Contents · About 13 min read
- DUUUVAL: who yelled it first?
- The Jacksonville Jaguars: history, this year’s team and the atmosphere
- How to get to EverBank Stadium and how to buy tickets: official guidance
- The year the upper deck disappeared: how crowds and ticket prices moved
- The stadium’s name, a $1.4 billion renovation and Orlando in 2027
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If you are planning to see the Jacksonville Jaguars in person, this is a good moment to look at EverBank Stadium. On Sunday, November 1 at 1 p.m. local time (per the team schedule), the Jaguars host the Colts in Jacksonville, Florida.
The Jaguars spent their bye week at 4-2 and leading the AFC South (team recap, October 22), while the Colts are 2-5 (team preview, October 29).
But this season the stadium holds 42,507, not its usual 68,000-plus. Construction on the new stadium has closed the entire upper bowl.
This guide covers two things. First, for international fans heading to the stadium for the first time, it lays out how to get there, how to buy tickets and what the entry rules are, all based on official team and stadium pages (checked October 31, 2026).
Then, as a marketer, I look at how ticket prices and the stadium business are moving in a season with only about 40,000 seats.
Source: Wikimedia Commons · Photo: Quintin Soloviev, January 13, 2026 (just after the 2025 wild-card game) · License: CC BY 4.0
DUUUVAL: who yelled it first?
The first sound you hear at EverBank Stadium is “DUUUVAL!” Duval is the name of the county Jacksonville sits in, and fans stretch the word out to call for the city and the team at once.
The team’s game day guide even asks fans to shout loudly during the opposing offense’s huddle to disrupt it.
The funny part is that nobody has settled where the chant began. NBC’s explainer sets two stories side by side: a founding member of the fan club Bold City Brigade remembers it starting with players in the mid-2000s, while another account credits a local DJ.
NBC concludes that it is hard to say.
First Coast News says that in the late 1990s a DJ named Easy E stretched the street word “Duval” into a sound effect for recordings. In a 2018 News4Jax report, another DJ says he made it up on the spot and began using it on the radio, and a high school, Raines, gets a mention.
So one chant has three different origin stories.
The way the team treats the chant is unusual too. In 2018 the team said it had not filed to trademark “DUUUVAL,” only taking steps so it could keep using the phrase even if someone else claimed the mark.
As a marketer, I see a phrase that rose up from the street and that the club embraced later, not a slogan the club invented. By refusing to own what the fans built and protecting only its right to use it, the club may have helped the chant last.
NBC also reports that since 2018 a local notable shouts the first “Duval” before kickoff, a ritual in its own right.
The Jacksonville Jaguars: history, this year’s team and the atmosphere
The Jaguars were approved as an NFL expansion team on November 30, 1993, and the current stadium opened in 1995 on the site of the old Gator Bowl (Wikipedia). It hosted Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005.
The road has not always been smooth. According to the same source, before the 2005 season low attendance and blackout worries led the team to cover 9,703 seats with tarps, and the last of them only came off after the 2017 season.
The look is similar this year, with the upper seats closed, but the reason is the opposite. Back then seats were covered because they would not sell; now they are closed so something can be built.
The team has clearly improved lately. In 2025 the Jaguars went 13-4 and won the AFC South, and in Liam Coen’s first season as head coach, quarterback Trevor Lawrence threw a franchise-record 38 touchdown passes.
The season ended with a 27-24 home loss to the Buffalo Bills in the wild-card round on January 11, 2026.
This year they beat the Eagles 19-17 on October 11 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, lost 34-31 to the Texans at Wembley on the 18th, and went into the bye at 4-2 (team recap).
Both London games count as Jaguars “home” games, so only six regular-season home games are played in Jacksonville. The Browns and Patriots games are done, and what remains is the Colts on November 1, the Titans on November 29, the Steelers on December 14 (Monday night on ESPN) and a Week 17 game against the Commanders whose date is not set.
Source: Wikimedia Commons · Photo: elisfkc2 (Flickr), during the Chiefs game on October 6, 2025 · License: CC BY-SA 4.0
On the atmosphere, a local stadium review site called the place one that shakes with every score in its December 2025 review. It also describes the mascot, Jaxson de Ville, riding a zip line from a light tower before games.
The team’s official guide also mentions a “Passport” program in the pregame Fan Entertainment Zone (FEZ), where collecting stamps from five booths earns a prize.
