville is a changed city since the arrival of the Jaguars. Regardless of the results of a particular season, the team is a source of pride for citizens and a rally point for all of us. The NFL's selection of Jacksonville as its 32nd franchise city is a selling point that we use in pitching to economic development prospects. We receive national and international exposure almost daily and the "beauty shots" of Jacksonville during our televised games have more advertising value than we could ever afford to purchase.

In addition, the team's owners, Wayne and Delores Weaver, have become an integral part of Jacksonville's business, civic and philanthropic community. Between the Jaguars Foundation, the Weaver Family Foundation, the Jaguars partners, team members and current and former coaches, organizations across Jacksonville have received tens of millions of dollars because of their generosity â€" investments that would be lost without the Jaguars. Here are some significant data points:

• The economic impact of the Jaguars is in excess of $130 million per year.
• On game day, approximately 2,000 part-time or contract employees work providing services that include concessions, parking, ticket-taking, security, customer service and custodial operations.
• According to NFL officials, Super Bowl XXXIX created a $300 million economic impact in Jacksonville.

These are real jobs and real dollars that would be lost if the Jaguars were not part of our community.

Stadium Maintenance

As to the maintenance issues related to the stadium, unfortunately, recent reporting by the Florida Times-Union did not sufficiently describe the contents of a nearly two-year-old report regarding investments needed at the stadium. Based on that coverage you may have thought that the Jaguars are, right now, seeking $148 million in stadium upgrades, renovations and improvements. That is not accurate.

In February 2007, the Jaguars commissioned a capital life-cycle study of the stadium. The report was done by HOK Sport, the firm that provided engineering services on the stadium renovation prior to the 1995 inaugural season. The report's findings span more than 20 years â€" meaning that the capital needs identified reflect work that may be required during the next 20 to 30 years. It also means that if implemented the costs associated with these items would be spread over that 20 to 30 year period. These costs relate to stadium maintenance and operations, not capital improvements, renovations or upgrades. This list of items includes replacement of air handling equipment, seat refurbishment (due to wear and tear), parking lot repaving, etc.

The report findings have not yet been implemented and the Jaguars agree that the stadium is in good working order. However, as with any facility that is nearly 15 years old, wear and tear does occur. As such maintenance issues must be addressed and investments will need to be made in the future to maintain the facility at a respectable standard.


Proposed Contract Amendment

The proposed amendment to the contract between the City of Jacksonville and the Jaguars (the ninth amendment to this contract) is intended to improve and clarify items in the lease related to potential sponsorships and revenue. While there is not currently a contract for a title sponsor on the stadium, when one is secured in the future, this amendment will help to ensure that the both the city and the team benefit financially. The legislation that has been introduced for the city council's consideration does three things:

1. It improves and clarifies the contract language as it related to a stadium naming rights sponsor. The original lease granted the Jaguars 100 percent of the advertising revenue from the stadium naming sponsor and split stadium naming rights revenue 50/50 between the City and the Jaguars. Again, the City receives no revenue sharing for any separate agreements between the Jaguars and the naming rights sponsor related to advertising or related services. This made the relationship difficult to administer and it appears that as a result, the City received significantly less than 25 percent of total revenue from the Jaguar's contractual relationship with a naming sponsor.

The proposed amendment guarantees the City 25 percent of all revenue associated with the naming rights and advertising from the stadium sponsor. This new provision provides transparency into all stadium naming rights agreements and ensures the City the same value, if not more, from future stadium naming rights agreements.

2. It provides ten club seats at Jaguars home games to the City for use as advertising inventory and resale to potential, separate naming rights sponsors of the sports complex, arena or baseball stadium. These tickets may only be used as part of a naming rights agreement for other facilities within the sports complex â€" city officials will not have access to these tickets.

3. It indentifies areas in the stadium available to the Jaguars for additional naming and advertising rights opportunities. Those areas are the parking lots, the will call area, east and west touchdown clubs, seating sections, south end zone elevator towers, interior gates and stadium tower light stanchions. The revenue associated with these rights will be used by the Jaguars to ensure continued financial viability.

The operation of the stadium and the continued viability of the Jacksonville Jaguars go hand-in-hand. We want to maintain the stadium with the presence of our major tenant â€" the Jaguars. Without them, the demand on the stadium drops dramatically, as does the value of the asset.

I know these are complex issues to outline in a message, however, I know these are things being discussed around dinner tables and water coolers throughout the city and I wanted you to know the facts.


Sincerely,

John Peyton

Mayor

[I-10east]

I do see the irony in the closing of libraries

Just to be clear, all of Jax's libraries are open, as none of them ever permanently shut down. Now if you wanna talk about cutting hours to save on costs, that's another story.

[duvaldude08]

Well lets all be clear about the tax breaks. I posted the actual article under the Jaguars thread. The legislation does still require the city and the team to contribute to any renovation project. Thats part of the agreement of the tax breaks. And of course, these tas breaks have been around for a VERY long time. I believe the initial one we got was in 1994 to finance the construction of the stadium. I think whats more distrubing is that the Dolphins want tax payers money to finance a 400 million dollar renovation, when they just renovated the stadium years ago, and not to mention just used state money to Marlin Ballpark. That makes our 50 million scoreboard idea a drop in the bucket. In all fairness, the Jaguars are not asking NOTHING compared to the other florida franchises.

[Garden guy]

I find it an act of thievery from the people for a play project that benifits only a small part of the public.. With all the cash that floods from football
Iits nuts that public money be stolen for a personal recreation.

[Shwaz]

I find it an act of thievery from the people for a play project that benifits only a small part of the public.. With all the cash that floods from football
Iits nuts that public money be stolen for a personal recreation.

I guess it would be frustrating... not understanding cost vs. impact.

[duvaldude08]

I find it an act of thievery from the people for a play project that benifits only a small part of the public.. With all the cash that floods from football
Iits nuts that public money be stolen for a personal recreation.

That can be said about a lot of things that tax payers money is used for. There are several things that my money is used for that I dont benefit from.

[I-10east]

I guess it would be frustrating... not understanding cost vs. impact.

+100

[carpnter]

I find it an act of thievery from the people for a play project that benifits only a small part of the public.. With all the cash that floods from football
Iits nuts that public money be stolen for a personal recreation.

Yeah, why should we build boat ramps, baseball fields, bike trails, etc... only a small portion of the public benefits from those.   

[tufsu1]

Why would public money ever be  used to prop  up a multimillion dollar business.
I call shinanigans...

if the return on investment for taxpayers makes sense, then I am not opposed

[JFman00]

Isn't a significant part of the tax rebate used to fund the debt involved in the construction cost of the stadium, of which a big chunk was public money? So, they're paying taxpayers back with taxpayer money?

[duvaldude08]

Isn't a significant part of the tax rebate used to fund the debt involved in the construction cost of the stadium, of which a big chunk was public money? So, they're paying taxpayers back with taxpayer money?

That is exactly the theory from what I read. Taxpayers is being used to pay off taxpayers money.

[Shwaz]

Isn't a significant part of the tax rebate used to fund the debt involved in the construction cost of the stadium, of which a big chunk was public money? So, they're paying taxpayers back with taxpayer money?

That is exactly the theory from what I read. Taxpayers is being used to pay off taxpayers money.

Important to note that this is tax money generated at the stadium during the games. Also important that the stadium belongs to the tax payers of Jacksonville.

If i could make significant upgrades to my house - find a private company to throw parties there for me - charge admission to the parties - use the revenue to pay for the upgrades... where do I sign?