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Speaker 1: All right, welcome into this week's ozone podcast, and I

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Speaker 1: think most people would know where we're going. This week

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Speaker 1: we're joined by Jaguars President Mark Lamping, who has had

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Speaker 1: an an enormously busy four years and now an enormously.

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Speaker 2: Busy next four years. What's the mood today?

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Speaker 3: You know, I think it's a sense of relief, and

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Speaker 3: that relief comes from certainty. You know where we all

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Speaker 3: know where we're going to be working for the next

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Speaker 3: thirty years. Yes, you know, we we know that. You know,

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Speaker 3: the one thing that could have created the biggest issues

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Speaker 3: for this franchise has now been taken off the table,

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Speaker 3: and you know, anxious to get to work to deliver

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Speaker 3: on you know, what should be a very very special project,

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Speaker 3: not only for the Jaguars but for Jacksonville.

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Speaker 1: And the first topic I have to ask this is

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Speaker 1: somebody who has been around here. I saw it in

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Speaker 1: ninety five when it started. I've been around you since

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Speaker 1: you got here, and since you got here, you've heard

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Speaker 1: the same narrative everybody else.

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Speaker 2: The Jaguars are moving.

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Speaker 1: It won't work. Whatever naysayer could say, they've said. But

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Speaker 1: yet you and Shad since day one, have constantly said

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Speaker 1: the idea is to stay here. I'm not going to

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Speaker 1: ask you about vindication, that's not your style. But do

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Speaker 1: you think now it stops, and how much of an

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Speaker 1: accomplishment is it to be sitting here today with that

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Speaker 1: narrative finally over?

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Speaker 3: Well, what we always said during that process was, you know,

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Speaker 3: please judge Shod on what he actually does as opposed

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Speaker 3: to what you speculate he might do in the future.

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Speaker 3: And Shod has done nothing other than be committed to

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Speaker 3: Jacksonville from the first day he bought the franchise. His

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Speaker 3: goal and his assignment at the very beginning was to

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Speaker 3: make sure we did everything we could to make sure

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Speaker 3: that the Jaguars were secure here in Northeast Florida, Florida

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Speaker 3: for generations to come. And you know, that process started

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Speaker 3: with identifying those things we need to avoid and what

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Speaker 3: we needed to avoid number one was getting to the

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Speaker 3: end of our lease and not having a long term

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Speaker 3: stadium solution. So you know, we've been working on it

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Speaker 3: for quite some time in earnest for the last four years.

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Speaker 3: Actually started the discussion back in twenty sixteen, eight years ago,

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Speaker 3: and our you know, pleas that we were able to

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Speaker 3: get to the finish line and do it, you know,

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Speaker 3: without a lot of angst.

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Speaker 2: And did you I assume from the day you got

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Speaker 2: here you could walk in.

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Speaker 1: I was here as well. I remember it when it

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Speaker 1: was a new stadium. It was not a new stadium

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Speaker 1: when you got here, So I assume from the day

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Speaker 1: you walked in, you're like, well, that's going to have

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Speaker 1: to figure out that at some point.

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Speaker 3: Well, we were pretty pretty upfront that the current stadium

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Speaker 3: would not meet the needs of our fans going into

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Speaker 3: the future, and as such, there could be no extension

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Speaker 3: of our leaks without a stadium solution. And you know, again,

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Speaker 3: thanks to great leadership from from Mayor Dime Degan and

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Speaker 3: Council President Ron Salem, all the city council members, this

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Speaker 3: has been a This has been a really extensive process,

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Speaker 3: and I think the fact that it was so extensive

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Speaker 3: contributed to the fact that it was a pretty smooth

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Speaker 3: ride as far as these things go.

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Speaker 1: And you mentioned that the I mean knew this a

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Speaker 1: long time, and I've followed from afar, followed some things

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Speaker 1: from near This was smoother than even in ninety five.

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Speaker 1: And I guess that just speaks to the genuineness or

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Speaker 1: the sincerity of what you just said. That it's easy

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Speaker 1: to say publicly, well we're all on the same page,

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Speaker 1: but it sounds like you really were, and that that

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Speaker 1: was maybe a defining quality of this.

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Speaker 3: Well, we were both parties had the same goal. So

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Speaker 3: when your interest are aligned to begin with, it makes

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Speaker 3: it a lot easier. It's not to suggest that we

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Speaker 3: didn't have issues along the way. We did. We had

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Speaker 3: plenty of them, but you know, we had a lot

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Speaker 3: of mutual respect. And what happened so many times in

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Speaker 3: these negotiations is there's some gamesmanship, sure, and a lot

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Speaker 3: of that plays out publicly, and some of it designed

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Speaker 3: to alter the dynamic of the negotiations. But that never happened.

