Panthers want 125 Million in taxpayer money.

[Montsta]

When JR built the stadium and founded the team using like 90% private funds, everyone applauded him. When the lockout occurred and JR used it as an opportunity to purge some ludicrous contracts off the books, everyone here applauded him. Then when he had money to spend, he spent every penny of it and then some to retain all of our talented, fan-favorite, free-agents-to-be, and everyone applauded him. Then he hired Ron Rivera instead of a retread coach, and everyone applauded him. Now some of those contracts are crippling the team, and Rivera is a horrible coach in the eyes of some, and it turns into 'JR is a crotchety old man trying to take billions to his grave.'

If Cam Newton hits a wide open tight end seven yards away in Seattle, and doesn't fumble in Atlanta, and the refs don't completely fug us against Dallas, we are in the playoffs and nobody here is flinching at giving up $125M in tax. JR has tried to build a winner. He's tried to retain his best players and spend the money. Just because we've had shitty talent and coaching on this team in hindsight doesn't make it JR's fault.

[Johnny Rockets]

I can't wait to see Charlotte fug this up like Concord did with Bruton Smith. They might as well approve the $125M before they wind up giving him $250M, are forced to change the name of Mint St.to Jerry Richardson Blvd, put a front page ad in the Charlotte Observer apologizing to him and making every 3rd Monday of the each month Jerry Richardson day where the city picks up the tab for a free Bo-Biscuits at all area Bojangles. .

[SCP]

Free Bo biscuits? Make it happen.

[Panthro]

Can we tie some stipulations to this money?

[SCP]

Buffalo. fuging BUFFALO, just ponies up for upgrades to that stadium. Buffalo is a waste land with decaying homes, diabeetus running rampant, closing businesses, and shuttered manufacturing plants. Half of the population of buffalo has moved to Charlotte in the last 3 years. And yet those pathetic assholes ponied up to fixing their shithole stadium.

Who in the fug wants to be outdone by Buffalo.

[fieryprophet]

Everyone bitching about JR saying he can afford $125 million because he is a "billionaire" need to do some simple math:

Assume JR is a billionaire, which I actually do not believe is the case since he owns 48% of the Panthers, and therefore if the franchise is valued at $1 billion he would have a stake valued at $480 million, but let's assume he's a billionaire.

$125 million would require him to liquidate 12.5% of his net worth, which would require him selling off a significant share of the Panthers, and make it even more likely that an outside group could take control of the team. People assume he must be sitting on a giant pile of cash just for owning an NFL team, not realizing that the salary disbursements for NFL teams makes up a massive portion of their overall revenue, and much of the rest is allocated to the significant front office resources needed to make the team as competitive as possible. If it wasn't for the TV money allocated to all 32 NFL teams the financial shape of many, many teams would be in dire straits. So, $125 million would be a full year's worth of salary cap coming directly out of the team's coffers and make them much more vulnerable to lowered ticket sales, salary cap constraints and revenue shortfalls.

This isn't a case of the team taking free money and hoarding it, it's a case of reaching competitive balance with other stadiums without putting themselves in a financially compromised position, particularly if an outside group is hoping to buy enough shares to oust JR and take the team elsewhere.

So stop your bitching.

[CarolinaCoolin]

125m will get paid off in 5 years or less with all the money that will roll threw in the upcoming seasons. Just take the hit.

[Panthro]

Everyone bitching about JR saying he can afford $125 million because he is a "billionaire" need to do some simple math:

Assume JR is a billionaire, which I actually do not believe is the case since he owns 48% of the Panthers, and therefore if the franchise is valued at $1 billion he would have a stake valued at $480 million, but let's assume he's a billionaire.

