La Canfora: Signs point to Tepper being named new owner early next week, $2.1-2.2 billion sale

[Sam Mills Fan]

4 minutes ago, h0llywood said:

This doesn't make sense. La Confora states that Tepper isn't likely to bid above the 2.1-2.2 billion range.

If previous bids already reached 2.5 billion+, there is no possible way for him to win. Something isn't adding up.

Navarro never had that kind of money on his own, he was going to need help. If the help fell through, his bid had to lower.

[Carl Spackler]

3 minutes ago, Nails said:

Second biggest market and San Diego was right down the road, playing in a stadium built in the 60s.  

The Panthers are NOT moving from 15+ million people in two football crazed states and a two hour or less flight from 60% of the US population to go anywhere else.

They are if/when Tepper demands a domed stadium. Our Republican state government will balk at that request for money, and they'll be someone else's Panthers soon after. Tepper isn't buying this team to keep them in Charlotte and make them successful. He's buying them as an asset he can leverage to make more money and then sell once the time is right. Markets be damned. 

Seattle is the 14th biggest media market. Oklahoma City is the 41st media market.  Didn't stop Clay Bennett from buying the Sonics and moving them to OKC once he didn't get his shiny new stadium (which he really didn't want, since he just wanted them out of Seattle).

Playing the media market card is nice and I wish it had more validity, but in this good 'ole boys club that is the NFL, it doesn't mean all that much anymore. The type of people who fixate on the next new, shiny, money-making object are the same kind of people who play with fake boobs and have brass balls in their offices. 

[Mr. Scot]

Said it before: If it's Tepper, don't be surprised if Steelers VP of Football and Business Administration Omar Khan is your next GM.

Khan is more of a cap negotiator than a personnel guy, so the hope would be that Khan would hire solid personnel people.

FYI: The Steelers are nearly fanatical about building through the draft, so I'd expect a similar approach here under Tepper/Khan.

[Pejorative Miscreant]

4 minutes ago, h0llywood said:

This doesn't make sense. La Confora states that Tepper isn't likely to bid above the 2.1-2.2 billion range.

If previous bids already reached 2.5 billion+, there is no possible way for him to win. Something isn't adding up.

My first belief is this but then I started thinking of how and what form the 2.5 billion was arrived at.  Just playing devils advocate but I wonder what the terms are of the 2.5 billion dollar bid vs. the straight up 2.2 or so billion from Tepper.  If his is meat and potatoes and the other has a few hundred million from funding coming from here or there, they could look at his deal being much more "secure" than the alternative proposal. 

Not sure what the specifics are but I suspect the funding is not equivalent to the ebay auction and there is a bit more complexity.

[Davidson Deac II]

7 minutes ago, Nails said:

Second biggest market and San Diego was right down the road, playing in a stadium built in the 60s.  

The Panthers are NOT moving from 15+ million people in two football crazed states and a two hour or less flight from 60% of the US population to go anywhere else.

You are talking about logical and rational moves.  And you are probably correct.  But I don't think its outside the realm of possibility anymore.  The NFL teams have made to many stupid moves in the past to completely ignore the possibility.  St Louis Metro area has a larger population, and now they have no team.  If local leaders are unwilling to offer support for a new stadium in 4-5 years, and Saint Louis says we will, then it might just happen.  

[Mr. Scot]

8 minutes ago, h0llywood said:

This doesn't make sense. La Confora states that Tepper isn't likely to bid above the 2.1-2.2 billion range.

If previous bids already reached 2.5 billion+, there is no possible way for him to win. Something isn't adding up.

If you're selling something and  one guys says, "I'll pay you a hundred bucks but I have to go borrow fifty" and another says "I'll pay you seventy-five and I've got it in my pocket right now", who do you sell to?

And let's be real: Tepper having the league's favor was a tough thing to overcome.

[Carl Spackler]

I love sports business but this whole process has really only served to justify my ever-growing hatred of everything affiliated with the NFL

[Sam Mills Fan]

3 minutes ago, Carl Spackler said:

They are if/when Tepper demands a domed stadium. Our Republican state government will balk at that request for money, and they'll be someone else's Panthers soon after. Tepper isn't buying this team to keep them in Charlotte and make them successful. He's buying them as an asset he can leverage to make more money and then sell once the time is right. Markets be damned. 

Seattle is the 14th biggest media market. Oklahoma City is the 41st media market.  Didn't stop Clay Bennett from buying the Sonics and moving them to OKC once he didn't get his shiny new stadium (which he really didn't want, since he just wanted them out of Seattle).

Playing the media market card is nice and I wish it had more validity, but in this good 'ole boys club that is the NFL, it doesn't mean all that much anymore. The type of people who fixate on the next new, shiny, money-making object are the same kind of people who play with fake boobs and have brass balls in their offices. 

Ridiculous. Charlotte city government is full of people that will bend over backwards to keep the Panthers here if need be, perhaps more so than any city in America. You also failed to list an alternate city to Charlotte that makes sense.

[Carl Spackler]

2 minutes ago, Sam Mills Fan said:

Ridiculous. Charlotte city government is full of people that will bend over backwards to keep the Panthers here if need be, perhaps more so than any city in America. You also failed to list an alternate city to Charlotte that makes sense.

I don't need to list an alternate city that makes sense. It doesn't need to make sense for it to happen. Look at the two bustling teams in LA right now.

[Sam Mills Fan]

The Hornets left here originally thanks to, well, George Shinn and Ray Wooldridge first and foremost. But local leaders had a plan to save the Hornets that fell through thanks to North Carolina's biggest idiot, Pat McCrory. It may come at the expense of cutting a ton of city services, but there's no way that this city council and this mayor would ever let the Panthers leave. If Tepper wants a new stadium, he'll get his new stadium.

[Sam Mills Fan]

Just now, Carl Spackler said:

I don't need to list an alternate city that makes sense. It doesn't need to make sense for it to happen. Look at the two bustling teams in LA right now.

There was a standing NFL committee in LA city government for most of the past decade trying to get a team there. What city has something like that at the moment?

[Carl Spackler]

Just now, Sam Mills Fan said:

There was a standing NFL committee in LA city government for most of the past decade trying to get a team there. What city has something like that at the moment?

Look, man. I'm not arguing that the city will do all it can to keep the team here. It will. But city funding will not cover the cost.

The state government will have to be approached with how building a new stadium is a short-term investment for a long-term payoff that brings all sorts of hotel and tourism dollars to the state. And I don't think they'll be sold on that. 

[Carl Spackler]

Would also love to have RetiredCollegeCoach chime in now that Navarro has been confirmed as the owner

[Carl Spackler]

Just now, bull123 said:

i sure hope so...why would JR ever take less than the highest bid?

This is the highest bid. Kraft or some other rich assbag finally convinced Fratboy Dave to toss a few more bucks into the pot.