David Tepper wants $650 million to renovate Panthers stadium? Here’s how to handle this

David Tepper is asking for $650 million.

Hat in hand – maybe even a hat he snatched from someone else – the controversial Charlotte billionaire wants big money to upgrade Bank of America Stadium for the Carolina Panthers, the Charlotte FC and to occasionally attend big name concerts.

Those who read my column know that I am not a big fan of Tepper. We have had well-documented disagreements.

But in this case, the wisest course of action for Charlotte is to look beyond Tepper and take a broader view.

Do you know what would happen if this proposal failed and everything went wrong? The teams will eventually leave. And you know what everyone will try to do then?

Get another NFL team. And it would cost billions, if it ever happened.

The Charlotte City Council is expected to vote yes to this proposal on June 24, with this caveat. I would again try to negotiate at least 3-5 more guaranteed years in Charlotte with the Panthers and Charlotte FC, even if it costs a few million more.

These two teams, under the current proposal, could opt out of this agreement after 2039 and move elsewhere. Fifteen years is too little to constitute the invisible link that binds the teams and the city. Even if the agreement is often presented as a non-relocation lasting 20 years until 2044, in reality it could be bought out after 15 years for an amount that I have heard amounts to several hundred of millions of dollars. That’s not insignificant, but easily affordable for Tepper, who is worth around $20 billion.

Other public-private partnerships across the country have resulted in 30-year no-relocation deals — often for more public money, sure, but also for a better guarantee that the teams in question aren’t going anywhere .

Now, I know a lot of people think Tepper should pay for absolutely everything (and he will contribute hundreds of millions, according to the proposal). The hundreds of online comments from taxpayers that the city of Charlotte has collected are about 85 percent against the proposal, by my unofficial calculations, with much of the negative reaction summed up in one respondent’s phrase: “Let it billionaire improve his toys with his own money. .”

But despite the too-short tie, Tepper Sports & Entertainment’s stadium proposal actually has a lot of upside. No roof at the stadium, for example. Some people like the idea. I have never. To me, a roof is an unnecessary waste that costs $400 million and would be difficult to renovate.

OK, so maybe this will win you a Super Bowl? A Final Four? Maybe? This is not a good compromise.

And I’m glad no one is proposing an entirely new stadium either. The Atlanta Falcons opened a stadium around the same time as Bank of America Stadium (which opened in 1996) and have already had it torn down and opened another one.

A new stadium in Charlotte would cost about $3 billion — maybe more — which makes $650 million seem relatively cheap. Perhaps there will be a new stadium in 20 years when this stadium approaches its 50th anniversary, but there is certainly no need for that now.

It doesn’t matter who owns the stadium and the team. It might belong to the late, great Mr. Rogers, and that “ask” was still to come. That’s what sports owners do when they have good leverage, like the Panthers do. Did you know that they could technically leave town at any time if they wanted? The last deal expired in 2023. There is no indication that would happen, and TSE has already invested money in some stadium renovations and new training grounds. However, it is a fact.

What makes this request more problematic is that Tepper threw a drink at some fans at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, and he angered a lot of people in Rock Hill when he backed out of a deal with a training center gone wrong, and a number of high-profile figures. Executives left TSE under mysterious circumstances, and he’s had seven NFL head coaches (including interims) in just six NFL seasons, and, worst of all, the Panthers haven’t had a winning season or participated in the playoffs since Tepper purchased them in 2018.

I called it all InTeptitude, and I continue to campaign at Webster’s to make it a real word.

A lot of people have spent a lot of money watching bad football over the last six years, and all of that makes fans a lot less likely to give the Panthers what they want. That would have been a nice ask to make the month after a playoff series, but who knows how long it would have taken.

It was wise for Tepper to stand back and let the management team directly under him be the face of this proposal. Tepper has received plenty of advice — including from this corner — to stay out of the fray more often because he’s hurt himself and his reputation in Charlotte multiple times when he enters. Let the coaches coach and the general managers draft. Let the team management take care of the stadium. He’s doing all of this now, for the moment, and the proposal probably has a better chance of passing because of it.

As long as Tepper isn’t filmed ripping the letters off the Dilworth Neighborhood Grille marquee next week, I think the proposal will pass. Not unanimously. But it will pass.

And it should pass. The money will come from the city’s hospitality and tourism taxes, which are closely tailored to projects like this. So saying that the $650 million should be spent on raising teacher salaries, for example, seems like a completely worthy cause, and it is. But in this case, these raises must come from another pot.

And if it’s any reassurance, no one is writing checks to David Tepper. The money will go to builders who will be hired to replace all the stadium seats, improve security, buy new video cards, and improve that noisy, distorted audio system that should have sunk into oblivion long ago.

I know it doesn’t feel good to give Tepper anything, especially when he never gave the city a winning team. Well, he gave us a Charlotte FC team that made the playoffs and then immediately fired the head coach. (He did, however, give us the gift of music, don’t forget that.)

But even if you don’t like it, Charlotte, it must be done.

Hold your nose if necessary. And do it.

This story was originally published June 14, 2024, 5:30 a.m.