One season or two? Jaguars look at reducing how long stadium would be off-limits to games.

The ongoing negotiations between the Jaguars and the city about renovating EverBank Stadium have been looking as well at whether the stadium would be off-limits to football for just one season rather than two seasons during the massive rebuild.

The Jaguars have been working with their architectural and construction team on a way to allow football games during the 2026 season at EverBank Stadium with a reduced seating capacity because the upper deck of the stadium would be closed for the renovation work. The stadium then would not have games in the 2027 season.

During a series of town hall style meetings called community huddles in June the team had said the large-scale renovation of the stadium could require playing home games elsewhere in both 2026 and 2027.

Team President Mark Lamping said one of the biggest takeaways from the community huddles was that fans want to limit as much as possible how much time the Jaguars would be unable to play in Jacksonville.

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"This was one of the things we really focused on coming out of the community huddles last summer," Lamping said. "There is a desire among virtually all our fans that to the degree we can minimize the number of games away from Jacksonville without too many sacrifices, they certainly would prefer that."

City spokesman Phillip Perry said it's a good goal but still needs more analysis as part of the negotiations.

"We all want the Jaguars to play at home during construction if it’s possible to do so," Perry said. "We are still very early in the process and need to further explore how it will impact the overall construction budget and timeline."

The Jaguars unveiled their proposed design in June for a renovated stadium that would add a shade-delivering roof cover, greatly widened concourses, more elevators and escalators, digital lighting technology, and a shiny mirrored material wrapping the outside of the stadium. The Jaguars put the cost of the top-to-bottom stadium renovation at up to $1.4 billion when they showed off that plan.

Lamping said reducing the impact from two seasons to one season for Jaguars games would make the project more complicated and "slightly more expensive" but still within the estimated cost of up to $1.4 billion.

In a scenario where the Jaguars play at EverBank Stadium during the 2026 season, the stadium would have capacity for about 44,000 fans.

The average home attendance for Jaguars game this season was about 69,000 per game, according to ESPN's tracker of turnout for all NFL teams, so some people who might want to see a game in person wouldn't be able to with reduced seating.

"We would need to get comfortable that our fans would prefer that the games be in Jacksonville with a reduced capacity than perhaps being someplace else where there is greater capacity," Lamping said.

He said before locking in on any particular schedule, the team still needs to reach an agreement with the city on stadium renovations in their ongoing negotiations that also involve extending the team's lease to play at the city-owned stadium beyond the 2029 football season.

Lamping said that as part of a deal, the city would have to be on board with the approach of having reduced seating capacity in the 2026 season.

The Jaguars have not said where home games would take place during the time when the city-owned stadium is out of commission. Lamping said the the Jaguars have been focused on the negotiations because unless there is a deal, it's a "moot point" where the Jaguars would play during renovations.

He said if the team is playing home games elsewhere for just one season, the Jaguars would look for a "football-ready" stadium for them.

"That would likely, depending on their availability, be University of Florida or Camping World Stadium in Orlando because those are the two closest football-ready stadiums to Jacksonville," he said.

Lamping said the team also needs to be comfortable that the construction schedule wouldstill be on track to meet the goal of having renovations finished in time to start playing games in the overhauled stadium in the 2028 season.

The annual Florida-Georgia football game and TaxSlayer Gator Bowl also use the stadium. Florida and Georgia require more seating for their tradition-steeped game than would be available in EverBank Stadium with the upper deck closed so that game would be played elsewhere in 2006 and 2027. The city wants to bring the game back to Jacksonville again in 2028.

Lamping said the Gator Bowl "in all likelihood" still would be able to use the stadium with reduced capacity for its 2026 game.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jaguars and Jacksonville look at reducing impact of stadium work