Charlotte should make Panthers put money in first (06-05-2024--Hour1)

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[00:00:29] So yesterday we started talking a little bit about the deal that has been constructed

[00:00:37] for renovations of the Panther Stadium here in Charlotte.

[00:00:41] And over the ensuing hours, I have come to realize a large mistake that I made yesterday.

[00:00:50] So I feel like I need to correct that mistake right out of the gate.

[00:00:54] So first off, this part I'm not correcting because it's true.

[00:00:57] I disapprove of taxpayer funds being used for stadia, arenas, whatever.

[00:01:06] These are billionaire owners.

[00:01:09] They can afford to build their own buildings.

[00:01:11] The city can help with if they're trying to do like mixed use, you know, joint use

[00:01:16] facilities.

[00:01:17] They want to stick a transit center as part of the arena, whatever.

[00:01:22] Okay, fine.

[00:01:23] You can work together on stuff like that.

[00:01:25] But when it comes to building the building, if the owner is going to own the building,

[00:01:29] then you own the building.

[00:01:31] It's your playground, right?

[00:01:33] It's yours and you should pay property taxes on it just like everybody else.

[00:01:37] So that has not changed.

[00:01:40] Now that being said, I said yesterday that the structure of the deal, again, knowing

[00:01:48] that I oppose these types of deals, but the structure of the deal seemed okay.

[00:01:54] My first look at it during the presentation to the Charlotte City Council on Monday, looking

[00:02:02] at the phasing and the amount of money being spent out of already existing revenue streams,

[00:02:09] it seemed okay.

[00:02:12] I've changed my mind.

[00:02:13] Well, I shouldn't say I changed my mind.

[00:02:18] I'm now back on the fence on this thing because I have now heard a different argument.

[00:02:24] I'm going to play for you a portion of a YouTube podcast or YouTube program that is

[00:02:32] hosted by a fella named David Samson.

[00:02:37] David Samson is the former president of the, I've just learned, Miami Marlins.

[00:02:44] I always thought they were the Florida Marlins, but apparently they've been the Miami Marlins

[00:02:48] for a while, which shows how much I've been following baseball.

[00:02:50] But he's the former president of the Miami Marlins.

[00:02:54] He was the president from 2002 all the way through 2017.

[00:03:00] And he got, I believe, a stadium built for his team.

[00:03:04] He says, well, here, I'll just play it for you.

[00:03:07] And the key takeaway for me is that David Tepper, the owner of the Panthers, needs to

[00:03:13] front the money.

[00:03:14] He needs to put his expenditures up first.

[00:03:18] The other thing that happens in sports, in the boardroom, in the C-suite, and it's not

[00:03:24] going to stop, is public financing for new ballparks or to renovate old ballparks.

[00:03:34] After the Marlins got Marlins Park, that's it.

[00:03:36] It's the end of the world.

[00:03:37] No more public financing.

[00:03:38] Really?

[00:03:40] After Buffalo Bills get a billion dollars plus, oh, this can't be.

[00:03:44] This is outrageous.

[00:03:45] Let's stop.

[00:03:46] The Kansas City Chiefs and Royals, their referendum doesn't pass and people say that's it.

[00:03:52] We knew it.

[00:03:53] This has been the end of the public financing portion of our show.

[00:03:58] No.

[00:04:00] We told you on Nothing Personal, referendums always lose.

[00:04:03] You don't ever want a referendum.

[00:04:06] But that's not the end of public financing.

[00:04:09] What if the owners of total, I was going to say a bad word.

[00:04:14] I don't want to say it.

[00:04:15] Thank you.

[00:04:16] David Tepper of the Panthers.

[00:04:18] But I will tell you, anyone who goes into business with David Tepper, the owner of

[00:04:22] the Carolina Panthers, you have to have your head examined.

[00:04:26] How many segments did we do where David Tepper has shown his colors?

[00:04:31] Forget, I'm not even talking about the fact that his team stinks.

[00:04:34] He can't hire coaches.

[00:04:35] He hires, he fires.

[00:04:36] He's paying 10 coaches at a time.

[00:04:38] He can't figure out how to win.

[00:04:40] That happens.

[00:04:43] Good men and women can own teams and not figure out how to win.

[00:04:49] David Tepper is a scoundrel for what he did in that community.

[00:04:55] The fact that he walked away from the practice facility.

