(This story has been updated to add new information and to add a photo or video.)
Sporting Club Jacksonville plans to construct its new soccer stadium near the St. Johns Town Center, club owner Ricky Caplin announced March 2, the next step in a search process that has lasted more than three years.
The proposed 15,000-seat stadium, to be privately funded, would serve as the venue for the Sporting Jax women’s team in the top-division Gainbridge Super League as well as the Sporting Jax men’s team due to kick off March 7 in the second-division USL Championship.
In addition, Sporting Jax is also planning a multi-use development on 300 acres surrounding the soccer venue, in a new stadium district on Jacksonville’s Southside.
“We’re not pursuing something temporary,” Caplin said. “We are establishing permanence.”
Michael McNaughton, newly-installed president of the Sporting Club Jacksonville Development Company, described the plan as a “world-class project with world-class architecture” that will be “transformational to this city.”
The development would provide a permanent home for Sporting Jax soccer — for now, both the men’s and women’s teams play at the University of North Florida’s Hodges Stadium — and much more.
Renderings released Monday illustrated numerous entertainment, dining and lodging locations adjacent to the proposed venue. Caplin said the club plans to have the district in use 365 days per year. McNaughton also said the development could include trails for walking and biking.
McNaughton and Caplin declined to specify a dollar figure for the project.
McNaughton said the ownership group looked at similar mixed-use developments in cities including Tampa, Miami, Chicago and Atlanta.
“We see these projects, and we say, ‘Why can’t we have that in Jacksonville?'” McNaughton said. “We’re here today to say we’re about to. This is going to be an incredible endeavor.”
The stadium project would resolve perhaps the most pressing question for Sporting Jax, which received franchise approval from the United Soccer League in August 2022 and includes both Heisman Trophy quarterback Tim Tebow and former Jacksonville Jaguars running back Fred Taylor in its ownership group.
“For me, it means so much because I love this city so much,” Tebow said.
On the field, they’re already faring well. The women’s soccer team, which kicked off on Aug. 23, is leading the Super League during its inaugural campaign at Hodges Stadium.
Where is the proposed Sporting Jax stadium?
Sporting Jax intends to construct the stadium less than a mile north of the Town Center and west of UNF. Caplin said the land for the project has been under contract for the past eight months.
“Once we found the location, we had to spend the past eight months doing our diligence, drilling wells, figuring out, ‘Is this viable to have a stadium of our size and a vision of our size?'” Caplin said. “Once we validated that, we already knew this was the best spot in Jacksonville.”
For Sporting Jax, multiple steps remain before renderings turn into reality. McNaughton said the organization will be submitting applications for regulatory approval within the next two weeks. Those involved in that approval process include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the St. Johns River Water Management District, McNaughton said.
“One thing is certain,” McNaughton said. “We have performed all the investigative needs, economically, locationally, transit-wise. We feel as though this location offers Sporting Jax the best prospects for the future, not just for fan engagement but for success for Jacksonville overall.”
If all hurdles are cleared speedily, Sporting Jax could be up and running in its new stadium by 2028, although McNaughton acknowledged that this portion of the timetable with municipal and federal regulators can take time.
“Our goal would be,” Caplin said, “the moment we get the last approval, we break ground and hit the ground running.”
That venue, the club hopes, will enable Sporting Jax to establish long-term roots and avert some of the difficulties that have befallen Northeast Florida’s previous soccer ventures.
The Tea Men (1980-84) and Cyclones (1997-99) lasted fewer than five years; the Armada, launched in 2015, remains active but has not competed in a fully professional league since October 2017, although the Armada organization targets a future in the third-level MLS Next Pro in a site north of VyStar Ballpark.
“This will not only be a stadium anchor district,” USL deputy chief executive officer Justin Papadakis said, “I think this is going to be one of the best in the United States.”
As Sporting Jax president Steve Livingstone has previously stated, the club is building for a capacity of 15,000 seats, but McNaughton said the option would remain to expand further in the future.
Under the United States Soccer Federation’s league standards, Sporting Jax would need 15,000 seats to pursue a long-term goal for the men’s team of soccer in a future Division I USL league, which has yet to begin competition.
In addition to the professional squad, Caplin said the stadium could open its doors for youth tournaments, high school championships and other events.
“If we do our jobs right,” McNaughton said, “we’ll be looking at 150-plus days a year of excitement at the [stadium] site. And the site is going to be for Jacksonville every day. It’s not just about a single source, a single use, where if there’s no game, there’s no reason to go there. It’s going to be quite the opposite, at its core a transformational real estate project for Jacksonville.”
Caplin is confident that Sporting Jax is ready to open a new era for more than just soccer.
“We’ve seen incredible projects out there right now in our city,” Caplin said. “I think this will be one that will be one of the first two or three things you think of when you think of Jacksonville.”
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Sporting Jax targets site for 15,000-seat soccer stadium: Here’s where
Reporting by Clayton Freeman, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
