Orlando, this is no longer a drill or a dream.
This is no longer speculation, rumor or civic wishful thinking. This is now official, and this is a moment this city has been building toward for decades
The NFL is coming to Orlando.
The Teal is real!
NFL owners voted unanimously Tuesday that the Jacksonville Jaguars will play the entire 2027 season at Camping World Stadium while EverBank Field in Jacksonville undergoes its massive renovation. No, the Jaguars are not moving to Orlando permanently. Let’s get that out of the way right now before the conspiracy theories start flying. Jacksonville is the Jaguars’ home, and when their stadium renovation is complete, they’ll go back.
But for one season — one full NFL season — Orlando will be an NFL city.
And don’t kid yourself, this is a huge deal.
Why do you think Florida Citrus Sports and its CEO Steve Hogan set up a street party at City Hall on Tuesday at happy hour? So everybody could come and celebrate one of the most monumental days in the annals of Orlando sports. The Jaguars cheerleaders were there. The mascot Jaxon de Ville was there. Owner Shad Khan and quarterback Trevor Lawrence were there via video on a big screen talking about the excitement of playing in Orlando.
Longtime Jacksonville Jaguars fans Bill Briggs (center left) and Nick Briggs (center right) cheer during a Jacksonville Jaguars announcement event at Orlando City Hall on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. NFL owners voted unanimously for Orlando’s Camping World Stadium to host the 2027 season of the Jacksonville Jaguars as their home stadium in Jacksonville is renovated. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel).
A Jacksonville cheerleader cheers during a Jacksonville Jaguars announcement event at Orlando City Hall on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. NFL owners voted unanimously for Orlando’s Camping World Stadium to host the 2027 season of the Jacksonville Jaguars as their home stadium in Jacksonville is renovated. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer gives a thumbs up during a Jacksonville Jaguars announcement event at Orlando City Hall on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. NFL owners voted unanimously for Orlando’s Camping World Stadium to host the 2027 season of the Jacksonville Jaguars as their home stadium in Jacksonville is renovated. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)
Jacksonville Jaguars fans cheer during a Jacksonville Jaguars announcement event at Orlando City Hall on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. NFL owners voted unanimously for Orlando’s Camping World Stadium to host the 2027 season of the Jacksonville Jaguars as their home stadium in Jacksonville is renovated. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)
The Jaguars mascot stands behind Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer during a Jacksonville Jaguars announcement event at Orlando City Hall on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. NFL owners voted unanimously for Orlando’s Camping World Stadium to host the 2027 season of the Jacksonville Jaguars as their home stadium in Jacksonville is renovated. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer (holding jersey at left), Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings (holding jersey on far right) and other dignitaries celebrate during a Jacksonville Jaguars announcement event at Orlando City Hall on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. NFL owners voted unanimously for Orlando’s Camping World Stadium to host the 2027 season of the Jacksonville Jaguars as their home stadium in Jacksonville is renovated. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)
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Longtime Jacksonville Jaguars fans Bill Briggs (center left) and Nick Briggs (center right) cheer during a Jacksonville Jaguars announcement event at Orlando City Hall on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. NFL owners voted unanimously for Orlando’s Camping World Stadium to host the 2027 season of the Jacksonville Jaguars as their home stadium in Jacksonville is renovated. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel).
“This is historic,” Hogan said. “It’s never happened. We’ve never seen a regular-season NFL game played in Orlando, and now we’re going to see a lot of them in 2027 — and hopefully some playoff games on top of that. By the time we sell out the ’27 season, the country is going to go, ‘Ohmygawd, we knew Orlando was a beast and a monster in sports and now they continue to show why any major league sport needs to move a team to Orlando.”
Added longtime Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer: “This is electric — one of the biggest days in Orlando’s sports history. We are challenging our community to sell out the stadium in 2027. We’ve been working for at least 10 years to get just one Jags or Bucs regular season game. To end up with a whole season is tremendous.”
I was always taught in journalism school that journalists shouldn’t be cheerleaders, and I still believe that. Except for today. Because today, I am cheering for my city. A few months ago, I wrote that the Jaguars had essentially already decided on Orlando and were just waiting for the NFL owners to make it official. The league vote at the time felt like a formality, and now that formality is complete. The paperwork is stamped. The decision is real.
The Jaguars are coming.
Think about what this means for a moment. We’re not talking about the Pro Bowl. We’re not talking about a preseason game. We’re not talking about a neutral-site one-off like we’ve seen in London or Mexico City.
We are talking about meaningful, standings-counting, playoff-impacting NFL games being played in Orlando for an entire season. We’re talking about an up-and-coming Jaguars team under young, charismatic coach Liam Coen that might be making a Super Bowl run in 2027!
