Hornets investor and NASCAR team co-Owner Felix Sabates on Thursday said that a local ownership group that wants to buy the NFL Panthers has "hired advisers and is visiting stadiums as it prepares to make a bid," according to a front-page piece by Rick Rothacker of the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER. Sabates said that the group "consists of five people and that he would not be the majority owner by a 'long shot.'" He would "not name any names but said two are currently minority owners of the team." Sabates said that others are "interested in joining the effort, including some 'sports celebrities' that he would not name." Sabates: "We have a group that has committed to do this thing. We have hired outside consultants to run numbers to give us the probability of success, the possibility of failure and a lot of things." Sabates said that he has "heard some talk" about a sale price as high as $3B. But he said that the number "makes no financial sense." Sabates: "If some crazy wants to pay $3 billion for a football team let him have it because the numbers don't work. Two billion is marginal." Sabates said that the team "needs a new domed stadium that could host major events, and that state and city governments need to 'pony' up to replace" Bank of America Stadium. Sabates: "The only way to make the numbers work is you have to create revenue between $40 million and $50 million a year. And you can't do that with the existing facility." Sabates said that a new building "doesn't have to have a retractable roof but does need a dome so it can host indoor events." Rothacker notes a new stadium also "needs 20,000 parking spaces to generate revenue for the team" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 1/5).
A LOT AT STAKE: In Charlotte, Mark Washburn writes under the header, "Wake Up, Charlotte: If You Want To Keep The Panthers, You Need To Pony Up For A New NFL Stadium." The stakes are "enormous." Fans think they have a "perfectly good stadium -- low mileage, original upholstery -- and don't need" a $1B replacement. What fans "don't realize is that what could happen next to your local franchise would make a new stadium for Charlotte look like a bargain." The Panthers have been a "successful expansion team." Washburn: "Long string of sellouts. A few lean years, but overall a good franchise. Small market, big envelope." But Panthers Owner Jerry Richardson's "sudden abdication couldn't come at a worse time." Those who "cling to the parochial fantasy that some loyal syndicate will swoop in to save the team and keep it in Charlotte ignore the obvious." Even if the billions "can be found, there is no guarantee that the NFL's owners, 31 of them plus Richardson, would have any sentimental attachment to keeping a team in the Carolinas." Local fans "need to keep the Panthers far more desperately than the NFL needs to keep them here." Charlotte is an "aspirational city, one that punches far above its weight, and nothing validates a city's stature like a pro football franchise" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 1/5).
ALL ABOUT PERCEPTION: THE ATHLETIC's Don Banks wrote the Panthers will be the "first NFL team to change hands since the league started experiencing declines in such metrics as TV ratings, attendance and corporate sponsorships." Sources said that the perception of how this sale goes is "more important than it normally would because of its timing." As a "measuring stick of any momentum that has been lost by the NFL, the Panthers sale will have out-sized significance attached to it, both on the plus or minus side." A source said, "If the Panthers go for less than the Forbes evaluation price (of $2.3 billion), that's going to be seen as a problem (for the NFL)" (THEATHLETIC.com, 1/4).