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Speaker 3: And you know, again it's not to suggest that this was,

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Speaker 3: you know, just a very very smooth process. It's I've

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Speaker 3: used the analogy a little bit. You see a duck

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Speaker 3: going across the water. It looks like it's just smoothing.

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Speaker 3: You don't see what's good happening underwater.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: My next question was is was this as easy as

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Speaker 1: it looked? And it's not supposed to look hard, right,

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Speaker 1: I mean, see.

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Speaker 3: Well, we gave it plenty of time. I mean I mean,

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Speaker 3: you think about it, and if you go through it,

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Speaker 3: you know, we had almost an unprecedented amount of public outreach.

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Speaker 3: You know, we we had twenty plus community huddles, public

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Speaker 3: meetings over a year ago. We followed that up with

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Speaker 3: five more with the mayor in the last month, worked

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Speaker 3: through multiple administrations, multiple mayors. We didn't want to rush

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Speaker 3: the process. Literally dozens of city council members. We involved

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Speaker 3: our fans very early in the process. We consulted with

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Speaker 3: key stakeholders, particularly the universities of Florida and Georgia, involved

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Speaker 3: the Gator Bowl, talked to concert promoters, and did a

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Speaker 3: very extensive architectural review. So, you know, four years is

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Speaker 3: a long time, sure, and you know, I think we

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Speaker 3: were as buttoned up as you could be as we

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Speaker 3: began our negotiations in earnest about twelve months ago.

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Speaker 2: Did the.

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Speaker 1: You mentioned the outreach, How much of anything did that

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Speaker 1: did you hear? Were you able to take into account

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Speaker 1: moving forward and sort of incorporate it?

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Speaker 3: Well, that was that was the purpose of the outreaches,

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Speaker 3: to get feedback and then use that feedback to refine

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Speaker 3: our plan and make it a better plan. I can

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Speaker 3: tell you one of the things that clearly came out

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Speaker 3: of that public dialogue is it became very apparent to

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Speaker 3: us that our fans wanted to keep as many games

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Speaker 3: as possible in Jacksonville during the construction period. If you

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Speaker 3: remember our plan what we went out was to be

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Speaker 3: relocated for two seasons, right, And you know, after hearing

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Speaker 3: that and hearing it very loudly and very clearly from

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Speaker 3: our fans, you know, we challenge the architects and the

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Speaker 3: and the the general contractor to see if they could

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Speaker 3: re sequence things a little bit. And the end result

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Speaker 3: of that was we're only going to be away from

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Speaker 3: one year. So that's probably the biggest thing and the

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Speaker 3: most tangible thing that that showed that, yes, our our

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Speaker 3: our fans fingerprints are all over this plan.

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Speaker 1: That seemed from sort of watching it, it was a

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Speaker 1: little bit detached from it as I was. That seemed

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Speaker 1: like it happened easily, but I'm sure it was not

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Speaker 1: an easy process getting it from okay, we're gone two

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Speaker 1: years to it a heavier lift than you made it sound.

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Speaker 1: I guess what I'm getting that.

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Speaker 3: Well, there's no reason to you know, belabor it. What

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Speaker 3: it did was it introduced more risk, more cost risk,

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Speaker 3: into the into the plan. That was something that Chad

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Speaker 3: was willing to accept. And you know this better than anybody.

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Speaker 3: If there's one thing NFL people dislike, its adjustments to

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Speaker 3: their schedule. So the idea that we're only going to

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Speaker 3: be playing away for one season was very readily accepted

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Speaker 3: by the football people.

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Speaker 2: Got you, what's on a project like this? What does

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Speaker 2: Shad like to deal with?

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Speaker 1: I mean, because you're relaying information, he's involved and as

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Speaker 1: you said before, he's all in on whatever's best for

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Speaker 1: the process. I would think in that sense, it's got

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Speaker 1: to be a good situation. I guess I'm getting that well.

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Speaker 3: Shot had very very specific objectives right up front. You know,

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Speaker 3: he doesn't micromanage, but there were specific objectives that we

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Speaker 3: had going into the negotiation. Some of them, you know,

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Speaker 3: probably not to be shared publicly, but you know, what

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Speaker 3: Shod wanted to make sure is that the franchise was

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Speaker 3: going to be on a very solid financial footing and

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Speaker 3: in a very stable position going forward, and that we

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Speaker 3: would have a stadium solution that would support a thirty

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Speaker 3: year extension. And you know, we were able to achieve that.

