In 1997, the stadium changed its name to Alltel Stadium after the naming rights were acquired by Alltel, a telecommunications company best known as a mobile operator. The name Alltel Stadium was no longer used by the city after January 2007, when the contract expired; It was at this time that most of Alltel`s assets were purchased by Verizon. Tags: promised cougar, FAFSA, financial aid, Gator Consigne, stock exchanges, UHD From 1997 to 2006, the Alltel Stadium was called, after the communication company Alltel acquired naming rights. The facility was renamed EverBank Field in 2010 following the approval of a five-year naming rights contract with financial services company EverBank. The contract was renewed for a further 10 years in 2014. [5] The Jaguars announced in February 2018 that the stadium would be renamed TIAA Bank Field for the 2018 NFL season, following the takeover of EverBank by the New York TIAA. [6] As soon as the celebration of the new Jacksonville NFL team ended, a renovation contractor`s plan to award 8% of the stadium work to minority companies came under fire. The NAACP and another group said that African-American companies should have received twice as much work. [20] In January 1993, representatives of the University of Florida and the University of Georgia began negotiating with Jacksonville representatives to extend the contract to host the Florida-Georgia game, the annual rivalry match between the college football teams of the two universities. The colleges` five-year contract with the Gator Bowl ended after the 1994 game, and the Citrus Bowl had offered Florida and Georgia a larger sum of money than the Gator Bowl for the right to host the game. [7] In order to counter the citrus Bowl`s largest offer of money, Jacksonville Mayor Ed Austin proposed a $25.5 million rehabilitation plan for Jacksonville`s aging Gator Bowl Stadium, built in 1949. Both teams had expressed concern about the state of the aging stadium, and the renovations were seen as a key to getting teams back to Jacksonville, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in consumer spending. [8] Despite the promise of renovations, Georgia`s athletic director, Vince Dooley, was no longer enthusiastic,[9] so Austin expanded the volume of renovations by increasing the price to US$49 million and travelling to Athens to speak to Dooley in person.

[10] Austin`s campaign was partially successful. On March 23, 1993, the two universities announced that they had signed a five-year contract with the Gator Bowl, which lasted from 1997 to 2002. The contract depended on the success of the $49 million renovation loan through Jacksonville City Council and the city through the 1996 Game. [11] On Tuesday, May 11, Jacksonville City Council approved a $219.5 million loan, including US$49 million for the renovation of the Gator Bowl. [12] [13] Shortly after the bond issue was approved, investors who wanted to attract a new National Football League team to Jacksonville asked for an additional $30 million for $49 million in renovations to make the stadium more attractive to a professional team. [14] That number increased over the summer, and the city finally agreed with the leading investor group that hoped to attract an NFL team to Jacksonville. On July 1, the city and investors agreed to a lease agreement that depended on the city`s $112.3 million investment to upgrade the Gator Bowl. [15] The lease later failed, when Jacksonville City Council voted to refer the lease to a committee for further consideration instead of approving it.

[16] One month after the planned agreement was abandoned, city officials and investors retested and negotiated an agreement to spend $121 million on the renovation of the Gator Bowl. [17] Due to extensive renovations, it was announced that the Florida-Georgia game was to be moved from the Gator Bowl in 1994, as was the 1995 game, in order to create time for the recovery plan to