On the “owners most likely to pack and leave if they don’t get what they want” scale, David Tepper would be at the very top.
That’s an important point for the powers-that-be to keep in mind as Charlotte City Council prepares to take up later this month Tepper’s request for $650 million in free money to upgrade the stadium where the Panthers play.
Scott Fowler of the Charlotte Observer, a noted Tepper agitator, makes the case for giving Tepper what he wants. The reasoning is simple. If Charlotte doesn’t, the Panthers will leave, along with the Charlotte FC MLS team he owns. And then Charlotte would try to get another NFL team to replace the Panthers, at a cost far in excess of the $650 million Tepper wants.
Public sentiment, as reflected by hardly reliable online commentary, is 85 percent (in Fowler’s estimation) against the proposal. Not giving Tepper the money, however, makes it more than 85 percent certain that he’ll go somewhere that will. (The best hope is that his hostile-takeover personality, which includes hostile drink throwing and marginally hostile hat removal, could be an impediment to getting taxpayer money elsewhere.)
Fowler’s request, and it’s a smart one, is that the council seek a longer commitment than 2039 from Tepper, in exchange for the money. That’s only 15 years away, and that’s when the bill will be even bigger to renovate, or possibly to replace, Tepper’s playground.
All of this is happening at a time when the mood seems to be smaller than ever to subsidize billionaire sports owners. For the NFL, the ever-exploding value of franchises will make it even harder to persuade the average person to feel good about the Dennis Moore approach to stadium financing.
Steal from the poor, and give to the rich.
The folks on Charlotte City Council need to think of it that way. And they shouldn’t get too twisted up by the possibility of Tepper leaving.
Really, where would he go? Which community would fork over billions to build him a new stadium?
The Chiefs currently are benefitting from a Missouri vs. Kansas-style border battle. Fortunately for Charlotte, Tepper has already obliterated the bridge to Rock Hill.
