At a time when free cash is getting more durable and more durable for the NFL’s oligarchs to return by, Panthers proprietor David Tepper is about to get some.
As in $650 million.
Through Joe Particular person of TheAthletic.com, Charlotte Metropolis Council will vote tonight on the proposal to renovate the 29-year-old stadium the place the Panthers play.
Particular person predicts, based mostly on the “tenor of the conferences through the venture’s unveiling and a public discussion board final week,” that the 11 members of metropolis council “are anticipated to approve the renovations, doubtless by a lopsided margin.”
On the danger of getting a drink thrown in his face and/or the hat faraway from his head, Particular person says that “the renovations really feel like they’re getting shoved down Charlotte’s collective throat.”
However, hey, that’s one of the best ways to pry cash from somebody’s pockets — particularly in a political local weather the place it’s far simpler to divert taxpayer cash to needy billionaires via non-democratic processes. Certainly, if the difficulty had been put to a public vote in Charlotte, the proposal can be rejected, doubtless by a lopsided margin.
Amongst elected officers, there’s a larger willingness to play ball with those that wish to play video games in stadiums for which they didn’t pay full freight. Possibly they don’t worry repercussions on the poll field. Possibly they don’t wish to give future opponents the flexibility to say they’re accountable for a crew leaving.
Regardless, Charlotte Metropolis Council is about to provide $650 million to their carpetbagging bully of a billionaire if solely as a result of they worry he’ll transfer his soccer and soccer groups to a brand new metropolis in the event that they don’t.
So long as metropolis councils and county commissions and state legislatures and executives will give individuals what they need however don’t want, taxpayer cash will proceed to go to locations aside from the place it’s wanted.
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