If it is your first time, plan for the heat. The Boston Globe reported that the forecast for the September 27 Patriots game was 84°F (about 29°C) with 53% humidity, and the team says it parks a cooling bus near Gate 1 and provides shade in the south end zone and at Daily’s Place.
How to get to EverBank Stadium and how to buy tickets: official guidance
What follows comes from official team and stadium pages that I opened myself on October 31, 2026. Because construction changes roads and parking from game to game, it is worth checking the team’s game day guide once more before you leave.
Starting with getting there, the team’s parking page says stadium-operated parking passes are sold out for the 2026 season, while passes for the Old Cypress lot (1746 E Adams St) are still on sale through the team’s ticket site.
Parking passes live in the team’s official mobile app and are scanned at the lot. Lots open four hours before kickoff and close two hours after the game ends.
If you do not have a car, you have several options. The team lists cash lots (the Tailgaters Lot, the Sports Complex garage and others), the JTA Gameday Xpress bus, the St. Johns River Taxi, and Lyft and Uber.
Ticketed fans can also ride free shuttles from Lots S, X and Z, Met Park and Old Cypress. They run from three hours before kickoff to one hour after the game, and stop during play.
After the game, ride-share pickup is near Lot Z on Beaver Street on the west side of the stadium.
For 2025, the JTA bus cost $10 from downtown and $15 from the suburbs, and a JTA press release said the last bus leaves one hour after the game. I could not confirm the 2026 fares from official sources, so check the MyJTA app or the JTA site.
I also could not find the distance or travel time from the airport, or public transit links, on the team’s official pages.
Meanwhile the Week 1 guide warned that bridge work on Main Street limits outbound traffic to one southbound lane, with moderate or worse congestion for anyone arriving after 5 p.m.
Tickets are sold through Ticketmaster from the single-game menu on the team’s ticket page, and the team points to NFL Ticket Exchange for official resale. Mobile tickets in the team app are the default way in.
Single-game prices were not listed in a table on the official pages. The team’s FAQ says season tickets start at $125 per game, and a U.S. analysis outlet that studied Ticketmaster primary and resale listings in early August reported a lowest single-game price of about $120 (these are seller-set prices, so what you actually pay may differ).
I could not confirm whether cards issued abroad work, or what fees apply, from official pages, so it is safer to ask the team ticket office (904-633-2000, ticketing@jaguars.com).
On entry times, the Week 1 guide, for a 1:03 p.m. kickoff, said parking lots open at 9 a.m., Gates 1, 4 and 7 and the FEZ at 10, and everything else at 11. Your mobile ticket shows a recommended gate, so use that one; club ticket holders have their own gate.
For the November 1 game, team president Mark Lamping said on October 29 that nothing about how fans enter or move around the stadium has changed since their last visit. He added that the team tidied up the inside to ease crowding on the main concourse.
The NFL clear bag policy applies. You can bring a clear bag up to 12 x 6 x 12 inches or a small clutch up to 4.5 x 6.5 inches, and umbrellas are not allowed.
The stadium’s policy page says there is no re-entry once you leave. Outside food must be unwrapped and carried in a one-gallon clear plastic bag (11 x 11 inches or smaller), and each person may bring two factory-sealed 16.9-ounce (about 500 ml) water bottles.
The prohibited items list includes folding chairs and cushions, strollers, drones, and tobacco and vaping products. The stadium takes no cash and the ATMs have been removed; if you need to turn cash into a card, go to Guest Services at Section 123.
Some things are also different this year. The team says the upper bowl, the north end zone deck and the Sky Patio are closed for construction (the Week 1 guide adds that the lower-level corners and the Spa Deck are closed too), and the north end zone is where two pools and cabanas (private seating areas beside a pool) drew attention in 2014.
The main concourse on the lower level, however, is open all the way around. It is not an official team source, but SeatGeek’s July 2026 guide recommends sections 106, 113, 133 and 140 on the lower sides and tells you to avoid the closed 201, 202, 244 and 245, so treat it as a rough pointer.
Reading these instructions as a marketer, I see tickets, parking and payment all gathered into an app and a single card. If you skip installing the app in advance, buying the parking pass or bringing a card, you can get stuck at the first hurdle.
For international fans this is probably the biggest barrier. A local stadium reviewer also wrote that the bridges near the stadium are narrow and the roads clog before and after games, and this year bridge work is added on top.
If I were advising a visitor from abroad, I would say arrive early and spend time in the FEZ, then after the game do not rush and stay about an hour before heading out.
