JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – After TIAA on Wednesday announced it is selling its Jacksonville-based bank to a group of investment funds, the next question many were asking was: How does that affect the name of the Jaguars’ stadium?
TIAA took over the naming rights of Jacksonville’s football stadium when it acquired EverBank. The Jacksonville Jaguars’ home became EverBank Field in 2010 when the bank acquired the naming rights, and it agreed to a 10-year extension of the naming rights deal in 2014 that remains in effect.
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According to News4JAX news partner the Jacksonville Daily Record, the naming rights agreement between TIAA Bank and the city shows a new name requires the consent of the city and the NFL team -- and probably a higher fee.
A spokesperson for the city Public Affairs Office told the Record in an email that because a name change has already occurred under the stadium’s current naming agreement, the city and Jaguars must consent to another name change, and all costs and expenses related to changing the stadium’s name would fall to the sponsor.
Section 7 of the city agreement says the naming sponsor only has the right to change the stadium name once during the term of the deal with the consent of the Jaguars or city.
The agreement also says the naming sponsor cannot rebrand the stadium after Feb. 28, 2023, without extending the naming rights deal for at least three years from February 2025 at an annual naming sponsor fee increase of at least 3% annually.
The bank will remain in Jacksonville but will get a new name that will be announced when the deal is done, the company said. That means the TIAA Bank Field name will have to change again when the bank’s new name is revealed, but that won’t happen during the 2022 football season.
The transaction is expected to close in 2023 after final regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other closing conditions, according to the company.
TIAA’s bank has been headquartered in Jacksonville since it acquired EverBank Financial Corp. in 2018. It merged EverBank with TIAA’s smaller bank subsidiary.
The bank has 698 employees in Jacksonville and 1,339 in total.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
From 1997 until 2006, the stadium was named Alltel after the now-defunct communications company purchased the naming rights. The stadium opened in 1995 as Jacksonville Municipal Stadium on the site of the old Gator Bowl Stadium.
For more on the coming stadium name change, go to JaxDailyRecord.com.