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Press Pass | Mark Lamping Provides Stadium Construction Updates Before Week 8 vs. Colts · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Up, the idea was to give everybody the opportunity to
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: help communicate to our fans what they can expect to
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: see on Sunday and with all the different changes and stuff.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: But I guess the most positive thing is our fans
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: will not have any change in their experience on Sunday.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: There's no modifications in terms of entrances. The entrance to
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: the stadium will remain the same. We've cleaned some things up.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Inside the stadium, we had some issues. The first game,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: in terms of some overcrowding in the main concourse, we've
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: made some modifications there to help clean that up. So
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: really not a lot to announce as it relates to it.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: But the last 30 days, we haven't played since September 27.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: So the last 30 days were critically important to the process.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: So there were a number of milestones that were met.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: over the past 30 days that has allowed us to
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: keep the construction on schedule. And so this four-week window
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: was critically important. And followed by, we're going to have
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: another three-week window. And, you know, those are sometimes, if
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: you just take a step back, it's like, boy, it's
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: a shame that the team hasn't been here for a month.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: You know, that was the tradeoff of playing any games
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: in Jacksonville this year. As you know, at the very start,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: The construction plan was to spend two years away from Jacksonville.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: We went on in the community over the course of
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: about 12 months, had 30 or so communication meetings. It
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: became very clear from our fans that they're not thrilled
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: about the idea of the team being gone for two seasons.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: We went back through a lot of hard work from
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: the construction folks. They re-sequenced the construction to allow us
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: to play this year But that was one of the tradeoffs.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: We were fortunate that the league was going to work
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: hard with us on creating this donut in the middle
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: of the schedule. And it turned out okay. And we're
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: expecting a lot of excitement starting again on Sunday. A
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: few single-game tickets available for Sunday. And we're in the
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: standing room. tickets for Sunday, and it's certainly our hope
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: and expectation that that will be the case as we
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: go through the rest of the year. So in terms
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: of the big things that happened over the course of
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: the last 30 years, there's a huge north end zone
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: steel truss that was installed. It took 72 hours to
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: lift it into place. That piece of steel on its
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: own weighed a million pounds, and it's the width basically
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: of a... Hey, sorry about that, Ryan. There wasn't too
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: much at the beginning. I'll circle back to those guys
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: if you want me to afterwards. No big deal. So
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: that was put into place. I think we have a
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: picture here which is really sort of cool. Yeah, I
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: don't know if you can see this or not. I'll
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: step away here. This is the start of the lifting
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: of that piece of steel. And this is that SpaceX
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: rocket in the background. I don't know if any of
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: you have seen this picture. Wow. But just a total
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: coincidence that when they were getting ready to start the lift,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: and again, it took three days to get that into place,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: the first picture just happened to be the SpaceX rocket
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: was going by in the background. So that was the
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: single biggest thing that happened. In addition to that, there's
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: a lot of steel that's been erected along the roof line.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Fans will notice that as they come in. They'll see, oh,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: there's even more steel up there. There's been a lot
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: of concrete that has been poured over the course of
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: the past 30 days. The South End Zone Club, that
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: concrete has been poured. The field clubs where the old
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: locker rooms were, that was all demoed. That has now been,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: concrete's been repoured there. Parts of the locker room and
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: other areas are being framed out. The new layouts for
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: the locker rooms along with some of the lounges and
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: restrooms and some concession areas. Not very exciting but important.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: There's several utility milestones have been met. The heart of
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: the electrical system on the southwest side of the stadium
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: has been completed. The southwest primary electrical room switch gear
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: has been delivered and is set in place. And one
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: of the other pieces that we started with, and this
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: goes back to the early planning of Miller Electric Center,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: knowing that Miller Electric Center was a precursor to what's
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: happening with the stadium. From a utility efficiency standpoint, we
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: are shifting, we shifted the Miller Electric Center already and
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: we'll be shifting the stadium into what's called a chilled
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: water loop. It's through JEA, but it's more efficient. And
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: that chilled water loop first came into this building, and
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: the connection between this building and the stadium was completed
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: while we were gone. Most of the expanded areas of
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: the main concourse have been completed. They're not open yet,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: but most of the concrete has been poured. Again, more
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: of a factoid, and I don't know if this is
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: impressive or not, but during this period, over 1,800 cubic
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: yards of concrete have been poured, so things are happening.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: They're really moving along, and over the course of the
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: next three weeks, we expect the concourse expansion, all the
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: concrete to be completed. So we're on schedule. The period
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: was put to great use. Really appreciate our fans' patience
