NFL's Roger Goodell meets Deegan and Ron Salem about Jaguars stadium talks

Monday Night Football wasn't just about football for city leaders this week.

Mayor Donna Deegan and City Council President Ron Salem each met with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell before the Monday night game at EverBank Stadium for general discussions about the ongoing talks on a major stadium deal.

Goodell met separately with Deegan and Salem while he was in Jacksonville to watch the Jaguars play the Cincinnati Bengals.

Mayoral spokesman Phillip Perry said Deegan's meeting with Goodell was an opportunity for them to "get to know each other better."

"They both expressed their desire to get to 'yes' on a deal that is good for Jacksonville and the Jaguars but did not discuss any specifics in relation to negotiations," Perry said.

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Salem said that during his meeting with Jaguars owner Shad Khan, team President Mark Lamping and Goodell, he told them that when a stadium deal is filed with City Council, the council would need 60 days to dive into the legislation before he would bring it to a vote.

Salem talked Wednesday morning about the ongoing negotiations between the city and the Jaguars when he spoke at the monthly Cuppa Jax event in downtown about various goals he has for his one-year term as council president.

"I hope I'm able to work through the stadium (deal) while I'm president," Salem told attendees gathered at Riverplace Tower for the monthly series of talks on issues facing Jacksonville.

Salem is nearly halfway through a one-year term as president that goes through the end of June. He said based on that calendar, the legislation for a stadium deal would need to be in front of City Council by mid-to-late April for it to get a final vote during his time as council president.

Mayoral spokesman Phillip Perry said the city still is "months away from having a deal in place" so there isn't a timeline for when City Council will get the legislation.

"That said, the negotiations are still on track with meeting the goal of playing in the stadium by 2028," Perry said.

The Jaguars have said they would like to have the deal finalized by the second quarter of 2024 so construction could start in early 2026 and be done in time for the 2028 football season. The Jaguars' goal for the timeline would put a final vote by City Council on legislation during Salem's term as president.

Neither Salem nor the NFL is directly involved in the talks that have been occurring between Mayor Donna Deegan's administration and the Jaguars. But after a deal is reached, the NFL owners will have to sign off on it so Goodell will be involved in examining the details of the stadium renovation and accompanying extension of the team's lease to keep playing at the city-owned stadium.

During the meeting on Monday, Jaguars officials showed Goodell their plans for the stadium renovation.

"I saw no indication he (Goodell) wasn't 100% supportive," Salem said.

Deegan said last week that an analysis of the structural integrity of the current stadium "will be a major piece of information for us to have in our hands." Deegan is seeking a long-term extension of the lease and would want to be sure the life span of the building will match that term.

"So that's the next step for us in terms of proceeding," she said. "As far as the talks go, I think they're going very well. I think we're continuing to put together every part of the agreement that we possibly can."

The team proposed a $2 billion deal that would include about $1.35 million for top-to-bottom stadium renovations plus new development with a mix of uses for housing and entertainment on city-owned land next to the stadium. The Jaguars have said the city would put up half the cost or $1 billion for the stadium and the surrounding development while Khan would be responsible for the rest.

The terms of the team's lease, which runs through the 2029 football season, also would be negotiated for an extension.

"We're waiting for the deal," Salem said. "The important point I communicated to them as far as I'm concerned is the council needs 60 days to put this through a normal process. This is too important to do anything less than the regular six-week cycle plus some extra time to help educate the public and maybe some (community) huddles as they did before."

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Goodell, Khan and Jacksonville city leaders talk stadium deal