Who Will Buy the Carolina Panthers?

CHARLOTTE, NC – Now that the season is over for the Panthers, questions turn to the team’s future in Charlotte.

Owner and founder Jerry Richardson announced plans to sell the team last month amid accusations of workplace misconduct.

“All hands on deck,” is how At-large City Councilman James Mitchell has described the effort to keep the Panthers in Charlotte.

“I do think the clock will start ticking if the new ownership, we have not made that new ownership happy by 2019,” Mitchell said December 18th.

The team is tethered to the city only through the end of the 2018 season.

The concern is — will a new owner be lured away by a city ready and willing to open up it’s pocketbooks to build a new stadium?

Charlotte businessman and Hornets co-owner Felix Sabates has been working to put together a local ownership group.

“Growing to seven, and I probably have eight or nine other qualified people that have called that want to join our group,” Sabates told WCCB Charlotte anchor Morgan Fogarty on Friday.

He says the only option would be to build a new stadium, with a dome, more luxury suites, and more room for parking.

“We’re not going to do anything without a new arena,” Sabates says.

Currently, the Panthers largest minority shareholders are the Belk family at five percent, the Levine family with 10 percent, and Steve and Jerry Wordsworth with 16 percent.

Potential outsiders include Bruton Smith of Speedway Motorsports and rap mogul “Diddy,” who tweeted he’d be interested.

But with Forbes valuing the team at $2.3 Billion, there could be few local ownership options.

“If you have someone wanting to take the team to another city, who might offer, for example a free two billion dollar stadium, then I think there would be that competition,” said former Mayor Pro Tem Michael Barnes on December 18th.