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: during this process, and hopefully we can have a very
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: exciting season next few chapters and hopefully more chapters than
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: we currently have scheduled in this building and then celebrate
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: everything that's happened in this building, not only what's happened
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: since 1995, but some really significant moments in Jacksonville history
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: happened in this building before the Jaguars arrived. And let's
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: take the opportunity to celebrate that. I think we have
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: a little drone footage. Let me see if I just
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: do this. Yeah, so this will give you I don't
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: know if I need to get it going or not.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: There we go. So you just get a sense for
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: how things are coming along. See the new connections. This
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: is a new connection that will allow the upper deck
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: to connect 360. That will allow the upper deck to
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: connect 360 all the way around the stadium. It's probably
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: hard to see in this, but if you look below that,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: there's another piece of steel. that I might get a
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: better view when we come across here. Again, this is
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: steel that's been put in place, and this allows that
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: upper level to be 360 all the way around the stadium.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Piece of steel down here, that is basically part of
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: a similar connection that will occur at the suite level.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: So at the suite level, you'll be able to move
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: around the stadium 360 degrees just as you can from
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: the from the main concourse. This was the first stairs
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: that we opened last year. This area down here, that's
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: where the future Jaguars fan store will be. This stairwell,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: these stairwells exist in all four corners. All of them
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: have been poured. Three of the four are open. The
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: fourth one will probably open for the Titans game. You
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: can get a sense here of concrete that's been poured
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: to give you an idea of how how much wider
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: these concourses become. It's not open, but it's completed. You
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: can walk around both sides of the stadium outside the clubs.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: A concourse has been increased in significant width. You can
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: see the same thing here. Again, it's a mess, but
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: great progress is being made. This steel is new. from
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: before we left London again, that's going to support a
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: concourse that will allow you to move around the entirety
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: of the stadium from the upper level. This is that
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: million-pound piece of steel that was lifted in place. Again,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: as I said earlier, it took 72 hours to put
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: that in place, and it's a really key element. There's
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: an identical piece that goes on the south end zone.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: That will go in. at the conclusion of this season.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Everything inside the stadium looks good. I happened to be
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: over there a couple days ago. The field's in great shape,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: as you would expect it to be. It should be.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: This is that third staircase that's over by the Gate
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: 3 area. Again, you can get a feel for how
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: these concourses now spill way out a lot wider. Again,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: this connection, ultimately that'll support concrete that will facilitate the
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: 360 movement around the stadium. Here's a couple unlicensed golf
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: carts that are driving around. One person does not have
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: appropriate personal protective equipment on, so we'll have to write
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: him up. And you wrap around here to the entry
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: on the east side of the stadium. Again, you can
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: get a sense here for this is all new concourse.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: So in the past, you'd be inside that window. Now
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: you can be inside or outside. That's at the club level.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Those aren't open yet, but it really gives you a
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: sense for how open these concourses will be. This area
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: right here is getting ready for concrete to be poured there.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: This is a new stairwell. I should have pointed the
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: one out on the other side. That's mostly for public
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: safety to get up and down through the stadium. This
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: is the big staircase. This one is not open. We
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: think it will be open in time for the Titans game.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: And you can see ultimately where the– The escalators will go.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: The escalators are not in place, but there will be
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: escalators in each of these four corners that run adjacent
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: to these stairwells. And now we're getting back into Daly's Place.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: There is some work going on at Daly's Place. All
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: the seats will be changed, and we're doing some work
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: on the acoustics. Daly's Place will come back. Here you
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: can get a good sense for the steel that's been
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: put in place. And all of that concrete gets poured there.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: And again, that creates that connection at the upper deck level.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: And you can see the steel on the side pretty
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: much gets down to about the 20-yard line now. So
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: all of that needs to be completed. And then there's
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: some really heavy steel that then comes in and sits
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: on top of that. It's called a compression ring, and
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: then ultimately the compression ring ends up supporting this big
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: heavy cable net system. And then that's what the roofing
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: material gets connected to. So, so far so good. The
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: 30 days were put to a great use, still have
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: a long way to go, still discovering things that, you know,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: every time we turn a corner, but nothing has transpired
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: that gives us any higher level of nervousness that we're
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: not gonna be on schedule. So.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: Mark, was it more important Given the construction schedule, was
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: it more important to not have any tropical weather this
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: year or next fall or it doesn't matter, it would
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: put a kink either way?
