Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper has no plans to move the team out of Charlotte and is seriously considering a renovation to Bank of America Stadium that would prolong its life for at least another decade rather than pushing for another new stadium immediately.
A source with direct knowledge of Tepper’s thinking said the owner would want the renovations — or the new stadium — to be financed with a public-private partnership. While concerned about some aspects of uptown development — particularly the shrinking number of parking spaces due to the apartment building surge — Tepper believes that the stadium’s current uptown location is one of the best in the country and has no current plans to move the team or the stadium out of Charlotte, the source said.
The renovation would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, based on preliminary estimates, and concentrate on “back-of-house” infrastructure upgrades needed to keep the stadium usable for at least the next 10 years and perhaps as many as 20. Still, it would be far cheaper than building a new football stadium — those often have a price tag of more than a billion.
Nick Kelly, the CEO of Tepper Sports and Entertainment, said in an interview with The Charlotte Observer this week that “there is a misconception” that the Panthers will try hard to build a new stadium rather than renovating their current one.
“That’s not necessarily the case,” Kelly said.
Tepper and the Panthers have commissioned a feasibility study to see how long the current stadium, which opened in 1996, can function effectively. The stadium is the home for both the Panthers and for Charlotte’s new Major League Soccer team, Charlotte FC. It will also host about a dozen high-profile concerts and college football games in 2022.
Said Kelly: “We’re not in a rush to figure out whether it’s a new stadium or a renovated stadium, as long as the (study) comes back and says, ‘You guys are good for another 5-10 years (in the current stadium).’ Our only rush is getting it right. Because whatever we do, this is hopefully a generational investment — either into Bank of America Stadium or into a new one. And we just don’t know which it is.”
Kelly also said that even if the Panthers did decide they wanted to campaign for a new stadium, beginning that process “realistically couldn’t happen this year.”
“We don’t have the information we need to even look at the options,” Kelly said, referring to the feasibility study that is supposed to be completed soon. “We need to know what the option is for the existing stadium first before we start looking at alternatives.”
Panthers, MLS will share stadium
If the Panthers do eventually build a new stadium, the plan is to still have both the Panthers and the MLS team play their games there, rather than to also build a separate soccer-specific stadium as many MLS cities have done.
However, Kelly said, both the current stadium and any new stadium will be a “Panthers-first” venue, with concerts and other events worked around the NFL team’s schedule. As an example, the MLS team will soon stop practicing at Bank of America Stadium and begin using another facility off-site instead.
“Protecting the integrity of the football season will be our No. 1 priority,” Kelly said. “We’re not here to make a couple of extra dollars on an extra event. Our goal is to win Super Bowls and championships.”
Questions about Tepper’s commitment to the Carolinas have arisen recently because Tepper’s real-estate company has terminated its agreement with the city of Rock Hill, where an $800-million skeleton that was supposed to be the Panthers’ new training facility now lies half-built and dormant. That deal is “dead,” a source told the Observer recently. And while the two sides will talk again, it will likely be so they can legally disentangle themselves.
But the Panthers view the soured Rock Hill situation as completely separate from their business relationship with the city of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County and the state of North Carolina — all of which would likely be expected to delegate public money to a renovation or a new stadium.
Said Kelly: “Whatever is happening in Rock Hill isn’t directly being impacted by what we’re doing in Charlotte. Those are two very separate conversations. We want to make sure it’s clear that this isn’t a part of an elaborate plan to play one vs. the other. That’s just not the case.”
As for what the Panthers may do for a training facility assuming the Rock Hill deal isn’t salvaged, staying pat and practicing at the fields near Bank of America Stadium will be the plan for 2022. Training camp will be held at Wofford College, likely for the next several years.
Reason for Tepper’s support of Rhule
Tepper bought the Panthers from original owner Jerry Richardson in 2018, who sold it under duress after his workplace misconduct scandal. A Pittsburgh native and former minority owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tepper then became the owner of two pro sports teams in Charlotte when in 2019 he paid $300 million for a new MLS team, Charlotte FC, that started play this year. The four Panther teams under his stewardship have gone a combined 22-43.
Tepper held his first press conference in 16 months Wednesday and said during that Zoom call that coach Matt Rhule had his “full support,” although Rhule has gone only 10-23 in his first two NFL seasons.
A source close to Tepper later said the owner was convinced that Rhule never “lost” the players last season and that they continued to play hard for him, even during the season-ending seven-game losing streak. That effort by the players was the deciding factor to continue with Rhule for a third season, the source said. As for how many games Rhule must win to keep his job for 2023, the source said there was no “magic number” but that improvement was expected.
