NFL owners unanimously approved Jacksonville’s $1.4 billion “stadium of the future” Tuesday, a decision that should keep the Jaguars in one of the league’s smallest markets for at least another 30 years.
With the Jags (1-5) getting ready to play the second of back-to-back games in London, NFL owners essentially ended decades of speculation about the franchise being a potential relocation candidate.
Twenty-four of 32 owners were needed to approve the project at the league’s fall meetings in Atlanta. It was considered such a rubber-stamp situation that Jaguars owner Shad Khan and team president Mark Lamping were allowed to skip the meetings and avoid 12 hours of travel from London to Atlanta and back.
The Jaguars didn’t anticipate much pushback even though the 55-45% financial split — with the city on the hook for the majority of the deal — is higher than most NFL owners…
