Coming off last season’s AFC South Division championship, the Jacksonville Jaguars head into training camp as one of the most exciting teams in the National Football League. The ribbon-cutting for Miller Electric Center, their new practice facility and performance center, generated a similar buzz.
Media and the team’s partners shared photos, videos and varied accounts of the event, all exuding confidence and high expectations for the team and the city it represents.
“The best is still to come,” Jaguars Owner Shad Khan said. “Jacksonville is rising. Our football team has great promise, and downtown Jacksonville is beginning to fulfill its potential. The Miller Electric Center is emblematic of all this and more. This makes it absolutely a great day for Jacksonville.”
Khan was joined on the dais by Jaguars General Manager Trent Baalke, Head Coach Doug Pederson, Miller Electric Company CEO Henry Brown, Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan, City Council President Ron Salem and Haskell Chairman, CEO and President Jim O’Leary. Haskell partnered with the Jaguars as the construction manager at-risk during the project’s 18-month lifespan and finished on schedule and in time for the team’s 2023 training camp.
The new facility includes three practice fields, medical facilities, training spaces, and team offices, and it will host the team's training camp when it starts next week. Rookies report Friday, July 21, and veterans on Tuesday, July 25.
“What we started last year as a football team is only going to continue and get better,” Pederson said. “I can't wait to see our players this Friday and next Tuesday when they report to walk into this building. Some have already seen it. And just to see the smile on their faces to have a beautiful practice field out here to host training camp and many other events. I'm just so excited for that as the football coach here.”
“For the last almost 30 years, the team has had its Monday-through-Saturday operations inside the stadium, and they occupied about 50,000 square feet. The average NFL training facility is 125,000 square feet,” Jaguars President Mark Lamping told First Coast News.
The Miller Electric Center is 124,676 square feet. Unlike before, everything is in one place.
"Our players had to walk about a 5- or 6-minute walk from the locker room to the indoor practice facility," Lamping told the station. "With this facility, they literally walk from the weight room right into the indoor practice facility, so it saves time."
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