Please, David Tepper, can you stop making Charlotte cringe?

When a city gets a professional sports franchise, it also inherits the franchise’s owner.

Sometimes that partnership turns out just fine. And sometimes, as we well know in Charlotte, it doesn’t.

Such is the case with David Tepper, who in 2018 purchased the Carolina Panthers and now also owns Charlotte FC. For better or worse, that’s made him a public face of the city.

It would be nice, however, if that face didn’t so often look like a morally uninterested business mogul.

In the past few months, Tepper and his teams have drawn more than their fair share of controversy and skepticism — and it’s not just because of their losing record.

It started with the Panthers’ dogged pursuit of Deshaun Watson, a wooing that continues to look awful this week after new revelations about distasteful behavior with dozens of massage therapists. The Watson allegations are far from breaking news, but it didn’t stop Tepper from lusting after the quarterback for more than a year, despite his very heavy and very public baggage. It would have been a public relations nightmare had Watson chosen to come to Charlotte. He didn’t, but Tepper wanted him to. That matters.

Then there’s the disaster that is the abandoned Rock Hill headquarters. The contract for the $800 million, 240-acre facility was terminated in April due to a funding dispute between the Panthers and Rock Hill. Instead of looking for a way to make things work, Tepper looked for a way out.

Now, GT Real Estate Holdings, the company Tepper established specifically for the Rock Hill project, is declaring bankruptcy. The company owes nearly $50 million to various entities involved in the project, including the general contractors in charge of construction, The Charlotte Observer reported. Conveniently enough, the company is structured in a way that protects Tepper and his other assets from any personal liability.

Such a move is not illegal or even uncommon in the business world. Some might even call it savvy, even if it does leave an unpleasant taste. But a man with a net worth of nearly $17 billion potentially stiffing those who did work for him — even if he is just taking advantage of existing bankruptcy law — is, at the very least, bad optics.

There’s also been a revolving door of executives at Tepper Sports & Entertainment, and Charlotte FC head coach Miguel Angel Ramirez was abruptly fired last month with no public explanation. Up until April, Tepper hadn’t spoken to the media in more than a year — and even then, he refused to answer pressing questions about the Rock Hill project.

That’s a lot of bad headlines for Tepper and, indirectly, Charlotte. Is he as awful as, say, Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder? No. But “not being investigated by Congress” feels like a pretty low bar.

Charlotte has had a spotty history of sports owners in George Shinn and Jerry Richardson. Thankfully, Tepper hasn’t spawned the kind of embarrassing stories those owners did. But Tepper’s house still looks more like a circus, and doesn’t reflect well on our city. And unlike the mayor or city council, Tepper isn’t a politician, so he’s not exactly accountable to the public. Money and power are what affords him influence, and, as the wealthiest owner in the NFL, he has a lot of both.

One possible silver lining: One city official mused to the Editorial Board that all of this might give the city leverage with upcoming negotiations over a new stadium because Tepper likely doesn’t want more bad optics.

Maybe so. Either way, there’s not much the city can do about Tepper’s stream of stumbles. Like it or not, Charlotte and Tepper are partners: the Panthers and Charlotte FC are tremendous assets to Charlotte, both economically and culturally, and it wouldn’t be wise for city leaders to sour their ongoing relationship with the man who owns them.

But please, Mr. Tepper: stop making us cringe.

This story was originally published June 8, 2022 at 12:40 PM.