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The deal ties the Panthers to the Carolinas for at least 15 years as well
In a Monday night vote this week, Charlotte city council approved, in a 7-3 vote, a request by the Carolina Panthers for $650 million in public funds to be used in a proposed $800 million renovation for the aging Bank of America Stadium. The 20-year agreement ties the Panthers to Charlotte for the next generation of Panthers fans.
More (preliminary) information on the details of the proposed renovations can be found here.
Interestingly, both the Panthers and the Jacksonville Jaguars have recently received public help with funding their new stadium initiatives while the reigning Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs did not.
The Jaguars and Panthers each now have gotten financial help for stadium renovations from their cities; the two-time defending world-champion Chiefs did not. https://t.co/YmgzAut1EY
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) June 25, 2024
Some have pointed out that this could be because the Chiefs’ request for public funding was voted on by the public, while the requests of the cities of Charlotte and Jacksonville were not.
This overview from Econofact on the economics of stadiums as public investments has a generally negative opinion on the results of this usage of public funds. The quoted paragraph below is the most relevant, but I encourage those interested to read the whole piece for more context.
Despite the outsized role they play in U.S. cultural life and in the media, professional sports teams are small- to modest-sized enterprises. A typical NFL team might employ 125 to 175 full-time people in its front office and an additional 2,000 game-day employees for 4 hours, 10 days a year. If we consider the total annual revenues generated by a sports team relative to its host city’s GDP, the team contributes between one-third and one-twentieth of one percent to the local area economy. Moreover, spending on sport games does not imply new net spending within the metropolitan area. Most residents have a budget. When they spend, say, $200 dollars to take their family to a game, it is $200 that they do not have to spend at a restaurant, a theater, a bowling alley or other entertainment venues. And, the lion’s share of the income goes to the players, the coaches, the top executives and the team owners who are less likely to spend the bulk of their earnings in the stadium’s metropolitan area.
-Andrew Zimbalist, Econofact 2023
Every situation, every team, and every city are different. Only time will tell if Charlotte can buck the historical trend of not getting much bang for the buck on stadium investments. Hopefully, somebody at the city will monitor this over the next 20 years and their observations can be used to inform their next stadium decision. For now, the Panthers are to remain in Charlotte for the next generation of fans to grow up with.
How about it, Panthers fans, are you excited to keep the team at home? Are you worried about the costs? Are you tired of the offseason and just ready for real football news to hit?