[00:04:58] Practice, remember that?

[00:05:00] They were in the middle of building a facility and all of a sudden there was no more money

[00:05:04] and Tepper was like, you better get more public money.

[00:05:07] They said, hey, screw you.

[00:05:08] You put in the money.

[00:05:09] They said, ah, screw you, not screw me.

[00:05:12] And they stopped building the thing like ended up half built.

[00:05:16] I remember that.

[00:05:18] Well, for whatever reason, David Tepper has announced a $800 million stadium upgrade plan.

[00:05:28] You surely Leslie Nielsen did not think that he was going to pay for that on his own.

[00:05:36] A, the other NFL owners would never allow it.

[00:05:38] Terrible precedent.

[00:05:41] And you get that?

[00:05:43] The other NFL owners would never allow it.

[00:05:46] They would never allow him to try to build something on his own.

[00:05:53] So this is, as I suggested yesterday, I said, I almost bet that this is what's going on.

[00:05:58] It's like a game for these guys, whatever.

[00:06:00] So here he is.

[00:06:01] He's saying, yeah, basically this is it.

[00:06:03] The other owners are not going to let you put up the money to build your own stadium

[00:06:07] because then everybody else is going to have to put up their own money and they don't want

[00:06:11] to do it.

[00:06:12] Right.

[00:06:13] Socialize the losses, capitalize the profits.

[00:06:16] Right.

[00:06:17] When I'm making all the money while I'm a capitalist.

[00:06:19] Oh, now I'm losing all the money.

[00:06:20] I got to make all these expenditures.

[00:06:22] Well, community good, public good socialism for me.

[00:06:26] But just on this, don't at me with Steve Ross did it all on his own.

[00:06:31] That's horse hockey.

[00:06:32] There was public money for pro players stadium.

[00:06:34] Now Hard Rock Stadium.

[00:06:36] It's a city of public money.

[00:06:41] This deal in Charlotte.

[00:06:44] Calls for six hundred and fifty million dollars in taxpayer money.

[00:06:49] But it's all coming from a tourism tax.

[00:06:54] Those are my favorite taxes.

[00:06:57] That's the tax that when you visit a place.

[00:06:59] You look at your hotel bill and you see a certain percentage for a bed tax or a convention

[00:07:05] center tax or a hotel tax.

[00:07:08] Tourism tax.

[00:07:09] And you say, hey, that stinks.

[00:07:13] I better find a hotel website that gives me all in, including all these taxes and fees,

[00:07:18] because otherwise what's being advertised is totally wrong.

[00:07:24] And if you're using those tax dollars to fund stadiums, of course, I'm supportive of that

[00:07:30] because that's what I did in Miami.

[00:07:33] The problem is that they're assuming that Tepper is going to invest one hundred and

[00:07:39] fifty million dollars.

[00:07:41] That's how you get to eight hundred six fifty for the public, one fifty from him.

[00:07:45] They're assuming that he's going to pay for CapEx.

[00:07:48] And the way they frame that such funny PR use.

[00:07:53] What they say is.

[00:07:57] The team plans to invest an additional four hundred and twenty one million over the life

[00:08:02] of the deal.

[00:08:04] And the deal is the 20 year additional lease where you get a 20 year non relocation.

[00:08:09] I'll never leave Carolina, I promise.

[00:08:12] And I will pay all the CapEx, I promise.

[00:08:16] Teams are lying when they say that.

[00:08:19] Where did the four hundred and twenty million dollars come from?

[00:08:21] Show me that in the agreement with Carolina.

[00:08:24] Bring it to me.

[00:08:25] I want to see the exact flow of funds and the exact contractual requirement for the

[00:08:32] additional investment of four hundred and twenty one million.

[00:08:35] Is it in the form of overtime over the 20 years?

[00:08:40] Does it add up to four twenty one total?

[00:08:42] So present value back is closer to 200.

[00:08:45] Is there any opening that the money will be used only for blank sort of CapEx, new seats,

[00:08:50] new scoreboard?

[00:08:51] Anything else that happens, we're going to be silent or the public has to be helpful.

[00:08:57] Trans fricking parency.

[00:09:01] I love the transparency with the Marlins Park deal.

[00:09:04] I told you all I was going to be where the money was coming from, what we were going to

[00:09:08] do, what we weren't going to do.