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: This year would have been much more critical and it
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: would have been more of an issue to have tropical
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: storms because next year at this time, so much of
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: the work is going to be inside work and that
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: inside work can continue. You can't be putting steel in
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: place in the middle of a tropical storm. So knock
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: on wood, that was good. We did have weather issues
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: earlier in the summer, you know, particularly a lot of
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: electrical storms and things like that, and that shuts down
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: the job immediately. But, again, we've been able to get
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: through that. But, yeah, this year there would have been
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: more exposure than there will be next year.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: Was there ever any concerns within the front office or
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: maybe the NFL?
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: Home playoff games are going to be here, correct? Yeah.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: Okay, was there ever any questions from the NFL that, oh,
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: maybe you could go to Orlando or.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Gainesville for that? No, no, no. And again, this isn't unprecedented.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: There have been teams in smaller capacity, temporary stadiums, And
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: in fact, the most recent one was also an AFC team.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: The San Diego Chargers, in their transition to Los Angeles,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: played at the Home Depot Center. And at the Home
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Depot Center, it has capacity by 31,000. So had the
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Chargers advanced, I assume they would have played the games.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: I know that we're not going to. We have zero
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: motivation to take the games anywhere other than as close
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: as they possibly can be to our fans. Hey, Mark,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: the sofa is sort of like the model for the
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: roof covering and all that stuff. Is it going to
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: extend beyond the edges of the stadium like it does
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: in L.A., sort of swooping down like that, or no? Yeah, well,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: the renderings show it very accurately. You've got the canopy
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: up top, which creates the shade and keeps the rain off.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Then you have this bumper structure that goes around the outside.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: which serves two purposes. One is, it makes the outside
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: of the building look really interesting, but just as important,
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: its curvature and its design took into consideration the prevailing winds,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: because the idea is to use that to catch the winds,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: bring those winds in through the four corner breezeways, through
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: the concourses, into the seating bowl, and then vent through
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: the top of the roof. So this is similar to SOFI,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: in that it is a structure that has all of
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: the seats covered, but it's not climate controlled. So in
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: Southern California, they describe it as a microclimate. They're in Inglewood.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: They don't need air conditioning. And we sort of feel
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: that we have times of the year. Again, we went
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: through it this year with our opening game. One of
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: the things I'm most thankful for, I mean, we have concluded.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: You can't fight Mother Nature. In our opening game, if
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: it's going to be really, really hot, it's hard to
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: get all of your fans to embrace that heat. So
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: that was the last opening day we'll have where the
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: seats aren't fully shaded and the temperature in the stadium
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: will be significantly lower. So we feel good about that.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: And we didn't need to air condition the building to
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: bring about that comfort level. Like, for example, we don't
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: need air conditioning this Sunday. And uh, as, as all,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm from St. Louis and one of the
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: most frustrating things in, in, in St. Louis, uh, when
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: the Rams played at, uh, originally TWA dome and America's
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: dome at, at, at the end is you'd have a
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: beautiful fall day in the Midwest. You'd be out tailgating
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: and then you come inside a building. It's like, there's,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: there's a disconnect here. And I think we would, we'll
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: have that same, I think we'd have that same experience here.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: We don't, we don't need the climate control, uh, because,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: you know, we're fortunate enough to have a a great climate,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: and when we have issues, probably has more to do
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: with heat than cold, and we're addressing that with the shade.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: You mentioned it briefly, but you'd.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: Say the project is on schedule to where.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: You expect it to be at this time? Yeah, yeah,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: we're on schedule. It's like anything else. The schedules are
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: updated pretty much in real time. We had some weather
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: conditions that put us back a little bit on the
