President Trump Cancels the Jacksonville Portion of the RNC

The Jacksonville Jaguars stadium had been in the running to host the event.

President Trump has canceled the Jacksonville portion of the upcoming Republican National Convention. Trump announced the decision on Thursday during a White House press briefing. TIAA Bank Field—home to the Jacksonville Jaguars—was repeatedly in talks to he considered host the outdoor event. 

"The timing for the event is not right," Trump said. 

President Trump says he’s canceling the convention in Jacksonville because “it’s not the right time.”

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) July 23, 2020

The RNC had originally be slated for Charlotte, North Carolina but was moved to Jacksonville after the North Carolina governor informed officials that COVID-19 restrictions would prohibit the normal delegate gathering inside any arena's. Once the convention was moved to Jacksonville, it was tentatively scheduled to be held in the VyStar Veteran's Memorial Arena. As COVID-19 cases continued to surge in Florida, officials began exploring options outside. 

With that in mind, TIAA Bank Field came under serious consideration for the three day event since it can seat 67K+. However, the Jaguars are reducing stadium capacity for fans this season, only allowing 25% of the stands to be filled and requiring six-feet of social distancing between fans. That would make capacity around 16K. While no official rules had been set yet, assumptions were the same would be implemented for the RNC. 

During an interview with Greta Van Susteren on July 8, Trump said he is "flexible" on the RNC location. He added the location and venue size will depend on what the state's case count does in the coming weeks.

As reported by ABC News, Trump announced plans for delegates to still report to Charlotte for the first day of the conference to conduct the nomination.

"I told my team it's time to cancel the Jacksonville, Florida, component of the GOP convention," he said at a White House news conference on the crisis. "We will be starting in North Carolina for the Monday, as has always been planned," Trump said, weeks after cancelling most convention events there.

The remainder of the convention will be transitioned to varying virtual and intimate televised portions. 

Said Trump, "I'll still do a convention speech in a different form, but we won't do a big, crowded convention, per se. It's just not the right time for that."

If there had been a preseason, the Jaguars still have a preseason game scheduled for August 29 at TIAA Bank Field against Washington. If the convention had continued as planned and at the Jags stadium, staff would have had two days between the end of the convention and the preseason game to clean and disinfect the stadium, though it appears the NFL and NFLPA have reached an agreement to have zero preseason games. 

Rookies and quarterbacks have begun to take their initial COVID-19 testing. Veterans are set to report on Tuesday, July 28. 

There had been no word on how hosting the RNC would have affected the Jaguars training camp and preseason practices. TIAA Bank Field though, while synonymous with the Jacksonville Jaguars, is actually owned by the City Council of Jacksonville, meaning hosting the event would not have been a decision that could hav been made by the Jaguars organization.