The NFL Panthers yesterday unveiled the team's "first phase of planned renovations for Bank of America Stadium, which will include four new escalator bays and video boards that are more than twice as large as the current screens," according to a front-page piece by Steve Harrison of the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER. The team said that the $65M renovations will "make the 18-year-old stadium one of the NFL’s most modern." The Panthers will start the renovations in two weeks after the Charlotte City Council voted last year to give the team $87.5M in "exchange for a six-year 'tether' to keep the team" in the city. Of that amount, $75M is "slated for construction," and the Panthers are spending $37.5M "for this phase of improvements." The team plans to "build four new escalator bays to take fans to the upper bowl faster." The bays are "designed to blend in with the stadium's architecture," and will be "covered from the elements, but won't be climate-controlled." On top of the escalator bays will be four new "party plazas" that will allow fans in the upper bowl to "congregate, watch games on TVs and have views of the city and uptown skyscrapers." Charlotte-based architect David Wagner said that the new video boards will be "2.5 times as large and have a higher resolution" than the current boards. They will be "200 feet wide and 60 feet high." Panthers President Danny Morrison said that the team "wanted to ensure the video boards fit in with the stadium and weren't too big." Harrison notes the team also will install "two new 'ribbon boards' on the interior of the stadium" and flagpoles "on the top of the upper bowl that will double as new speakers to improve the stadium sound system" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 1/8).