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: steel erection. and we've caught up with most of that,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: and by the middle of November we'll be 100% caught up.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: What are the next big milestones? Finishing the roof, putting
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: in the big structure at the south end, and finishing
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: the pouring of the concrete on the expanded concourses. I
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: pointed to a lot of steel. Eventually that's going to
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: be covered with concrete. There's a significant amount of work
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: going on inside. For example, those of you that were
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: in the Jaguars' businesses offices in the past, I think
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: all of you probably were at one time or another,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: all of that was demolished to make room for the
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: new uses. And now all of that has been, the
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: floors have been totally re-poured and they're beginning to frame
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: out what the new look of that is. There's a
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: field club. I didn't go through the field club on the,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: east side, but I went through Field Club on the
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: west side. There's framing work that's going on. You can
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: begin to see where the restrooms are going to be,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: where the concession stands will be, and where the patios
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: are that connect to the... From a fan standpoint, is
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: there any other changes that they'll see before the end
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: of the season or will most of this come.
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: After the Jaguars?
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Most of it's visual. What I said at the beginning
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: is When we originally talked about doing this, we assumed
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: that we would be asking all of you to help
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: us communicate to our fans in terms of, here's the
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: things you need to be sensitive to when you come
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: to the game on Sunday. But there's no changes. So
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: there's nothing we had to do that our fans, in
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: terms of the way they get into the stadium, how
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: they get around it, is any different than the last
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: time they were here.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: When do you expect the roof to be done?
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Oh, totally done? Probably May, May 2028. Now, the structure
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: of the roof should be complete. All the steel that
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: goes up there. Now, I mentioned this cable net. So
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: all the steel that you see right now should be
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: completed early first quarter next year. And then it's already
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: started arriving on site. And this is the same engineering
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: approach that they've used at all of the recent NFL
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: stadiums that have roofs. The exact same approach that they're
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: just about done with in Nashville. There's these very thick
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: steel cables. And these steel cables are are connected with
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: little coupling devices. And they put it all together, and
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: it basically drapes over the seats, over the field, over
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: the seats. That's why we can't be playing. And once
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: they get it done, then they slowly raise it into place.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: That's not something that's going to be really visible, but
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: it's a key milestone. What you need to do to
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: be able to support that cable net is to finish
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: what's called this compression ring. I think there's huge pieces
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: of steel, and I think there's probably about 26 or
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: 27 of them that comprise the ring. I think there's
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: five or six that are already sitting at a remote
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: yard waiting to be able to come over and then
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: be installed.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: You said you cleaned some things inside of the stadium
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: for modifications in terms of helping to alleviate some of
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: the overcrowding.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: What are those modification elements? Yeah, on the main concourse level,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: on the west side of the stadium, there is a
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: merchandise operation. And so you're walking through the concourse, which
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: is already crowded. It won't be crowded when we get
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: done because it's much wider. And then you have people
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: stopping because they're shopping. And as part of that, we
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: had some merchandise displays that were in the center of
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: the concourse. We've gotten rid of all those. The other
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: thing that happened, and we changed this after the first
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: home game, the response to our fans' favorite concession program
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: has been really good. But what we had, a lot
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: of people were waiting in line to take advantage of
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: the $ 5 beers. And it was slowing down. the people
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: as they were waiting in line for the $ 5 hot
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: dogs and nachos. So we set up some beer-only lines.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: So that has worked out well. But that was implemented
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: for the second home game. All right. Coach, any questions today?