[00:09:09] I wore it like a badge.

[00:09:12] Damn right, I was proud of it.

[00:09:14] And it was totally up to the politicians and then totally up to you if you like it or not

[00:09:18] like the deal.

[00:09:20] But let's not mislead anybody.

[00:09:25] I'm fascinated by it.

[00:09:28] Can you imagine if Tepper doesn't have to put the first money in?

[00:09:32] All this money and then they're looking around and he's like, ah, not doing it anymore.

[00:09:37] Changed my mind.

[00:09:38] Christ, what are we going to do now?

[00:09:41] That's just Tepper.

[00:09:44] If he can get public money and your favorite team cannot get a deal done, then the people

[00:09:49] who are doing the deal on behalf of your favorite team stink at their job.

[00:09:54] Stink.

[00:09:55] OK, so now I'm thinking I was a bit wrong on the on the nature of the deal.

[00:10:02] And I'm with Mr. Samson.

[00:10:04] I think, yes, I think Tepper needs to put the first money in.

[00:10:07] OK, if you're listening to this podcast, you are obviously paying attention to the world

[00:10:11] around us.

[00:10:12] You also have really great taste, I might add.

[00:10:15] But if you haven't started getting prepared for various emergencies, I got to ask, what

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[00:10:58] Will you be ready when the lights go out?

[00:11:01] I do have some some emails here to do.

[00:11:06] So this is from Dennis, who says it would be nice to see Tepper spend some of his fortune

[00:11:11] to pay for getting some better talent to put on the field.

[00:11:14] I don't think him shopping in the bargain basement of players has been a productive situation.

[00:11:19] Well, when you spend all of your money to hire and fire a boatload of coaches that don't

[00:11:25] actually coach for you anymore.

[00:11:26] How many coaches are we still paying, by the way?

[00:11:30] Is it like six at this point?

[00:11:32] I forget.

[00:11:33] Anyway, I will see how this goes.

[00:11:35] Troop, welcome to the program.

[00:11:37] Hey, how you doing today?

[00:11:39] Hey, well, I'm all right.

[00:11:40] How are you?

[00:11:41] If I was any better, I'd be you.

[00:11:44] Well, that's awesome.

[00:11:46] Look at him, my friend.

[00:11:48] You talking about David Tepper, aka Homer Stokes.

[00:11:53] You know who Homer Stokes is?

[00:11:56] He's from Oh Brother Where Art Thou?

[00:12:00] Yeah, yeah.

[00:12:04] Yeah, now he owns a football team.

[00:12:09] Anyway, I feel sorry for the Panthers, the players, all the fans, everything.

[00:12:16] But I got to tell you, the way Homer Stokes did York County and all, it wouldn't bother

[00:12:22] me if I even went again.

[00:12:25] Are you in Rock Hill or York County?

[00:12:28] I'm down in Chester County.

[00:12:30] Yeah, okay.

[00:12:31] So do you know where the Kirby Auto Mall used to be?

[00:12:37] Yes, sir.

[00:12:38] Yeah, right across the street from the Black Angus Steakhouse, right?

[00:12:41] Yeah, well, I know it's right there.

[00:12:47] I used to co-host a show called the Chester Motor Speedway Live Show.

[00:12:54] Oh, okay.

[00:12:56] Have you ever gone to the Chester Motor Dirt Track?

[00:12:58] Oh, yes, sir.

[00:13:00] There you go.

[00:13:01] That's true.

[00:13:02] You're growing up in it now.

[00:13:03] Oh, really?

[00:13:05] Herb Hobgood, the former owner of the track.

[00:13:09] Dirtiest event I've ever been to.

[00:13:12] Like, just the amount of dirt that just is in the air.

[00:13:15] Thank you, Pete.

[00:13:17] I appreciate it.

[00:13:18] Thanks.

[00:13:19] That's a problem.

[00:13:24] I said it at the time.

[00:13:25] The deal that fell apart in South Carolina for the big practice facility, and you can

[00:13:32] blame the local politicians, you could blame David Tepper, whatever the case.

[00:13:36] That does not inspire confidence to enter into deals with Mr. Tepper.

[00:13:43] And look, I don't know the guy, never met him.

[00:13:46] I've only seen a couple of brief sound bites of him over the years.

[00:13:52] I don't wish him any ill will.

