(06-17-2023, 01:25 PM)TheDuke007 Wrote: I only see two viable options.  We either play at TIAA Bank during the renovations or we go to Gainesville.  I can't see us effectively building a stadium in Jacksonville so we can play there for two years.  There are high expectations in the NFL.  You are going to need appropriate locker rooms, facilities, etc.  The baseball park and Daytona speedway were not built for football.  Unless UNF plans to start a football team, it doesn't make sense to do a huge expansion there for two years.  I also think it's lame to be playing in a stadium of 40,000 which seems to be the plan with these facilities.  As for other options, I don't see playing the entire season in London as one of them.  Even Orlando is too far.  If we don't play at TIAA Bank Field, Gainesville is the best option.  It's a stadium that was actually built for football and is larger than our current one, holding over 88,000 fans.  If we're hosting a playoff game, I would rather it in front of 88,000 fans than 40,000.  It's a 1.5 hour drive from the current stadium, but I suspect many of our fans live south of the stadium instead of north.  As such, the drive may be even less for many.  While a one and a half hour drive isn't ideal, I see Ben Hill Griffin Stadium as clearly the best of the other options.

Distilled down to its purest form, this is the most amenable arrangement. While the hometown fan in me would like to see the games and the facility upgrade money stay in Jacksonville, the fact of the matter is there is no local site which can fill the billet. 

Daytona is attractive mostly because of the straight travel shot. However, Gainesville offers much better facilities and the travel time shouldn't be that much longer. How U.S. 301 handles the heavy gameday traffic is a question. The Starke bypass alleviates the biggest choke point between Duval and the SR 24 split.

Edit: Additionally, this would go hand in glove with the gesture of goodwill Khan is presenting to UF with his real estate donation for their downtown campus.

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