Mayor calls Charlotte a ‘sports city.’ Will it pay up to keep things that way?
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It’s easy for Mayor Vi Lyles to boast about Charlotte’s status as a “sports city.”
Charlotte has an NBA team, an NFL team and several golf tournaments that bring in tourists. There’s even the possibility of a prestigious tennis tournament, the Western and Southern Open, coming to the Queen City.
The future of the 26-year-old Panthers stadium was more difficult for the mayor to discuss freely as she dodged questions at a business executive luncheon Wednesday. Public, private and nonprofit leaders have been discussing the need for stadium renovations to keep the team in Charlotte.
Success for a public-private stadium renovation deal requires both sides knowing how much they must contribute, Lyles said. After that, Lyles said she’ll feel confident the city will have a good deal.
But, “I don’t know that yet,” she said Wednesday afternoon.
And the relationship between the Panthers owner, billionaire David Tepper, and the city of Charlotte hasn’t been a completely smooth road.
Last year, Tepper pulled out of a deal that would bring a Charlotte FC soccer academy to Eastland Yards — the new name for the mall with a similar moniker demolished more than 10 years ago. The Charlotte FC deal failing meant at least another year of waiting for residents who have gone without an economic driver on their side of town.
“We thought that we were going to have Tepper Sports on the additional acreage and they changed their minds,” Lyles said Wednesday. “Which is acceptable, people change their minds all the time. Businesses take a new direction. So, no harm, no foul.”
.@CLTMayor says city will “continue to invest” in sports - but doesn’t answer specific questions about a new Panthers stadium
“Who would have known that when the soccer team started that people would come to the Center City at eight o'clock in the morning and start drinking.”— genna (@GennaContino) June 7, 2023
When asked how the city’s relationship with Tepper Sports was after the Eastland Yards deal fell apart, Lyles turned attention back to the concerts held at Bank of America Stadium and Spectrum Center — and how she’s trying to score a Beyonce ticket this August.
“Every time we have a major concert with a major person coming in that’s nationally known, every hotel is filled, every restaurant is filled,” Lyles said.
Here’s what Lyles would say publicly about Bank of America stadium’s future:
Public funding structure is in place
Charlotte has an existing 1% food and beverage tax and a 2% hotel occupancy tax that Lyles said is the perfect structure to fund any future renovations. A bill sponsored by state Rep. John Bradford, a north Mecklenburg Republican, would extend that tax to 2060, setting a funding structure for future renovations to the stadium.
Lyles said she has no “threshold” for what the public funding amount should be, but that the city will continue to invest in sports.
In an closed session Jan. 31, the City Council discussed a potential framework of a $1.2 billion project with $600 million in public funds, the Observer’s news partner WSOC reported last month.
“I think as long as we follow our model and keep our values and and look at this as an industry that the city benefits from, we’ll be OK,” she said.
Extending the tourism tax would also serve as insurance to keep professional teams in Charlotte, Greater Charlotte Hospitality and Tourism Alliance President Mohammad Jenatian told The Charlotte Observer last month.
Spectrum Center deal to keep Hornets in Charlotte through 2045
When discussing potential stadium renovations, Lyles said a deal that passed last year with the Hornets to renovate the Spectrum Center was successful, but didn’t elaborate on specifics.
Public funding would help fund renovations and a practice facility in the agreement which extended the NBA team’s lease in the Queen City through 2045.
In the deal, $215 million would come from the city’s tourism funds and go to the Spectrum Center’s renovations. The remaining $60 million for the NBA team’s practice facility would come from whoever receives naming rights for the creation of a sports and entertainment district around the Spectrum Center.
Soccer fans + alcohol = $
One economic impact from the professional soccer team coming to town that Lyles didn’t expect: early morning alcohol sales.
“Who would have known that when the soccer team started that people would come to the center city at eight o’clock in the morning and start drinking?” Lyles said.
Though she avoided specifics about ongoing negotiations about the stadium with Tepper, the Observer previously reported the Charlotte City Council has met in executive session at least twice about the matter.