[00:13:54] In fact, I wish him all the best.

[00:13:55] I hope that he's able to build a successful franchise.

[00:13:59] I would very much love to be able to, you know, cheer for the Panthers in public again.

[00:14:06] Right?

[00:14:07] I mean, that would be a nice thing to be able to wear some Panther gear and not be ridiculed

[00:14:12] for it.

[00:14:13] I'm okay.

[00:14:14] Look, I'm even okay because now that I have some Panther gear that I bought at rock bottom

[00:14:18] pricing, now if it appreciates, you know, and then they start selling this stuff for

[00:14:23] way more, I'm okay with that too.

[00:14:26] I might even go out and buy another piece of merchandise in order to support the team

[00:14:30] at that point.

[00:14:31] But it's very difficult to do when you feel the product like has been on the field, but

[00:14:38] that is separate.

[00:14:40] This is a business deal, right?

[00:14:43] By the way, the guy who I played that clip from David Samson, the name of his, of his

[00:14:49] show, his YouTube show that he does is called nothing personal.

[00:14:54] And that really is the case here.

[00:14:56] This isn't personal.

[00:14:57] This is business, right?

[00:14:59] And so because I don't trust you, I, and because I do kind of trust this guy who was the president

[00:15:07] of the Miami Marlins for 15 years.

[00:15:09] And before that he was a, like a, an assistant or executive vice president or something with

[00:15:14] the Montreal Expos, which is, I think that they moved the team from Montreal down to Florida.

[00:15:21] Guy's got decades of experience in the field, in this, you know, this very rarefied industry,

[00:15:29] knows how these deals get put together and knows Tepper's history.

[00:15:35] And now my fear is that we start to, we start directing $650 million to pay for the renovations

[00:15:46] of the stadium and Tepper only has to put up $150 million for the immediate renovations.

[00:15:54] And then $421 million for what's called anticipated future renovation costs and capital improvements.

[00:16:03] But Samson has a very good point.

[00:16:05] Is that $421 million in today's dollars?

[00:16:08] And do you adjust for inflation going forward?

[00:16:11] Or is it $421 million by year 20?

[00:16:14] In which case then when you factor in inflation, it's actually just a $200 million cost in current dollars.

[00:16:23] And what happens if he decides at some point 10, 15 years down the road, he says, you know what, I'm out.

[00:16:29] Or even five years down the road, after the city has sunk $650 million in and now it's like, oh, we need some more stuff.

[00:16:37] So it's like, oh, you can better pay up right now or I'm gone.

[00:16:41] You've already sunk $650 into it.

[00:16:43] The email is Pete at the Pete calendar show.com.

[00:16:47] Although for some reason I just tried to, oh, there we go.

[00:16:50] Okay. Just said, oh, network error.

[00:16:52] Okay, well let me just do this.

[00:16:53] I'll go over and talk to Dave.

[00:16:54] Hello, Dave.

[00:16:55] Welcome to the program.

[00:16:56] How are you?

[00:16:57] Hey Pete.

[00:16:58] Hey, wait, hang on a second.

[00:16:59] Is this isn't Dave Tepper?

[00:17:00] Is it?

[00:17:01] No, no, no.

[00:17:03] Please.

[00:17:04] Please.

[00:17:05] Wait, really?

[00:17:06] I'm not a third year.

[00:17:07] Oh, no, but really like for $20 billion?

[00:17:10] No, no, no.

[00:17:12] No, all right.

[00:17:13] He makes the other Dave's in the world better.

[00:17:18] You know, it's a shame of having that name.

[00:17:21] But anyway, I'm here to inflate your ego and just agree with you because I too do not want any penny of public money to go towards any billionaire's project.

[00:17:33] But I am also a Rock Hill resident.

[00:17:35] I live about less than a mile from that defunct job site.

[00:17:40] And anybody who would do business with that shyster is just beyond me.

[00:17:49] I mean, I guess I'm going to answer my own question here.

[00:17:52] Is everybody down at city council or wherever county council is stupid?

[00:17:59] Didn't he already break one deal with them with the soccer stuff at Eastland Mall?

[00:18:04] Yeah, that was the other one.

[00:18:05] He was going to do the big soccer headquarters for the team and a couple of soccer fields and all this other stuff at the empty Eastland Mall site.

