In 1989, the prospective ownership group Touchdown Jacksonville! was organized. The group initially included future Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Jacksonville developer Tom Petway, and came to be led by shoe magnate Wayne Weaver, founder of Nine West. In 1991, the NFL announced plans to add two expansion teams in 1994, later delayed until 1995, its first expansion since the 1976 addition of the Seattle Seahawks and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Touchdown Jacksonville! announced its bid for a team, and Jacksonville was ultimately chosen as one of five finalists, along with Charlotte, St. Louis, Baltimore, and Memphis.

Jacksonville was considered the least likely expansion candidate for several reasons. The Jacksonville metropolitan area and television market were smaller than those of nearly every team in the league. Although Jacksonville was the 15th largest city in the nation at the time It has since grown to become the 11th-largest, it has always been a medium-sized market because the surrounding suburbs and rural areas are far smaller than the city itself. There were 635,000 people in Jacksonville proper according to the 1990 census, but only 900,000 people in the metropolitan area. Additionally, the Gator Bowl was outdated, and the ownership group struggled to negotiate a lease with the city. The troubled negotiations over the Gator Bowl lease led the ownership group to withdraw from the NFL expansion bidding in July 1993.

Charlotte was awarded the first franchise – the Carolina Panthers – in October 1993. Surprisingly, the naming of the second expansion city was delayed a month. Most pundits speculated that the delay was made to allow St. Louis to shore up its bid. At the time, St. Louis was considered the favorite for the second franchise, with Baltimore’s three bids also considered strong. However, in a surprising move, the NFL owners voted 26–2 in favor of awarding the 30th franchise to Jacksonville.

EverBank Field (originally Jacksonville Municipal Stadium and formerly Alltel Stadium) is an American football stadium in Downtown Jacksonville, Florida, and the home stadium facility of the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL).

The current stadium opened in 1995 on the site of the old Gator Bowl Stadium, which had been erected in 1949. Located on the St. Johns River, it sits on 10 acres (4.0 ha) of land, including portions of the older stadium. At its opening, it had a total capacity of 73,000 and expansions over the past decade have since increased that to 76,867. The stadium hosted Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005 and has also held a number of college football games as well as concerts and other events.

On November 29, 2011, Khan agreed to purchase the Jacksonville Jaguars from Wayne Weaver and his ownership group subject to NFL approval. Weaver announced his sale of the team to Khan later that same day. The terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed, other than a verbal commitment to keep the team in Jacksonville, Florida. The sale was finalized on January 4, 2012. The purchase price for 100% share in the Jaguars was estimated to have been $760 million. The NFL owners unanimously approved the purchase on December 14, 2011. The sale made Khan the first member of an ethnic minority ever to own an NFL team.

In November 2013, Jacksonville’s City Council approved $63 million in improvements to EverBank Field. Renovations included two end zone video scoreboards 362-foot-long that are the largest HD LED of their kind in the world, a platform area in the north end zone with two wading pools, unique food and beverage offerings, interactive activities, and 55,000 square feet of HD video screens, which is a world record for a stadium. Construction of the platform resulted in the removal of approximately 7,000 seats, though temporary seating can be installed for major events that will require a larger stadium capacity. During the construction a live webcam was set up to view the progress of the new video scoreboards. The scoreboards were publicly unveiled on July 26, 2014.