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: I think it's well done. There you go. Appreciate that.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: Very good. Anything else, anybody? How far out do you
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: start thinking about programming the building? No. Yeah, we had
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: a big hire in the last 60 days. Zane Collins
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: came back. Zane's one of the most... Bill McConnell worked
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: with him for years. He's one of the more prominent
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: building bookers in the country. Ran the stadium in New Orleans.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Most recently has been doing all the booking for one
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: of the busiest arenas in the country. That's where the
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: Florida Panthers play down south. Zane has joined us as
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: the head of head of content. He's actually in New
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: York this week meeting with promoters. He's most recently been
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: in Los Angeles and Nashville. That's where most of them
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: are based. So, you know, we're hopeful for a huge 28,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: 29 concert season. Now, we don't know who's going to
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: be out at that point, but, you know, I don't
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: think there's any question that the first real event in
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: the stadium will be a Jaguars preseason game. If we
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: would have gotten done earlier, now that's another one of
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: the trade-offs of playing this year is that instead of
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: finishing probably in May, we're now finishing at the end
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: of July. If we finish in May, then you have
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: the opportunity to do a couple test events to get
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: things ready. That's one of the trade-offs that we had.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: So in all likelihood, the first game will be a
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Jaguars preseason game. And then we'll roll into the regular
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: season and You know, there's no reason if the schedule
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: works out for us, and the league is usually pretty
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: good in creating concert windows. You know, we certainly will
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: be looking for some events during the fall of 2028
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: and just want to grow from there. You know, there's already,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: I don't think there's any secret. I think it's been
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: talked about. There's some neutral site college games that were already,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: bidding on or in the process of submitting a bid.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: So those are big opportunities. And one of the most
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: important things with this building and one of the advantages
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: that we will be able to take advantage of is
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: the fact we'll have the largest building in the state
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: of Florida that's protected from rain. All the seats are
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: protected from rain. So it should put us in a
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: good position to be able to compete for events that
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: maybe in the past, you know, promoters would have maybe
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: missed chose not to come to Jacksonville because you have
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: the uncertainty during the summer of weather delays when you're
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: loading in or loading out. So we expect it to
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: be a really busy building. You mentioned the seats changing
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: in Daly's Place.
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: Are there any other major changes coming to Daly's Place?
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of stuff in the back of house
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: that people really won't see. There's probably three things and
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: I don't know that it's in any particular order. So
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: we're changing the seats. I think if you've been to
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: the sales center, you know what will be the first
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: stadium in history that's gone 100% with mesh seats. Mesh
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: seats are more comfortable. They're easier to maintain. They allow
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: air ventilation. And those are all things we're doing to
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: focus on fan comfort in the stadium. Those same mesh
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: seats will go into Daly's Place. The second thing at
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Daly's Place is we're looking at the opportunity to improve
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: some of the acoustics. It probably has more to do
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: with sound baffles and things like that. There's a lot
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: of steel inside that building. But also one of the
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: biggest things is that in the south end zone now,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: in the area that was at the ground level of
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Daly's Place, you would go into that space underneath the
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: stands and there would be concession stands and back there
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: in restrooms. All of that area now will be climate controlled.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: So climate control for Jaguars game. So when you go
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: to a dailies event, it's a huge area. It's the
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: single largest club that we'll have in the new stadium.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: But that will serve a dual purpose stadium events, but
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: also dailies play. So that's a big enhancement for dailies.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: You mentioned the seats. Is there a plan for the
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: seats that are coming out of the building? I know
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: fans were clamoring, looking for them last offseason, too. That's
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: really a hard one. Because you're balancing how much demand
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: is there really for it, okay? And you slow things down.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, so, and I went through this in St.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: Louis where there was great demand for the old seats,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: you know. So you take the seats out. You have
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: to figure out a way to match up the frame
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: with the top of the, with the base of the
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: seat and the back of the seat. And then you've
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: got to figure out a way, how do you connect
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: those things? And then how do you inventory them? Where
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: do you store them? You're not going to mail them out.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Where do the fans come and pick them up? I
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: haven't sensed because we haven't heard. There are certainly some
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: people that would love to keep their seats. And on
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: a case-by-case basis, we can certainly try to accommodate that.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: But it's not going to be a formal program because
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: we don't think the– The effort is going to be
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: worth the payoff, and it slows things down. And that's
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: the one enemy we have on this project is we
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: need to keep moving, moving, moving. Every time we stop,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: we put the schedule at risk.