Charlotte City Council Gets to Meet Jerry Richardson
05.09.13
Perhaps someday they’ll even get to sit in a luxury box, but for now Charlotte City Council members are getting some heat for conducting behind closed doors negotiations with Carolina Panthers officials. In order to help the city council determine how much of the city’s budget to earmark for the team’s stadium renovation, Panthers owner Jerry Richardson showed up to the private meetings. Although it’s unusual to have one of the parties with a vested interest at one of these city meetings, several council members were grateful for his presence:
“I don’t know if it was appropriate or not, but it was important to him,” says Councilman Andy Dulin. “It must have been of importance because he did show up – you know that put an exclamation point on the seriousness of the negotiations that some might not have done. I appreciated him being there.”
Apparently Councilman Dulin, a residential real estate broker is sometimes involved in negotiations in which the principal of the other party is asking for a $125 million dollar donation, but doesn’t think it’s serious enough to show up to close the deal. Fortunately Richardson, who made hundreds of millions of dollars with Hardees, Denny’s, and Quincy’s restaurants knows better.
Richardson agreed to keep the team in Charlotte for at least 6 years, which according to Forbes, makes the $87.5 million subsidy ($14.6 million per season) the 3rd most lucrative in football.
According to Julie Rose, reporter for Charlotte’s WDAE, Charlotte City Attorney Bob Hagemann says that contributing tax money to new NFL stadium renovations is now a requirement if a city wants to keep a football franchise. “The reality is, if you want an NFL team in the year 2013, you’re going to have to have public participation. It’s just the reality of the situation.”
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