Punt Potential Panthers Payout
*Editors Note: This letter was received in response to CAUTION’s press release on opposition to public financing for the Panthers.
Dear Sirs:
City Council is being asked by the Carolina Panthers football team to provide them a subsidy so the firm will continue operations in Charlotte.
The Carolina Panthers do business as part of the National Football League. The NFL has been exempted from anti-trust laws by the US Congress. It is a cartel, and operates under the exact same economic principles as OPEC.
Why the US Congress allows this travesty is scandalous. The member businesses divy up employees/players amongst themselves according to the rules they establish. Of the 32 member franchises, only four own their operating facilities outright. These are New England, Washington, Miami, and Carolina.
The rest have some sort of state/local financial arrangement binding them to those localities. In 2011 the NFL realized revenue of $8.8 billion. The 32 member franchises have a combined net worth of $35 billion. In 2011 all 32 teams increased in value.
The Carolina franchise was purchased by Mr. Jerry Richardson and his ownership group for $206 million in 1993. The company constructed a $245 million stadium ($122.5 million paid by season ticket holders) to entertain Panther customers.
Today the Panthers have increased in value to $1.05 billion – a total ROI of 509% over 20 years, or 25.45% annually. Operating revenues over the last 10 years have increased each year, from $152 million in 2002, to $269 million in 2011.
Since it is an unregulated cartel, the NFL is able to provide each member business with an equal share of TV revenues generated by the publicly funded league. Each franchise is currently paid $156 million annually. This will increase to $187.50 million in 2014. League merchandising revenue divided equally among the franchises was $44 million in 2011. This amount has also been increasing annually. 2011 gate receipts for the Panthers were $59 million.
The 2011 Panthers player payroll was $159 million, roughly $3 million per player. The highest paid, Charles Johnson, will receive $34 million in 2012. This makes Johnson the 15th highest paid athlete in the world.
In the November 11, 2012 posting on ESPN.com, an unnamed source told reporter Pat Yasninkas that the only scenario in which Richardson would listen to an offer to move the Panthers to another city would be if Charlotte balked at helping him with stadium renovations.
Richardson has engaged a sports architect, Populous, and two other firms to develop a 10-year master stadium renovation plan due by the end of the current season ( 1-1-2013 ). Richardson was quoted in the article as saying: “ I hope that there would be no doubts about my personal devotion to the Carolinas.”
To date, Richardson has received $60 million for land and site preparation during the construction of his stadium from state and local government.
Alltime, the team has a record of 135-160 wins/losses and has never had consecutive winning seasons. There is no season ticket waiting list, fans have been rated the “ quietest “ and “ least loyal “ in the entire NFL.
Estimates of stadium renovations will probably exceed $100 million based on monies spent by other franchises for stadium upgrades. State and local elected officials have expressed a willingness to fund this amount.
Some thoughts about this absurd situation:
- Richardson is attempting to bribe/extort money from the taxpayers to do business in Charlotte. This is criminal activity, and would be prosecutable if done in the private sector. Local government should not be extorted. Local government already engages in many activities that are illegal if done in the private sector; liquor sales and gambling among them. The citizenry should see to it that this crime is ended.
- The citizens of Charlotte are experiencing an extremely difficult economic period. There are over 35,000 local businesses in Mecklenburg County. Dozens are going out of business each week. Local government has a moral obligation to treat each citizen and business equally. Arbitrarily bestowing an enormous sum of money on one obscenely wealthy individual, while letting unfavored businesses die, is the very essence of political corruption and renders individual citizens slaves.
- This community has made Richardson and his fellow owners an incredible amount of money with virtually no economic risk. There are three certainties in this life: Death, taxes, and profit for NFL owners. For all this, Richardson has provided the citizenry a lousy entertainment business which has conferred no economic benefit. Many exhaustive academic studies done by leading scholars provide irrefutable proof that professional sports businesses provide no measurable economic benefit to localities. The reality is Los Angeles, where the Panthers are considering as a new headquarters, has been without an NFL team for many years with no discernible harmful economic impact. In other words, Richardson has gotten enormously rich at the expense of the public.
- The local Chamber of Commerce, which should be run by people promoting economic growth and ethics, is leading the effort to bribe Richardson. The leadership of this corrupt organization should be fired. Corrupt Chamber president, the excreable Bob Morgan, no doubt anxious to maintain his personal access to Panther largesse, has publicly stated the presence of the NFL business places Charlotte in “ the big leagues “ . Los Angeles would beg to differ.
- Richardson should pay back the first $60 million bribe with fair market interest for the funds state and city taxpayers have already illegally given him. He should then make at least a nine figure charitable contribution to a worthy civic cause – say paying off the mortgage on the Time Warner arena. Charlotte has made him a billionaire. He can well afford to be generous.
- If Richardson does not receive his bribe he may sell his business to one of many willing buyers who could move the franchise to another city. Let him. As we learned after the Charlotte Hornets moved to New Orleans, this entertainment market will support professional entertainment. The NFL will not let the proven entertainment revenue this community possesses go untapped. Another team will be formed, or an existing franchise moved, to operate in the Charlotte market by the NFL cartel just as the NBA placed another team in the Charlotte market after the Hornet exodus. Charlotte actually holds all the cards in this negotiation. Notice the Panthers have only a “ 10 Year “ renovation plan. If the bribe is paid, more will have to be coughed up to the owner in 2022 to keep this entertainment business in town. Once paid, bribes are never ending – as any 3rd rate TV crime drama attests.
- Government funding of private business is the very definition of socialism. Nothing is more antithetical to the American ideal. Our Founders rebelled and waged a bloody war against a governmental power infinitely less onerous than the one we have voted ourselves. It is past time to resist this tyranny.
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