JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Your wait is over! Today the Jaguars officially opened the Miller Electric Center just before training camp kicks off next week.
The Jaguars top brass and city leaders held a ribbon cutting ceremony Tuesday morning.
Welcome to a new era of Jaguars football.
"It brings pride, it brings joy, it brings fulfilment," said Doug Pederson, Jaguars Head Coach.
The $120 million dollar facility went up in only 18 months. A hard deadline that brought just a little bit of stress. at least, for Team President, Mark Lamping.
"Yeah, probably every day for 18 months," said Lamping.
The center was sized up.
"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," Lamping added.
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," said Lamping, "with this facility, they literally walk from the weight-room right into the indoor practice facility, so it saves time."
With two outdoor fields and one in-doors, the organization said no matter the weather practice will go on.
"We have a very interesting system that actually sucks the water through the field, and it also sends air from below the field through the root zone," Lamping added.
He said the upgrade promotes growth.
"The fact that people can spread out a little bit, we don't have 3-4 people in the same office. and the ability of natural light to enter the building is a big change from what we had in the past. It just makes for a much better environment and hopefully that'll translate to a consistently competitive football team".
And the Jaguars are ready to roll.
"They're blown away. It's layed out very efficiently and players spend most of their day here at the training facility and so we can make sure their time here can be as efficient as it can be," he added.
The team reports to training camp on July 26th to the 31st and then again in August.
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