Jaguars ticket prices going up next season

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Ticket prices for Jaguars games will be going up about 3.6 percent on average next season, the team announced Friday.

Jaguars president Mark Lamping said during the annual State of the Franchise address that Jacksonville's tickets remain among the cheapest in the NFL. Only one team offers cheaper seats.

But with new amenities, like club seat upgrades that the Jaguars will be offering next year, the franchise feels a small hike just makes sense.

Lamping began the presentation with a lot of energy, stating out how much the team does for the community and mentioning how great of a culture Jacksonville is for the Jaguars.  

Aside from being active in the community, the Jaguars have created a lot of local revenue, as seen in the research that he presented Friday afternoon. With that increase, he says, should come an increase in ticket prices.

"I'm a football fan of all kinds," said Jaguars fan Bobby Burton. "It doesn't matter what it costs. I'm still going to the game."

Prices for 5 percent of the seats in the stadium will decrease. Nearly half (46 percent) of the seat prices won't change at all.

With the average ticket price at $57 and a fan experience that rates higher than most stadiums, many fans aren't bothered by the increase.

"I think the tickets should be increased," said Jaguars fan Marleen Doran. "I mean, they're doing great improvements to the stadium, and they're always looking to get more fans to come in, and they have the pools now. I mean, no stadium is like that. I've been to many stadiums. I just came back from Denver, as I said. There is nothing like that there."

"What really says a lot is the man is putting his money into it, too," Burton said. "I know he asked the city to back him, but they should. Because the city is going to benefit from it in the long run. And I really believe this man's here to stay, and I truly believe if they let him keep spending his money than Jacksonville is going to see some great things."

The Jaguars also unveiled new renderings Friday of a planned amphitheater and indoor practice facility, which will be next to the stadium.

Lamping said the renovations will have a significant impact on the local portion of the team’s revenue stream and on the fan experience, and that they back the reason for the ticket hike.

“When you move from an old stadium to a new stadium or a stadium has made a renovations, you experience a 50 percent increase in your average ticket price,” Lamping said. “The average ticket price explains 80 percent of the variability between one team versus another in terms of local revenue. My point is we've turned the corner, and we're up to 26th, but we don't think for a moment that we should just start coasting now. Now is the time to be even more aggressive.”

The current average ticket price is $57.

Lamping said about 5 percent of tickets will have a decrease in pricing, 10 percent will have no change, and 46 percent of seats will have no change, if the season ticket holder makes a renewal commitment by Feb. 29. Another 15 percent of season tickets will face a lower increased price of the ticket holders renew early, and about 24 percent of tickets will increase, with the effective average ticket price increasing 3.6 percent.

"The money's going to have to come from somewhere," said Jaguars fan Phil Ingram. "They get TV revenue, but the ticket prices going up aren't going to deter fans."

"I don't think the general population sees the revenue, necessarily, but they would expect the increase," Ingram said. "It's kind of a standard of living increase, 3 percent, or whatever it is. And they made so many improvements and they've got so many more planned."

New ticket prices will be released next week to season ticket holders.