Florida-Georgia contract extension means $1 million more for each school, per original agreement

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A beloved tradition in the River City is planning to stay for another two years. It was a hot topic discussed during Jacksonville’s Mayoral race and Mayor-elect Donna Deegan briefly discussed the agreement during a press conference at City Hall on Thursday.

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“I know that we have a new agreement to have them here for the next couple of years so we’ll go from there,” Deegan said. “From the conversations that I’ve had so far all of that is moving very well. I’ve very very hopeful that we’re going to have Florida-Georgia here for many many many years to come.”

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Action News Jax got a hold of the 66-page contract the city has with both the University of Georgia and University of Florida. A city spokesperson said it’s “the same contract that has been in place since 2021. The two schools just exercised their extension option for the 2024 and 2025 games.”

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The contract explained by extending with the city, each school will get $1.5 million in guaranteed royalties each year for the two-year extension. In total, that is an additional $1 million dollars the city will pay both schools for the two added games.

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Under the expense reimbursement payment section of the contract, the city also agreed to pay $60,000 to Georgia and $60,000 to Florida with respective travel, lodging, and game day expenses. The air travel cost for a single game shall not exceed $350,000. This was part of the original deal.

Action News Jax reporter, Meghan Moriarty, asked the mayor-elect how this impacts upcoming renovations to the stadium.

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“I’ll talk more about the renovations with the Jags later,” Deegan said, during a news conference. “I’m not gonna talk about that today [Thursday]. There’s a lot of new information there, but it’s too much to go into in a press conference right now.”