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Speaker 3: It's not that there's not you know, some risk involved

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Speaker 3: with that. You know, we have to do our job.

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Speaker 3: You know, the football team needs to consistently play well,

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Speaker 3: and we need to make sure that our fans see

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Speaker 3: the value in what we'll be offering in the new facility. So,

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Speaker 3: you know, we were able to meet all those those objectives.

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Speaker 3: And the good news was that, you know, when we

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Speaker 3: got sort of to the end of our negotiating and

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Speaker 3: the city got to where they could not go any further,

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Speaker 3: the good news was we were both at a point

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Speaker 3: where we could do a deal.

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Speaker 1: Got you, I'm going to embarrass you a little bit,

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Speaker 1: but built Bush Stadium, built MetLife Stadium, have a chance

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Speaker 1: to do this. You know, I know you don't like

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Speaker 1: talking about your legacy, but I'm gonna put you on

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Speaker 1: the spot. A pretty special to have been involved with

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Speaker 1: those level of projects.

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Speaker 3: Right well, absolutely, but you know there's there's there's bigger

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Speaker 3: pieces and and and they're all different. You know, those

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Speaker 3: of us that are blessed to have the opportunity to

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Speaker 3: live in Jacksonville and to have the opportunity to work

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Speaker 3: for an NFL team in Jacksonville. You know, we talked

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Speaker 3: about what are those things that we could accomplish that

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Speaker 3: are sort of unique to Jacksonville. And one of them

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Speaker 3: certainly would be to be involved in the first Super

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Speaker 3: Bowl victory here in Jacksonville. But but the other, and

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Speaker 3: you alluded to it earlier, is there there were there

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Speaker 3: were a lot of naysayers that thought that the NFL

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Speaker 3: would not survive in Jacksonville. And to be a part

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Speaker 3: of a process that ensures that, you know, kids that

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Speaker 3: are born today are going to be able to enjoy

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Speaker 3: Jaguar football, you know, into their late twenties, that's that's

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Speaker 3: that's something we all should be proud of.

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Speaker 1: Did you know with confidence when you first got here

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Speaker 1: that this would happen long term or was there a

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Speaker 1: point where you sort of said, yeah, this is this

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Speaker 1: can all work, the vision can work.

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Speaker 3: Well, you never know, you know, at the start. I

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Speaker 3: think I think we got indications very early because there

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Speaker 3: were there were a lot of things that were done

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Speaker 3: early on that and the responses to those were really positive.

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Speaker 3: As you know, when Shad bought the team, you know,

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Speaker 3: there was a lot of speculation as to you know,

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Speaker 3: what the future of the team would be. It wasn't

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Speaker 3: in a very stable position at the time. There are

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Speaker 3: rumors constantly swirling as waiting and Dolors and their partners

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Speaker 3: were selling the team about is the new owner going

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Speaker 3: to move them? And Shad want to work, you know,

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Speaker 3: very quickly to try to deal with some of those

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Speaker 3: visible perceptions of failure. Getting rid of the tarps as

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Speaker 3: an example, a small thing, but not this visual reminder

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Speaker 3: that the stadium has more seats than the fans will occupy,

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Speaker 3: you know, putting to bed the whole concept of television blackouts, right.

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Speaker 3: And then as we made some improvements to the stadium

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Speaker 3: and added some additional premium seating, the market reacted very

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Speaker 3: very well to that. So gives us confidence that again

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Speaker 3: we have to do our job first, but if we do,

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Speaker 3: and we can provide a product that has the appropriate

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Speaker 3: price value relationship, this market will respond. And you know,

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Speaker 3: when we look at Jacksonville, we say we see it

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Speaker 3: incredibly vibrant, growing, sure community, we're not there yet, but

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Speaker 3: we're certainly on a much better trajectory than at least

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Speaker 3: in terms of the growth of the market than perhaps

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Speaker 3: any other NFL city.

