Charlotte needs Bank of America Stadium upgrades to be ‘big-league city,’ leaders say
Dozens of high-profile business leaders convened in uptown Charlotte on Wednesday morning and stood behind one unified message: The proposed Bank of America Stadium upgrades are vital.
“Now is not the time to go scared to be a big league city,” said Johnny Harris, the Quail Hollow Club founder and former CEO of Lincoln Harris real estate firm. “We’re 20 years into it; we got 20 years to go. So what do we do? We up-fit the stadium and make it the kind of place we can all be proud of and enjoy and use for that 20-year period.”
The news conference, hosted by the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, took place about 48 hours after Tepper Sports and Entertainment announced proposed plans to renovate the city’s largest venue that has been open since 1996.
The plans call for $650 million from the city of Charlotte — money from a pot of tax revenue that must be spent on tourism-related projects — with Tepper Sports and Entertainment footing the rest of the bill. The “rest of the bill” includes $150 million in immediate renovations, which is in addition to the $117 million TSE has already spent on the stadium and the $421 on capital improvements over the term of the deal.
The City Council could vote on the project as soon as June 24, and the deal would include a 20-year non-relocation agreement for the city’s two major franchises that play their home games in the stadium: the Carolina Panthers of the NFL and Charlotte FC of MLS.
Wednesday, dignitaries spoke of the importance of such a deal and the economic and cultural impact it could have on the region. Those dignitaries included president of Bank of America Charlotte Kieth Cockrell, Charlotte Center City Partners CEO Michael Smith and Charlotte Sports Foundation executive director Danny Morrison.
Cockrell reiterated that Bank of America Stadium has become more than a venue for pro sports events. It is the site of high school events, high-profile concerts — it was even used as a large-scale outdoor vaccination clinic during the COVID years.
“Some would say this has become our community stadium,” he said.
Much of the enthusiasm for the project centered on the economic impact brought in by the city. Ernst & Young managing partner Malcomb Coley said the stadium generates $1.1 billion in annual economic impact — a number that was first shared in Tepper Sports & Entertainment’s presentation to the City Council on Monday — and he added that it is “incumbent on us to make sure that the economic impact is shared equally across our community.”
“It is vital to me, and to a large portion of this community, that the city and Tepper Sports are committed to supporting minority-owned businesses and small business enterprises for this particular project,” said Coley, who opened the remarks Wednesday in front of a crowd that included ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips and Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith, among others.
“I know that they are committed to making an impact across our community.”
It isn’t clear how that $1.1 billion economic impact number was calculated. And as The Charlotte Observer previously reported and as experts and published research shows, such economic impact numbers can be inflated for a variety of reasons.
Even considering such context, business leaders were armed with other reasons the city should support the deal. One point that was brought up multiple times Wednesday: The public money that will be used to upgrade the stadium can only be used to fund tourism-related projects.
“Listen, I’ve told city council this, I’ve told media this before: Do we have issues in this city? Most definitely. But we can’t use this fund to solve those problems,” said Vinay Patel, the head of external affairs for SREE hotels based in Charlotte. “That’s a topic people a lot smarter than me have to get together and figure out. But I think the citizens of Mecklenburg County need to understand and need to know that these dollars cannot be used for any other purpose. You use it for this, and all it’s doing is further enhancing the stature of our community.”
Morrison leads an organization that seeks out big-time sports opportunities and brings them to the city. He knows how much the stadium — and the real estate it occupies in the city’s skyline and history — is worth to Charlotte.
“The bones of the stadium are fantastic, and I used the term ‘classic America stadium’ because I think it is,” Morrison said. He added, “With this modernization and refresh, I think it’ll be the best outdoor stadium in America.”
This story was originally published June 5, 2024 at 2:01 PM.