$125 million would require him to liquidate 12.5% of his net worth, which would require him selling off a significant share of the Panthers, and make it even more likely that an outside group could take control of the team. People assume he must be sitting on a giant pile of cash just for owning an NFL team, not realizing that the salary disbursements for NFL teams makes up a massive portion of their overall revenue, and much of the rest is allocated to the significant front office resources needed to make the team as competitive as possible. If it wasn't for the TV money allocated to all 32 NFL teams the financial shape of many, many teams would be in dire straits. So, $125 million would be a full year's worth of salary cap coming directly out of the team's coffers and make them much more vulnerable to lowered ticket sales, salary cap constraints and revenue shortfalls.

This isn't a case of the team taking free money and hoarding it, it's a case of reaching competitive balance with other stadiums without putting themselves in a financially compromised position, particularly if an outside group is hoping to buy enough shares to oust JR and take the team elsewhere.

So stop your bitching.

Yeah because no one would give him a low % loan. He would totally be required to liquidate assets. With all the revenue sharing the cost should be split between the NFL and Richardson.

you know less about business than you do football.

[panfan32]

Lets not forget that the stadium was built with $0.00 tax dollars to begin with. Most stadiums are built with 40-50% of tax money from the state and city.

[SCP]

Today's Fatty meal:

Coke $1.50

Burger $4.95

Fries $1.50

Total $7.95

Tax 7.25%

Total $8.52

Fatty meal with 1% stadium tax increase:

Coke $1.50

Burger $4.95

Fries $1.50

Total $7.95

Tax 8.25%

Total $8.61

[Kevin Greene]

In the last decade, what has he done to earn this money?

[SCP]

In the last decade, what has he done to earn this money?

Super Bowl in 2003

[Lumps]

so can we stop saying without JR there would be no panthers...I mean really PSLs need to be there, the market needs to be there, and apparentley 125 million needs to be there. JR has nothing to do with any of that

I totally down fo funding this though, no problem with it at all...but CHARLOTTE brought and KEPT the panthers to CHARLOTTE...JR is just a buisnessman, anything he puts in he has already calculated he will get more out.

I'll be a fan of the Panthers whereever they may be but the people keeping them here need to give themselves more credit.

Super Bowl in 2003

and in 11 months?

People are starting to forget 2003...maybe not fans, but people....not enough fans to pay for anything, not enough success (yet) to generate fans.

This team will either become successful only after a new owner or move. I don't see this franchise in another 17 years from a new owner with less than 4 playoff appearences. There is not a lot of room to go downward.

[Niner National]

This is issue #1. Since JR bought the franchise, the value has gone from 250 million to 1 billion. Chalk some of that up to inflation but that is a heck of a lot of money to be made in a "small market" as we are known around the league. The PSLs in comparison to what Minnesotta and Indy did sounds a little better because at least JR gave us something tangible instead of putting the whole cost onto tax payers without a seat liscense. But still looks bad..

The other issue as was mentioned in the OP is that JR has started to look like an owner that cares more about the bottom line than he does about winning. So, coming to the fans of Charlotte for MORE money, when they have provided unwavering support for this team despite a lack of success just looks like a money-grabbing move as opposed to a move to reward fans. I'm sure that if the Panthers just came off a 13-3 season with a playoff appearance there would be less griping but this franchise, under the watch of JR, has sucked for the most part.

Team value is not money in pocket.

The reason the team is worth so much is because they own the stadium. If we had a city owned stadium like many of the teams in the NFL, we'd be one of the least valuable teams in the NFL.

The Panthers' operating profit is not very good. Small market teams really do not turn much of a profit. The year after the Packers won the Superbowl a few years ago, their operating profit was only $9 million.

I personally think the stadium is fine and I find it a tremendous waste of money to install escalators in the stadium. I would like to see new video boards, but those things don't cost all that much. I know the video board they're putting up at the Charlotte 49ers stadium is about the same size as the video boards the Panthers stadium currently has and they're only a couple million. Aside from that, I don't see anything wrong with the stadium as it is.

Most of the money will likely go into renovating the club level and the private suites anyway, so 80% of fans won't even see much benefit of the renovation. The rest of the money will go to providing escalators for fatasses and old people. If you can't walk up the stairs of the stadium for 8 games a season, then you probably shouldn't be there anyway.