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Speaker 1: Right, And that's becoming known around the league as minors

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Speaker 1: stand like they see the demographics as well and see

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Speaker 1: it as a growing city. It's maybe fifteen years ago

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Speaker 1: because not the perception.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think it's really been highlighted post COVID,

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Speaker 3: you know, because you know, you have people that now

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Speaker 3: aren't necessarily forced to live in the city where they work, right,

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Speaker 3: And when you have a city like Jacksonville, which has

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Speaker 3: a tremendous amount of natural resources to offer an incredible

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Speaker 3: health care infrastructure that's important to so many people, it's

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Speaker 3: in a state. It's in the state of Florida, which

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Speaker 3: has its own advantages as it relates to the tax

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Speaker 3: strung ructure and the weather. And we've seen a huge

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Speaker 3: influx of people that have moved from the northeast here

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Speaker 3: to northeast Florida. And on top of that, when you

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Speaker 3: look around the major cities in Florida, the cost of

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Speaker 3: living here in Jacksonville compares very favorably.

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Speaker 1: This might be a silly question, but I'm always curious

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Speaker 1: about your mindset as you manage a project that you're

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Speaker 1: about to manage. I just had a fence put in

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Speaker 1: and I stressed out for two weeks. And now you

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Speaker 1: you know, overseeing this and being responsible and seeing it grow,

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Speaker 1: I'm sure it is an incredible sense of accomplishment when

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Speaker 1: when it's done, not that you're the only one, but

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Speaker 1: you're over.

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Speaker 2: How do you deal with the.

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Speaker 1: Stuff that comes up, the phone call of hey, where

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Speaker 1: you know this is going on?

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Speaker 2: Or do you just have to say this is a marathon.

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Speaker 3: Well, it is a marathon, but it starts, you know,

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Speaker 3: just like any anything, like what we do day to day.

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Speaker 3: You know, with the Jaguars, if your fortune to hire

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Speaker 3: great people and those great people you know, can make

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Speaker 3: a commitment to work together, you can accomplish incredible things.

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Speaker 3: So you know, it all comes down to the team

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Speaker 3: that's put together. You know that the team that's been

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Speaker 3: working on the stadium has been together for for almost

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Speaker 3: two years now. It's a very very experienced, strong team.

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Speaker 3: We have great internal leadership, and you know, you just

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Speaker 3: have to remind yourself that every day is going to

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Speaker 3: bring a new issue. So don't get too freaked out

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Speaker 3: because there's going to be another issue tomorrow.

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Speaker 2: Okay, Because again, since you've gotten here, it seems like

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Speaker 2: you've been wearing a hard hat.

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Speaker 1: You know, every summer I'll see you walking out to something.

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Speaker 1: But that's just sort of the way. If you're not building,

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Speaker 1: you're falling behind.

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Speaker 2: Right to a degree.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, if you're not, if you're not evolving, you know,

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Speaker 3: you you stand zero chance of being able to keep

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Speaker 3: up with the needs and desires of your customers. So

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Speaker 3: you have to be responsive. You have to be the

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Speaker 3: type of organization that can move quickly, and you know,

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Speaker 3: particularly when you had a lot of catching up to do,

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Speaker 3: which we did here in Jacksonville.

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Speaker 1: A couple of quick topics at the end twenty twenty seven.

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Speaker 1: Any thought on how that's going to look yet or

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Speaker 1: still very.

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Speaker 3: Fluid, Well, I think it's it's it's going to be

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Speaker 3: some combination involving Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida, Field

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Speaker 3: and Gainesville, and you know, perhaps London. You know what

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Speaker 3: that mix of games will be. You know, we don't

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Speaker 3: know yet. We've got a lot of work to be

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Speaker 3: done there, whether all the games are at one site

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Speaker 3: or we have to mix them up a little bit.

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Speaker 3: We didn't spend a lot of time focusing on that

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Speaker 3: because it was a moot point.

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Speaker 1: If we didn't get the deal done and there was

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Speaker 1: time to figure it out.

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Speaker 3: There's plenty of time. Yeah, it's just from twenty seven,

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Speaker 3: I we know for certain. In fact, I've had multiple

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Speaker 3: conversations with the League office just since last night. It's

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Speaker 3: gonna it's it's gonna be a topic that the league

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Speaker 3: will be very interested in and the other owners will

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Speaker 3: be very interested in. And I'm sure it'll come up

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Speaker 3: as we advance this project for final approval at the

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Speaker 3: October owners meetings. So you know, we've got we've got

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Speaker 3: great options. You know, Orlando has an unbelievable tourist infrastructure.

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Speaker 3: Florida Field is just is a legendary college stadium, and

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Speaker 3: we have a really special relationship with the University of

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Speaker 3: Florida that goes well beyond you know how thankful we

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Speaker 3: are that they continue to play Georgia here in Jacksonville

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Speaker 3: every year. So I don't think there is a bad

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Speaker 3: decision to be made, you know, between those and you know,

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Speaker 3: maybe by the end of the year we'll have some resolution.

