How big is the $1.6B winning Mega Millions ticket in Neptune Beach? Inside the numbers

Clayton Freeman, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union
Updated ·3 min read

For those trying to grasp the size of the prize for the single winning ticket in Tuesday's Mega Millions lottery, sold at a Publix in Neptune Beach, get ready.

The lucky winner, still to be identified, landed an estimated grand prize of $1.58 billion, before accounting for taxes.

That's big money. But just how big?

Here's some perspective, complete with some of Jacksonville's billion-dollar moments. Note that the figures below do not include taxes for jackpot winnings or inflation over time.

A winner! It's over: Record $1.58B Mega Millions jackpot winning ticket sold at Florida Publix

Who won $1.58B Mega Millions jackpot? Check your tickets. Plenty of others won money, too

Everything to know if you win: Ultimate guide to the Florida Lottery, Powerball and Mega Millions

One winner, in Neptune Beach, Florida, will take home the $1.58 billion Mega Millions jackpot drawn on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023.
One winner, in Neptune Beach, Florida, will take home the $1.58 billion Mega Millions jackpot drawn on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023.

  • Mayor Donna Deegan presented her first budget of $1.75 billion to the Jacksonville City Council in July. The $1.58 billion jackpot would amount to 90 percent of the city's 2023-24 fiscal year budget. It's also more than the entire $1.53 billion budget that passed the City Council for 2021-22 under Mayor Lenny Curry.

  • The Better Jacksonville Plan, approved during John Delaney's second term as mayor, totaled some $2.2 billion.

  • For those who really love the Duval County Courthouse, a lucky winner could use the Mega Millions jackpot to build a few more just like it. The original building, which opened in 2012, rolled up estimated costs of $350 million.

  • Shad Khan bought the Jacksonville Jaguars from Wayne Weaver and the team's minority owners in 2011 for a purchase price of $760 to $770 million. But the jackpot wouldn't be enough now to buy the club, which has been valued at more than $2 billion since 2017.

  • Football fans, looking to get that renovated stadium built? The Mega Millions jackpot may just about cover that. The Jaguars estimated a price tag of around $1.4 billion to turn EverBank Stadium into the "Stadium of the Future."

  • Golfers would have enough cash to purchase the PGA Tour's $65 million Global Home 24 times over, or play The Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass more than 3.5 million times at $450 per round — at least until the price rises to $650 from September through May.

  • A $1.58 billion jackpot could have bought Firehouse Subs with half a billion to spare. The Jacksonville-based restaurant chain was sold for $1 billion in 2021 to Restaurant Brands International.

  • But the Mega Millions jackpot wouldn't buy JEA. NextEra Energy offered $11 billion in 2019 to purchase the utility, documents showed, amid the controversial and ultimately failed sale attempt that has since led to indictments for two JEA executives at the time.

  • At $8 per ticket, a Mega Millions winner in Neptune Beach could buy admission to more than 197 million Fletcher High School football games.

  • The U.S. Census Bureau recorded a population of 7,217 for Neptune Beach in the 2020 census. If divided up, a $1.58 billion jackpot would mean more than $218,000 for each Neptune Beach resident.

  • Finally, the Lynyrd Skynyrd's Greatest Hits CD is listed by Amazon and Walmart for $8.97. At that price, a music fan could purchase 176,142,697 of those discs — if, of course, that many physical CDs were in existence.

Gimme 528,428,091 steps, indeed.

Mega Millions winning numbers for August 8

The winning numbers from Tuesday's drawing were 32, 19, 13, 33, and 20. The Mega Ball was 14 and the Megaplier was 2X.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Neptune Beach, Florida, Mega Millions winning ticket: By the numbers