For most of the last three decades, being a Jacksonville resident during football season meant one calendar: eight or nine Sundays at EverBank Stadium, plus whatever preseason you cared to attend. In 2026, that calendar has been cut in half and rerouted through London, and the most useful Jaguars experience of the year is happening for free, in August, at a practice field next door to the stadium. If you live here, that is the story worth planning around.
The math that reshapes the fall
The Stadium of the Future renovation is a three-year build, and 2026 is the middle year — the one where the team stays home but the building shrinks around it. Capacity for the 2026 NFL season will be 42,507, including 1,260 standing-room-only tickets, and of the 27,637 seats that will be offline in 2026, 22,005 are located in the upper bowl 400 Level. Additional impacted seats are in the 200 Level corners and select rows in the North End Zone, lower level South End Zone, and lower-level Club, and the North End Zone spa deck and Sky Patio will also be offline in 2026.
The full-year picture, side by side:
| Metric | Normal Year | 2026 Season |
|---|---|---|
| Regular-season home games at EverBank | 8 or 9 | 6 |
| Preseason home games at EverBank | 2 | 2 |
| "Home" games played in London | 1 (some years) | 2 |
| Stadium capacity | ~67,800 | 42,507 |
| Upper deck (400 Level) | Open | Fully closed |
From Week 4 through Week 16, the Jaguars will play just three games at EverBank Stadium, and during that stretch they are the home team in five games, but two of those matchups come in London. If you have watched football in this town for years, that arithmetic is the part to sit with. The season is not smaller. It is just packed at the ends.
Miller Electric Center is where the season actually lives in August
Because EverBank has been carved into an active construction site, the practice facility next door has quietly become the most accessible Jaguars venue of the year. Practice will take place at the Miller Electric Center directly adjacent to EverBank Stadium at 1 Performance Place, Jacksonville. Tickets and parking are free, but space is limited and advance registration is required.
The ten open dates, with the ones worth circling:
- Wednesday, July 29 — First open practice of camp.
- Thursday, July 30
- Friday, July 31 — Season Ticket Member exclusive.
- Sunday, August 2 — NFL Back Together Sunday presented by Ticketmaster.
- Monday, August 3
- Friday, August 7 — Teal & White Game, with parking open at 6:45 a.m., gates at 7:30 a.m., warmups at 8:30 and a mock game at 10:30 a.m.
- Sunday, August 9
- Wednesday, August 19 — Joint Practice with Carolina Panthers, parking at 8 a.m., gates at 8:45, practice at 9:30.
- Sunday, August 23
- Tuesday, August 25 — Joint Practice with Tampa Bay Buccaneers, parking at 8 a.m., gates at 8:45, practice at 9:30.
The two joint-practice days are the ones a local should not miss. This will be the second training camp under head coach Liam Coen, and the first time in the Coen era that the Jaguars will host joint practices; the last joint practice in Jacksonville came in 2024 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Coen has been open about how he intends to use those sessions. He and the Jaguars will largely use the practices as a replacement for preseason reps for most of their key players, which means this will likely be as much as you see Trevor Lawrence and company against an opponent before Week 1 against the Cleveland Browns. Translation for the person deciding whether it is worth an early alarm: August 19 and August 25 are closer to real football than the August 21 or August 28 preseason games at EverBank, and they cost nothing.
Logistics are simple if you plan for them. For most practices, parking lots open at 7 a.m., gates open at 7:45 a.m. and practice is expected to start at 8:30 a.m., with free parking available in Lot Z. Shuttle pick-up is available at the entrance of Lot Z on Duval Street, and post-practice pick-ups are located near the West Plaza entrance on Franklin Street.
Why 35 days without a home game changes your fall calendar
This is the part most casual fans miss until it is already happening. The ongoing renovations to EverBank Stadium are the reason the Jaguars will go 35 days between games played in Jacksonville, and after playing the Patriots at EverBank on Sept. 27, they won't have another game in Duval until Nov. 1 against the Colts. A road game at Cincinnati is followed by back-to-back home games in London, one at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and one at Wembley Stadium, then the bye, which team president Mark Lamping said would allow uninterrupted work on the stadium.
If you host football watch parties, the practical read is that October in Jacksonville is a road-game month wearing a home-game costume. The London kickoffs land at 9:30 a.m. ET on October 11 against the Eagles at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and 9:30 a.m. ET on October 18 against the Texans at Wembley, so brunch replaces tailgate for two Sundays running.
November is the opposite. The Jaguars play five of their eight home games in the first eight weeks of the season and are on the road for seven of their final 10 games, and the November stretch begins with the Colts at home on Nov. 1 and closes with a rematch against the Titans in Jacksonville. If you were ever going to bring an out-of-town guest to a Jaguars game, do it early in the year or during that Colts and Titans window. The math will not be kinder later.
The construction is a feature, not a workaround
If you are attending games this fall, the view from your seat has changed. Six large crawler cranes are currently operating around the stadium, and all structural steel is scheduled to be finished by November 2026, including 100 steel trusses being installed for the roof system. Construction on Grand Staircase Two, located in the Northwest quadrant, is in progress and will be completed early in the upcoming football season, and in-bowl demolition has started, clearing the way for the corner scenic lookout decks, upper-bowl renovations and future field level seating.
The design intent behind all of that steel is the piece worth knowing:
To address the city's warm climate, the building's form rises at both the north and south ends to maximize airflow, a large shade canopy and landscaped green space reduce heat retention by more than 70%, and fans will enter the stadium through a subtropical Floridian park leading to a 360-degree concourse elevated 30 feet above the ground, offering expansive city and river views.
The canopy is not decoration. It is the answer to the September and October heat that has shaped tailgate culture here since the stadium opened. What you are watching being built over the next two seasons is a different physical experience of a home game, not just a bigger version of the current one. HOK is the design lead, and the contractor is a joint venture of Hunt Construction and Barton Malow.
A resident's August playbook
If you have to pick your spots, here is the resident-friendly cut of the month:
- Reserve one weekday morning of open practice before August 7. Attendance thins on weekdays, and the earliest sessions give you the closest look at the roster before installations get complex.
- Put August 7 on the calendar. The Teal & White Game is the closest thing to a home game the stadium will not host that week, and the earlier start makes it a manageable morning.
- Choose one joint practice, not both if time is tight. August 19 with Carolina is a Wednesday. August 25 with Tampa Bay is a Tuesday. Both start at 9:30 a.m. after 8:45 gates, and either one is the best free football event on the Northeast Florida calendar this year.
- Skip the Lot Z hunt. Use the shuttle from Duval Street and let the post-practice pick-up on Franklin Street do the work on the way back.
- Save preseason for the game you actually want to see. With joint practices doing the heavy lifting for starters, the Aug. 21 Panthers game and Aug. 28 Buccaneers game at EverBank are lighter on marquee snaps than usual.
The oddness of 2026 is not something to endure. It is a one-time window where the barrier to seeing the team is lower than it has been in years, and where the building itself is worth a look for reasons that have nothing to do with the scoreboard. If you have been meaning to introduce a kid, a neighbor, or a recent transplant to Jaguars football, this is the season with the shortest lines and the fewest excuses.
If a move within Jacksonville is on your horizon this fall and you want a REALTOR® who reads the city calendar as closely as the market, Donna O'Steen is ready when you are. Schedule Your Consultation.
