Late Hit: Panthers Tagged With Higher Stadium Tax Burden

County Board Rules Ericsson Stadium Is Worth $183.9M

The NFL Panthers' appeal of the $172.7M assessment of Ericsson Stadium "backfired" as Mecklenburg County's (NC) property tax appeals board yesterday raised the value $11.2M to $183.9M, according to Richard Rubin of the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER. The new valuation means the city and county governments "will collect nearly $880,000 more each year than the team believes it should pay." The Panthers argued that the seven-year-old stadium is "heading rapidly toward obsolescence. The Panthers' appraisers cited recently abandoned stadiums in Seattle, Tampa, and Michigan as proof that NFL facilities last only 24 years on average." The Panthers also contend that they built the 73,248-seat stadium too large. Panthers General Counsel Richard Thigpen said that the team's execs "overbuilt because they were told that a larger stadium was needed to draw a Super Bowl." Thigpen: "The pipe dream of a Super Bowl, we've got a better grip on the reality of that now" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 12/4).