CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) – Bank of America Stadium renovations and upgrades, paid for by taxpayers and Tepper Sports Entertainment, took a small step forward Monday night when team representatives filed rezoning plans with the city of Charlotte.
The documents filed Monday, Dec. 16 mention interesting new details about Tepper Sports’ potential vision for the stadium, both now and in the long term. Tepper Sports owns and operates the Carolina Panthers, Charlotte Football Club, and the Charlotte stadium where they play.
“We’ve initiated the stadium rezoning process as it is a necessary step for the renovation,” a Tepper Sports & Entertainment spokesperson said.
Under proposed uses, the filing lists indoor and outdoor performance venues, restaurant, bar and retail. The proposed uses list also includes “events and wagering facilities authorized under state law,” even though a spokesperson for Tepper Sports said it has no current plans to include any such facility.
The zoning change application also lists several sustainability, public amenity, and city improvement aspects that could potentially be part of the project. That includes installing a public art feature, construction of a new pathway between Moorehead and Mint streets, and numerous light and HVAC upgrades that could reduce the stadium’s carbon footprint.
All of those plans are just possibilities at the moment. The zoning process will take months of public meetings and city council consideration before a vote.
The zoning application seeks to change the stadium’s zoning to the Uptown Core District and is required because of potential use changes and the city’s ever evolving Unified Development Ordinance.
In June, the Charlotte City Council voted in favor of giving $650 million to help fund the project. The tentative agreement also requires Tepper Sports to provide $150 million up front, with promises to invest hundreds of millions more over the next several years.
The project plans revealed by Tepper Sports this summer call for new stadium seats, a new sound system, a revamped concourse area with giant video monitors, and a redesigned pavilion area outside the stadium that would serve as a gathering area for fans before and after events.
The agreement also comes with a 20-year non-relocation clause, meaning the Panthers could not leave for at least the next two decades. Some Charlotte business leaders are hopeful the stadium plans will provide an economic boon to the Uptown area.
WBTV’s previous investigations into Tepper Sports & Entertainment provide council members with reasons to proceed cautiously with the company’s stadium plans involving taxpayer dollars.
In September, WBTV revealed the Carolina Panthers were more than a year late paying for off duty officers conducting NFL gameday traffic. The payments were only made to the city of Charlotte after WBTV started investigating.
In September 2022, a WBTV investigation on the failed Panthers-Rock Hill practice facility and headquarters raised questions about whether the project was doomed from the start. The investigation found the amount of bond money agreed to by Rock Hill was far more public investment than other similar projects, and simultaneously sidestepped key oversight steps.
This September, more than two years after the Carolina Panthers’ plans to build a practice facility and headquarters collapsed and dissolved into a legal battle, the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office announced there will be no criminal charges in the case.
A WBTV investigation from May 2022 reviewing public-private partnerships with Tepper Sports & Entertainment raised questions about how often the billionaire’s sports teams’ plans shifted in the short tenure of his ownership.
Check out a rezoning document below.
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