Local 435, North Florida Building Trades win big on Jacksonville Jaguars stadium

March 17, 2025

Home>News>Front Page>Local 435, North Florida Building Trades win big on Jacksonville Jaguars stadium

Thanks to the advocacy of SMART Local 435 and the North Florida Building and Construction Trades Council, locally hired apprentices will help build the new Jacksonville Jaguars stadium — a more than $1-billion project.

“Jacksonville has not seen a project this size in decades,” Local 435 wrote on Facebook in June 2024. “There will be over 10,000 construction workers on this stadium renovation. We thank Mayor Donna Deegan, the Jacksonville City Council and the Jacksonville Jaguars for working with us on passing amendments to ensure local contractors and registered apprentices will help build the Stadium of the Future.”

Lance Fout, Local 435 and building trades workers lobbied for pro-worker provisions on the new Jaguars stadium.

The Jaguars and the city of Jacksonville will split the cost of the stadium project, which includes a $300 million community benefits agreement along with the stadium renovation costs. Crucially, that funding includes workforce development money that will put SMART apprentices and local union members on the job.

Originally, the stadium legislation didn’t include language guaranteeing the hiring of local workers or apprentices. Local 435 Business Manager Lance Fout highlighted that fact in a June 2024 interview with Action News Jacksonville.

“You know, when we drive by some of these big major projects we see a lot of out-of-town license plates. We want to see Florida license plates. We want to see Duval County license plates,” he said.

Together with fellow union building trades workers, Fout and Local 435 held several rallies, urging the city council to include apprenticeship and local hire requirements in the stadium deal, and turned out more than 100 union members to attend a town hall meeting with Mayor Deegan and Jaguars President Mark Lamping. Their actions paid off: Local hire and apprenticeship guarantees are in the final deal.  

It’s another demonstration of the importance of SMART solidarity and collective action at the local level.

“This is a first in Jacksonville, and hopefully a trend we can continue,” Fout concluded.