A new Panthers owner by the end of March? We get to know 3 potential bidders
Potential bidders to become the new owner of the Panthers are starting become clear, so the CharlotteFive Podcast team brought on the Charlotte Observer’s Katie Peralta and Rick Rothacker, who have been working on multiple articles on this topic. They recently published a piece looking at three potential bidders in Charleston businessman Ben Navarro, Philadelphia e-commerce innovator Michael Rubin and Miami hedge fund manager David Tepper.
Besides the comments listed below, click and listen to hear the reporters discuss the biographies of each of these three potential bidders, what a winning bid may look like, how they would compare to Jerry Richardson, the use of Bank of America Stadium and more.
Have you heard anything about these three potential bidders possibly wanting to immediately move the Panthers, so far?
[Rothacker] “I don’t think there is any ownership situation anywhere in the country where there hasn’t been a threat to move because it’s like the perfect threat to try to get taxpayer money. We’ve heard from a lot of different sources saying that really no one is going to want to move this team. These three bidders have tried to get the word out that they are not looking to move.”
Could another potential bidder come to the spotlight within the next couple weeks? When’s the deadline?
[Peralta] “There’s not really a hard deadline set in stone, that we know of right now. We’ve heard that March is supposed to be a very exciting month in this process, and it certainly has been even over the last few weeks. Clearly they won’t be able to vote on a new owner at the next owners’ meeting, which is a week from now, but what we are hearing is that they likely will know who the next owner will be by the end of this month or early next month. Does that mean that everyone will know? Probably not, I’m guessing. My assumption is that they will have this boiled down to the likeliest candidate within the next two or three weeks. Then begins the process of vetting by the league and begins their process of educating other owners as to who this person is and then they would vote on it at the May meeting, which is during the second or third week of May in Atlanta.”
Rubin seems like he would be a little more of a players’ owner, allowing them to show more personality. How do you feel that would play in Charlotte?
[Peralta] “I think that would stand in stark contrast to what we know about Jerry Richardson. I remember when Cam Newton came to Carolina back in 2011, Richardson said something along the lines of that he likes that Cam doesn’t have any tattoos and he kind of likes a certain appearance of his players. That was perceived by many to have sort of racial undertones. The ‘Mr. Richardson’ thing too, like revering the owner. From what we know about Rubin, it sounds like there’s a little bit more casualness to his relationship with the players, which probably would be perceived as a breath of fresh air, especially among younger fans. On the surface, it seems like a 180 from what we’ve seen in North Carolina here.”
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The CharlotteFive Podcast — presented by The Charlotte Observer and powered by OrthoCarolina — is a weekly podcast that aims to get you Charlotte Smart, Fast with fun, interesting and useful news about the city. It’s co-hosted by Sean Clark-Weis and Sallie Funderburk and is a production of the Charlotte Observer and 2WAVES Media.
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Photo: Charlotte Observer file
This story was originally published March 20, 2018 at 11:00 PM with the headline "A new Panthers owner by the end of March? We get to know 3 potential bidders."