Panthers, Charlotte MLS agree to long-term retail partnership with Fanatics
Tepper Sports & Entertainment (TSE) has agreed to a long-term deal with Fanatics, the global licensed sports merchandise company, to serve as the official omnichannel retail partner of the Carolina Panthers and the Charlotte MLS franchise.
Fanatics will operate both the e‐commerce, online team shops and physical retail experiences at Bank of America Stadium, including the Panthers’ team store. TSE and Fanatics declined to confirm the exact length of the contract.
“Fanatics is probably the world’s best platform for e-commerce, online merch particularly with sports leagues,” said Mark Hart, vice president and chief operating officer of TSE. “They’ve got a growing client list in the NFL. They do all of the MLS online merchandising for them, so we thought going forward with the two franchises, it was a great opportunity to improve our experience for our fans and our customers.”
Both the NFL and MLS already have massive relationships with Fanatics. The NFL, along with Nike, agreed to a 10-year licensing deal in 2018 making Fanatics the exclusive manufacturer and distributor of Nike-branded NFL fan merchandise, which officially started this year. Fanatics also exclusively produces MLS merchandise. Michael Rubin, executive chairman of Fanatics, was one of the candidates interested in purchasing the Panthers two years ago.
Fanatics is replacing Delaware North, previously the team’s concession and retail vendor. Levy Restaurants will be the team’s new food and beverage provider. The company handles concessions at many sports venues around the country, including the Spectrum Center. Levy’s parent organization, Compass Group, has its North America headquarters in Charlotte.
With the deal, the Panthers became Fanatics’ 25th NFL partner, nine of which are “omnichannel” deals — that means the company has a fully-integrated shopping experience by uniting user experiences from the stadium store to mobile-browsing and everything in between. Carolina’s new MLS team will mark the company’s 14th MLS omnichannel partner.
“(TSE) wants to be innovative, they want to be progressive, they want to test and learn on different retail and experiential items and that’s something that we’re really interested in pursuing with them,” said Gary Gertzog, Fanatics president of business affairs. “The model of an NFL team in a stadium with an MLS team is one that we’ve been very successful at with Atlanta, with both the Falcons and Atlanta United (in the same stadium). ... We’ve learned a lot through that experience and working from the ground up (with an expansion team) is exciting, because it’s a blank sheet of paper, so to speak.”
“We can work with the new franchise, and help them with the identity, the new logo, the kit and develop certain dates by which we’re going to make periodic announcements to stimulate interest in merchandise and retail.”
The new Panthers online store, shop.panthers.com, is already accessible. E‐commerce for Charlotte’s new MLS expansion team will fall under Fanatics’ operation of MLSShop.com and all of the league’s online team shops. The Charlotte MLS franchise name, logo and color will be revealed July 22.
Working closely with very successful expansion clubs like Atlanta in the past has allowed Fanatics to learn the unique attributes of an MLS club and an NFL team, including what demographic typically composes MLS fans — millennials — and what unique items fans are more interested in purchasing for soccer, but not other sports as much, like scarves. The expectations for selling merchandise to Charlotte MLS fans will be high, as Gertzog described it.
“The Carolinas are a great market for soccer. And we expect that this team is going to be one of the most successful expansion teams that has ever launched in MLS,” Gertzog said.
Fanatics will also oversee operations of all in‐venue retail locations throughout Bank of America Stadium for both the Panthers and Charlotte’s expansion MLS team, including the official team store, kiosks and additional concourse shops.
What impact will fans feel from the new deal? Improvements in the online shopping experience, including on mobile devices, in addition to more products to choose from and better supply of those products.
“The assortment of products will be much deeper. One of the issues with a lot of the other retailers with team venues is when a team gets hot, they run out of product. We’re not just buying for one team store,” Gertzog said. “(Fans) will be very satisfied in terms of having the products that they want it at the right time and not be in a situation when the excitement is at its peak and the team is really excelling and not being able to get the product that they want in the building. If it’s an NFL team, it won’t be just the same products for the starting quarterback and star receiver and defensive player, they’ll be a full selection.”
The team store, located at Bank of America Stadium on the corner of Mint and Graham Street, will receive an update over time in order to make the location more of an experience. Integrating the MLS team into the current store in the lead-up to its inaugural season in 2021 will be an interesting challenge in the store’s current state due to the size.
“I’m sure you’re seen it a million times. It doesn’t create a sense of destination. It’s not very, I think, attractive from the outside. It’s a little dated on the inside. So I think we’ll try to improve its flow initially obviously merchandising and branding and signage and point of sale systems and those sorts of things that we can do very quickly,” Hart said. “That is the front door to our building. And obviously we want a bigger retail presence, a bigger retail store. I don’t want to call it a flagship just yet, but we need a retail presence on that important corner on the front door that makes it a destination for fans and customers and not only for football, for MLS and other events.”
While the team is still going through the plans for the Panthers’ new practice facility in Rock Hill, Hart said it’s “not inconceivable” that there will be a very large retail presence in Rock Hill. He described the planned campus as a “massive destination” for North and South Carolina.
Panthers and Charlotte MLS owner David Tepper often uses his previous experience with the Steelers as a minority owner as an example in restructuring the Panthers, including hiring people like Hart from Pittsburgh. Carolina is using teams like the Steelers, Cowboys and Packers, among the NFL’s top retail sellers, as a benchmark. Changes in the in-stadium shopping experience and the ease of the online/mobile platforms will not necessarily take place all at once, but are part of a long-term vision.
“I think the retail footprint at Bank of America Stadium hasn’t changed a whole lot from the mid- to late 90s,” Hart said. “I think if we update, I think we make the point-of-sale system a little bit more easy to use, attractive, I think if we use mobile platforms and we invest in the bricks and mortar and make it like you see retail around the country make it a little bit of an experience. I think you’ll see some changes.”
Teppers donate $250,000 to Johnson C. Smith University students
David and Nicole Tepper will donate $250,000 to students at Johnson C. Smith University in need of financial support due to the impact of COVID-19. All of the funds will be used to help students return for the 2020-2021 academic year and will benefit as many as 70 returning students. The gift to Johnson C. Smith (JCSU), a private historically Black liberal arts university, is an example of the Teppers’ belief that helping minority students access a high quality, affordable college education is integral to closing the inequality gap.
“The donation to the University affirms their commitment to minority students in the Charlotte community and beyond. The continued success of historically Black universities like JCSU is at a critical point,” said JCSU President Clarence D. Armbrister. “Partnerships like this are essential to sustaining HBCUs which are educating the next generation of leaders in the workplace and in the community. With COVID-19’s significantly disproportionate impact on people of color, these scholarship funds could not have been donated at a better time for our students.”
This is just the beginning of the Teppers’ planned relationship with the school.
“This is an important first step in our relationship with Johnson C. Smith,” Nicole Tepper said. “I’ve visited the university and met with President Armbrister. We want to make a difference.”
Earlier this week, the University of South Carolina announced the Nicole and David Tepper Scholars Program in the Department of Sport and Entertainment Management. The program will provide four-year scholarships to four incoming freshmen each year. The Teppers will donate a total of $567,000 over the next three years.
This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 8:00 AM.