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Speaker 3: But I think that timetable ultimately is going to be

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Speaker 3: determined by the league. The legue will probably tell us

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Speaker 3: at some point, Okay, you need to tell us what

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Speaker 3: you want to see because because the other owners are

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Speaker 3: gonna have to prove it. It's so that's oh, even

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Speaker 3: that schedule, I got you right, Yeah, if you know

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Speaker 3: if we're going to enter into a temporary lease, a

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Speaker 3: one year lease of a stadium that is subject to

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Speaker 3: league approval and seventy five percent vote of NFL owners

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Speaker 3: got you Now you sounded last night when you spoke

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Speaker 3: right after the vote sounded, I'd say confident that the

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Speaker 3: whatever issues there are around the vote in October are

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Speaker 3: very handable, handleable issues. Well, we think so, but you know,

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Speaker 3: it wasn't until last night that we had certainty in

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Speaker 3: terms of what the deal is going to look like.

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Speaker 3: So the league has a tremendous amount of work to

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Speaker 3: do to evaluate. We've been keeping them up to speed

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Speaker 3: as we've as we've gone through the process. You know,

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Speaker 3: we know that you know the things that are going

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Speaker 3: to be important to other owners, right because it's the

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Speaker 3: same thing that's important to us when we look at

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Speaker 3: sure what other teams are doing. So I think we've

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Speaker 3: we've done a pretty good job of anticipating that, and

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Speaker 3: I'm sure there will be a lot of questions, but

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Speaker 3: you know, I think I think we have positive responses.

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Speaker 2: To these questions.

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Speaker 1: Surrounding areas, meaning surrounding areas around the stadium. How important

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Speaker 1: is that you moving forward? And is that still sort

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Speaker 1: of the piece that has to fall into place for

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Speaker 1: the whole thing to work.

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Speaker 3: It's just as important as it was five years ago.

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Speaker 3: Nothing has changed to make it any less important. You know,

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Speaker 3: that type of entertainment district in downtown Jacksonville. The need

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Speaker 3: for it today is the same it was five years ago.

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Speaker 3: And we don't believe that the stadium can reach its

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Speaker 3: maximum success if we don't have a vibrant neighborhood that

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Speaker 3: those who choose to bring events to Jacksonville, they know

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Speaker 3: their customers are going to have plenty to do before

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Speaker 3: and after those events. So it's just as much of

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Speaker 3: a focus as it was in prior years. We would

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Speaker 3: have preferred to deal with it as part of this

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Speaker 3: this negotiation. You know, the city made it pretty clear

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Speaker 3: upfront that they just weren't in a position to tackle

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Speaker 3: both of those at one time. And you know, we

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Speaker 3: are convinced that the mayor shares our view that the

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Speaker 3: city really needs this, and I'm sure something will happen now,

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Speaker 3: whether it's us or somebody else. At the end of

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Speaker 3: the day, it's probably not critical to us, right We

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Speaker 3: just know that downtown Jacksonville needs more.

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Speaker 1: But having her on board with it.

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Speaker 2: That's a confident feeling for you.

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Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely, and it's and it's legitimate, and she's sincere

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Speaker 3: and not surprising.

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Speaker 1: Final, very general question. I know what's next for you

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Speaker 1: personally is vacation. But what's next in terms of our

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Speaker 1: topics today for you when you get back, what's the focus?

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Speaker 3: Well, we really have to focus on the on the

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Speaker 3: NFL right now and making sure that they understand the

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Speaker 3: deal and we assist them in all the analysis. We

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Speaker 3: need to begin advancing the financial analysis of what the

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Speaker 3: what the games would look like in Gainsville, what they

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Speaker 3: would look like in Orlando, how London does or doesn't

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Speaker 3: fit into that in twenty twenty seven, and we've got

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Speaker 3: the unfinished business, not so much as it relates to

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Speaker 3: the Jaguars, but it's a topic we're really interested in,

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Speaker 3: and that's finalizing the community benefits agreement and that will

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Speaker 3: come up at the first city Council meeting that is

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Speaker 3: now not until July twenty third.

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Speaker 1: Got you, Mark Lamping I appreciate you joining those own podcasts.

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Speaker 1: I know an incredibly busy day. As somebody who's been

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Speaker 1: around this forever, I can't thank you enough for the

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Speaker 1: work and I am ecstatic this worked out. Congratulations well,

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Speaker 1: thank you very much, John, thank you Martin,