An illustration shows the proposed Jacksonville Armada soccer stadium in Downtown Jacksonville. | Jacksonville Daily Record
Published on June 29, 2026 at 12:57 pm
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Q: The Jacksonville Armada Football Club promised fans a stadium by 2025. As of May 2026, the dedicated lot remained empty.
An anonymous Jacksonville Today reader wants to know:
“Whatever happened to the stadium that the Jacksonville Armada were supposed to build on lot XX?”
A: The team says it still plans a stadium, but the path has been rocky.
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The Armada first hit the field in 2015. They played professionally in the North American Soccer League for just two years before losing their Division II status. Since then, the Armada have played in the amateur National Premier Soccer League.
In 2019, former club owner Robert Palmer began talks with the city of Jacksonville to purchase Downtown land to build a soccer-specific stadium for the Armada. Palmer’s LLC Jax Downtown Pro Real Estate acquired 6.56 acres — a cluster of vacant lots in the Sports and Entertainment District — for one dollar on the condition that the Armada would build a stadium there. RP Sports Investments Inc, a company owned by Palmer, was put in charge of the construction.
In November 2023, the Armada announced plans to break ground in January 2024 on a 14,000-square-foot stadium with a minimum of 2,500 seats. Construction was scheduled to be completed in time for the team to join MLS Pro in 2025. This would mark the team’s return to professional soccer for the first time since 2017.
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The stadium completion date has since been postponed twice: first to March 2026, then to September 2026.
In an email, Phillip Perry, communications officer for the city of Jacksonville, tells Jacksonville Today that the city granted both delays in relation to Florida Department of Transportation roadwork on Albert Street.
“FDOT was completing some road improvements next to the property, which would have impacted any construction,” he says.
In 2025, with nothing built and the project already delayed twice, the Armada changed hands from Palmer to Chris Campione. Campione says he still intends to build a stadium. He hasn’t mentioned a completion date, but in a statement he says the team would join MLS Pro in 2027. He also promises the stadium will have 8,000 seats upon opening, a figure never mentioned before.
According to the city, RP Sports’ modified start date was Jan. 31, 2025, with a construction deadline of Sept. 10, 2026. As of May, the lot remains virtually vacant. A few traffic cones line a gravel path.
Without a stadium, the Armada regularly play on the Edward Waters University campus. In 2025, EWU canceled the Armada’s use of their fields the night before a game, citing an unnamed “administrative facilities management challenge.” The next weekend, EWU and the Armada had seemingly resolved the conflict, and the team returned to the university’s field.
But this incident left fans confused and reignited frustration over the lack of results regarding the stadium. Section 904 is a fan club for the team. Jason Kveen, a board member, says: “We as fans have endured years of waiting. We have fought for the very existence of this club day in and day out, and we will never quit. But we are becoming frustrated with the lack of transparency and communication about the future, the stadium, and the direction of our club. Our dedication deserves more respect.”
If RP Sports fails to complete the stadium by Sept. 10, Ed Randolph, executive director for Jacksonville’s Office of Economic Development, says the Armada will “either have to surrender the property or pay us fair market value plus 33%” as outlined in the initial deal.
