Max Muhleman, pioneering sports marketer who helped launch Panthers and Hornets, dies at 88
Max Muhleman, the visionary sports marketing executive who was instrumental in the launch of the Carolina Panthers, Charlotte Hornets and NASCAR’s Hendrick Motorsports, died Saturday. He was 88.
Muhleman died in a Charlotte-area hospital due to complications from heart-related issues, according to his son, Lee Muhleman. “It was peaceful,” Muhleman said.
As the Forrest Gump of sports marketing in the Queen City, Max Muhleman was involved in nearly every seismic change in the Charlotte sports landscape in the 1980s and 1990s. His most well-known contribution to the sports marketing industry on a national scale was the invention of the PSL concept — whereby fans “owned” their seats via a permanent seat license.
Bank of America Stadium was financed largely in this way in the 1990s, with tens of thousands of future Panther fans paying anywhere from $600 to $5400 per seat for the right to buy that same seat every year. Many original “PSL holders” still remain with the team, having bought the same tickets for the past 29 seasons, since the stadium opened in 1996.
That success sparked copycat PSL license campaigns by other teams who wanted new stadiums, some of which Muhleman and his company were hired to run.
‘I owe Max a ton’
Muhleman grew up in Greenville, S.C., went to Furman and later became a sportswriter for The Charlotte News, often covering NASCAR events. He got interested in public relations, worked for Ford Motor Co., started his own PR firm and began specializing in sports. He originally got to know Hendrick, the future NASCAR owner, when Hendrick was trying to lure sponsors for his high-speed boat racing venture in the early 1980s.
The two quickly became friends. Muhleman helped put Hendrick together with some NASCAR-related people and Hendrick formed an extraordinarily successful racing team that celebrated its 40th year of racing in 2024.
“I owe Max a ton,” Hendrick said in a phone interview. “He was super-smart. Articulate. Never rude or abrupt. He could go toe to toe with any CEO of any major company, but he was a warm, congenial guy who also could talk to a jackman and make him feel comfortable and just as important as that CEO.”
Muhleman ran his business out of Hendrick’s offices for a while. He would later help entrepreneur George Shinn bring the NBA to Charlotte in the late 1980s. “I passed Max off to George,” Hendrick said, laughing. “And somehow, here came the Hornets.”
Shinn remained close to Muhleman for decades. Said Shinn: “There would probably not be pro basketball or football in Charlotte had it not been for Max Muhleman.”
Said Muhleman in a 1993 interview with The Observer: “I like it when it gets tough. I like it when it gets so tough that no one thinks we can possibly do it. Those are the best victories of all.”
From Hornets to Panthers
The Hornets were a remarkable success in those early years. They had a home sellout streak of 364 straight games that spanned nearly a decade in 23,000-seat Charlotte Coliseum. Shinn’s success inspired a man who had made a mint in the restaurant business — former NFL player Jerry Richardson — to attempt to bring a team to the Carolinas.
Muhleman was a pioneer in that effort, too, alongside Richardson, his son Mark and general manager Mike McCormack for years as the idea of an NFL team in Charlotte grew from a pipe dream to a reality. The group succeeded in selling NFL owners that the team wouldn’t just be Charlotte’s — hence the name “Carolina” and the location of training camp in Spartanburg, S.C. — but would draw people in a 150-mile radius throughout the Carolinas.
The Panthers started selling PSLs as a way to finance the stadium that Richardson wanted to build in uptown Charlotte well before the city was awarded an NFL team. The Panthers had already sold about 50,000 PSLs — generating $52 million in deposits that Richardson could show the NFL on a bank statement — before the October 1993 votes among other NFL owners that placed an expansion team in Charlotte.
Jerry Richardson said just after he got the franchise in 1993 of Muhleman: “He built and marketed a compelling case for league expansion into the Carolinas. Because of his vision, eloquence and passion, Max has earned a prominent place in the hearts of all Panthers fans.”
‘Why should I be in the picture?’
Muhleman would eventually work with a number of NFL owners, and some major-league baseball owners, too. He would always advise them not to anger their fans.
“The fans and the teams are in a relationship — almost like a marriage,” Muhleman said in a 2017 Observer interview. “And like in any relationship, you can hurt each other’s feelings only so much. If you hurt them too badly, you may be getting a divorce.”
In photos, Muhleman is rarely at the center of the frame. He preferred to be on the side of things, helping to chart a course for someone like Richardson, Shinn or Hendrick. “Why should I be in the picture?” he asked the Observer once in 1993. “I shouldn’t be in the forefront. I should be in the background.”
Lee Muhleman, Max’s older son, worked with his father at Muhleman Marketing for more than 20 years.
“I was proud to work with Dad,” he said, “and in doing so, learn how business in general and the business of sports in particular is done the right way. It was by cultivating relationships. I don’t know of anyone who has done a better job of cultivating great relationships with great people as he did. I think part of that was that his early training was in journalism, and so he learned how to make other people feel that he understood and had an interest in them.”
Tamera Green, now the chief communications officer for Tepper Sports & Entertainment, worked for Muhleman for a decade, starting straight out of college in 1989 until sports agency behemoth IMG bought Muhleman Marketing in 1999.
Said Green: “Max had an unwavering belief in Charlotte’s potential as a thriving sports city, and his visionary leadership played a pivotal role in shaping what we see today. He had a gift for bringing dreams to life. He did it with Jerry Richardson and the Panthers as well as George Shinn and the Hornets. Beyond his accomplishments, Max was simply a good man, known for his kindness and integrity, and his legacy extends far beyond any field of play.”
Muhleman’s wife of 56 years, Jean, died in 2016. His survivors include Muhleman’s two sons, Lee of Huntersville and Jeffrey of Charlotte; his brother James of Greenville, S.C., and his sister Susie Nuchols of Maryville, Tenn.
A public memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Dec. 30th at Myers Park Presbyterian Church, with a reception to follow.
This story was originally published December 19, 2024 at 1:24 PM.