Kudos to Hogan and the other city and county leaders who made this happen. Kudos to Jaguars team president Mark Lamping for pushing this deal across the finish line. Kudos to the owners of the Tampa Bay Bucs for not throwing a hissy fit and objecting to the Jaguars playing an entire season so close to Tampa.
How awesome is this going to be? For one season at least, Jaguars fans won’t be exclaiming “Duuuuval!”; they’ll be bellowing out, “Oooooor-lan-do!” Or, better yet, “Roarrrrrrrrr-lan-do!”
Get your season tickets, baby!
Cue up some Skynyrd, put on your Trevor Lawrence jersey and your fake Shad Kahn mustache and fill up that Yeti with some Busch Light because we’ve got some serious tailgating to do!
Can you believe it?
Can you conceive it?
We’ve got seven or eight Jags’ regular-season home games in Orlando! And guess who’s on the Jags’ home schedule in 2027? That’s right, both the Bucs and the Dolphins!
Sorry, Tampa Bay.
Sorry, Miami.
But Orlando is a Jags town now!
We’ve been waiting for decades for an NFL team to embrace the biggest media market in the country without an NFL team. The Bucs held training camp out at Disney for a few years, but were gone as soon as they built their own training facility in Tampa. The Dolphins, even though they are the state’s oldest, most established NFL team, have essentially punted on trying to build a fan base in Central Florida.
It’s only fitting that it’s the Jaguars who have embraced Orlando. After all, we have always been their biggest TV market by a mile, which is why this a win-win for everybody.
The Jaguars get to cultivate a market they should have been cultivating years ago. Meanwhile, this is not only great for the city’s sports fans; it’s great for the city’s business leaders as well. It means national TV broadcasts with aerial shots of downtown Orlando. It means NFL teams, NFL owners, NFL media and NFL sponsors staying in our city on fall weekends. It means Orlando on the NFL ticker, the NFL highlights, the NFL conversation every single week.
For one season, Orlando moves from being a “great event city” to being a pro football town.
And don’t underestimate how important that distinction is.
Orlando has spent years — decades, really — building itself into one of the best event-hosting cities in America. World Cups, bowl games, NCAA Tournaments, WrestleManias, mega-conventions, Taylor Swift concerts, you name it. If there’s a major event that needs hotels, restaurants, transportation, and infrastructure, Orlando can handle it.
But the one thing Orlando has never had is the most powerful sports league in the world setting up shop here.
With all due respect to the NBA and MLS, nothing says “big league” like the NFL.
And make no mistake about it, the NFL will be watching closely. Very closely.
Leagues don’t do things like this blindly. Owners don’t approve temporary relocations without understanding the bigger picture. This is an opportunity for the Jaguars, yes. It’s an opportunity for Orlando, absolutely. But it’s also an opportunity for the NFL to see what Orlando looks like as an NFL city in real time.
Will the city support it?
Will the fans show up?
Will the corporate sponsors engage?
Will the logistics run smoothly?
Will the stadium feel big-league?
Will the TV ratings pop in this market?
This is, in many ways, an audition.
Las Vegas didn’t get the Raiders overnight. The city hosted big events, big fights, big games and proved it could handle major league sports before the NFL finally put a team there. Markets grow and change. Opportunities like this are how that change happens.
For years, Orlando has been known as a tourism capital, a convention capital, a theme park capital. All true. But cities evolve, and Orlando has been pushing hard to add another label: sports capital
Hosting an NFL team for a season doesn’t just help that argument; it supercharges it. It’s going to be unlike anything this city has ever seen on a weekly basis.
And here’s another thing people shouldn’t overlook: this will likely turn a lot of Orlando residents into Jaguars fans. Kids who go to games. Families who adopt the team. Businesses that partner with the team. That kind of connection doesn’t just disappear when the Jaguars go back to Jacksonville.
That’s how fan bases grow. That’s how regional teams expand their footprint.
So no, the Jags are not becoming the Orlando Jaguars. But for one year, they will be Orlando’s NFL team. And how this city responds — the energy, the support, the turnout — will say a lot about Orlando’s sports passion.
For years, Orlando has said it wants to be seen as a big-league city.
Well, the NFL is as big league as it gets.
Let’s hear it, Orlando!
Say it loud and say it proud!
The Jaguars are coming!
The Jaguars are coming!
The NFL has handed Orlando one season.
What we do with that one season could shape our entire sports future
Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on social media @BianchiWrites and listen to my new radio show “Game On” every weekday from 3 to 6 p.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and 969TheGame.com/listen