Source: Wikimedia Commons · Photo: Excel23, January 20, 2024 · License: CC BY 4.0
The year the upper deck disappeared: how crowds and ticket prices moved
In its February 25 announcement, the team said capacity this year drops from the usual 68,300 to 42,507 (including 1,260 standing-room spots). Of the 27,637 seats that went away, about 22,000 are in the upper bowl (team 2026 update).
The Boston Globe, though, gives the figure as 41,156, so outlets differ.
The Week 1 crowd for the Browns game was about 42,000, as relayed in a comment from the Patriots’ coach. In Week 18 of 2025 the Titans game drew 66,015 at home (per Wikipedia’s game-by-game tally), so a single game lost more than 20,000 people.
Source: Wikimedia Commons · Photo: elisfkc2 (Flickr), during the Chiefs game on October 6, 2025 · License: CC BY-SA 4.0
With fewer seats, prices moved. Team president Mark Lamping said in a February briefing that the team would price aggressively in line with the resale market, and promised upper-deck season-ticket holders first pick of lower-level seats plus pricing incentives.
New season-ticket depositors can only choose seats after existing members have been placed.
In fact, a U.S. analysis outlet studied more than 530,000 Ticketmaster listings from late July to early August and calculated the cost of one game for a family of four at $1,456.53, up $448.25 (44.5%) from last year, with parking rising from $27.95 to $50.
The team pushed back, saying the comparison is unfair now that roughly 22,000 cheap upper-deck seats are gone, and that the parking figure may reflect private lots. In that ranking the Jaguars rose to 14th most expensive in the NFL, from 27th last year.
Reaction at the opener was similar. In a local TV report, a visiting fan said tickets and parking felt expensive even with 30,000 fewer seats, while home fans said they would rather keep a stand that is hostile to the other team, even if it is less comfortable.
The two London games this year fit the same logic. The team explained that it gets one home game back in 2030 by not playing an international game, which reads as moving one game abroad this year, when capacity is reduced, to limit losses and adding a home game in a year with full capacity.
The stadium’s name, a $1.4 billion renovation and Orlando in 2027
The EverBank name has changed a few times. It began as EverBank Field in 2010, and in 2014 the team signed a 10-year extension ($43 million), which works out to about $4.3 million a year.
TIAA bought the bank in 2017 and the venue became TIAA Bank Field in 2018, then it went back to EverBank after the bank was sold in 2023.
In 2024 the name was extended three years, through the 2027 season (city approval was still pending at the announcement), and the amount was not disclosed. I could not find any information on the name or contract after the new stadium opens in 2028.
The renovation cost is reported at $1.4 billion. The city council’s approved plan has the city paying $775 million and the team $625 million, with a separate $56 million for the riverfront park and the adjacent flex field, and a 30-year lease with a no-relocation clause attached.
The city’s $775 million is $625 million plus $150 million for deferred maintenance on the old facility, which matches a 2024 NFL.com report that put the city’s share at 55%.
Meanwhile the Daily Record reported that a city official told the council in December 2025 that cost overruns were about $100 million, which the team did not confirm, and that Lamping said costs “change by the hour.”
The team’s stance is that it generally covers overruns, and Lamping acknowledged that the total will exceed $1.4 billion. As of February the project was 15% complete, with about 550 workers on site each day.
In 2027 the team plays at Camping World Stadium in Orlando. NFL owners unanimously approved a one-year lease on March 31, season-ticket holders get first access to 2027 tickets, and you can register interest at jaguars.com/orlando2027.
The team believes more than 200,000 Jaguars fans live in Central Florida. Jacksonville and Orlando are about 142 miles (roughly 230 km) apart, a two-hour drive.
A season-ticket deposit for the new stadium in 2028 is reported at $100 (Athletic Business). For context, Forbes estimated the Jaguars’ value in September 2025 at $5.6 billion (up 22% from the year before), with revenue of $522 million and operating income of $106 million (Jacksonville Daily Record).
These are estimates, but a business of this size looks well able to carry the construction even in a year when gate revenue shrinks, which is my own judgment.
What interests me most about this season is whether the team will fill the lost seats with price or spend the moment protecting its fan base. Giving upper-deck season-ticket holders first claim on lower-level seats looks like a choice that leans toward the second.
For international fans who can make it this season, the sound and energy of a 40,000-seat stadium may only last for now. Before you go, check the team’s official pages once more for game times and entry information.
See this club’s food guide and team page too.
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