[00:18:16] And then he pulled out of that one too.

[00:18:18] Yeah, I want to just leave because he's just I love the Panthers.

[00:18:26] They're my team, but man, he makes it so difficult to root for them.

[00:18:31] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:18:33] I agree, Dave.

[00:18:34] I appreciate the call.

[00:18:35] You're right.

[00:18:36] Everything you said is right.

[00:18:37] Well, thanks.

[00:18:38] I appreciate it.

[00:18:41] Agreement is not necessary, by the way.

[00:18:43] You can get on if you disagree to some of my best callers are ones I disagree with.

[00:18:49] Some of my best friends.

[00:18:50] OK, Jack, welcome to the program.

[00:18:52] Hello, Jack.

[00:18:53] Hey, Pete.

[00:18:54] How you doing, buddy?

[00:18:55] Go ahead.

[00:18:56] What's going on?

[00:18:57] Hey, I agree with you about your concern about this money that we're getting ready to give the Panthers and Tepper for the stadium.

[00:19:03] This is just a continuation of what always happens in cities and municipalities with sports facilities.

[00:19:09] I mean, the owners keep coming back and back for more and more, and this will not be the last time.

[00:19:16] So I'd like to, from a city council standpoint, I'd like to see somebody see us impose a performance tax or performance fine against them.

[00:19:25] Ooh!

[00:19:26] You know, we're going to make these improvements, so let's say, you know, for every time you lose a home game,

[00:19:32] you have to pay a fine or a tax of maybe $100,000 that the city gives to a deserving charity.

[00:19:41] If you don't make the playoffs, maybe we up that to a million or two million that you have to pay the city, and we give that to charity.

[00:19:48] I mean, he's got to put some skin in the game from a performance standpoint.

[00:19:53] So I thought you were going to start talking about performance bonds or something like that,

[00:19:58] but you just went straight to the on-field performance and tying that.

[00:20:05] Because that's the issue.

[00:20:07] When you call your friends in other cities, you can't brag about how good your stadium looks when your team looks the way it looks.

[00:20:15] I mean, we can't call other people and brag about our team anymore, man.

[00:20:20] Our Panthers and our Hornets are in the docks, you know?

[00:20:23] And so he's got to say, hey, if we don't perform, this is what we're going to give back to the city for the good faith

[00:20:30] and the money that you've invested in the team, because we have an investment in this also.

[00:20:35] So if I were to adopt your idea, and we are in the cone of creativity, so there are no bad ideas in the cone of creativity.

[00:20:44] So I would say if he doesn't want to agree to your performance tax idea, then he needs to put first money in.

[00:20:55] They need to put the $650 million up first, we'll take care of the stuff on the back end, and then there's no performance tax.

[00:21:02] Would that be a deal you could strike with him?

[00:21:05] I could live with that, but you and I know that's probably not going to happen.

[00:21:11] I think the odds of that happening are pretty low.

[00:21:13] I don't know if you ever watched Brian Gumbel, Real Sports.

[00:21:17] A long time ago, yeah, when it first came out.

[00:21:20] A few years ago, he did a story.

[00:21:23] They did a really good story on this same issue about cities and counties putting money up for stadiums and all this.

[00:21:33] And the conclusion of the story was that we always lose from a financial standpoint.

[00:21:40] We always lose.

[00:21:41] We never win because nobody wants to see us lose the team under any circumstances.

[00:21:47] So we're going to do whatever it takes to appease the owners and keep the team.

[00:21:51] I was listening to a podcast that was put up by Tony Messia over at the Charlotte Ledger.

[00:21:59] He interviewed Dr. Fred Smith from Davidson College, who's an economist up there.

[00:22:03] And he pointed this very thing out.

[00:22:05] He said that the incentives of the politicians are not aligned with that of the taxpayers.

[00:22:11] Because the politicians never want to be the ones to oversee the loss of a team.

[00:22:16] They don't want that to be on their watch.

[00:22:19] Hey, I'll say one more thing, and I hope you don't mind me saying this, but you and I have talked several times,

[00:22:26] especially about city politics.

[00:22:28] I am seriously considering running for city council.

[00:22:31] Really?

[00:22:32] Yes, sir.

[00:22:33] At large or in a district?

[00:22:36] At large.

[00:22:37] Okay.

[00:22:38] Unaffiliated Democrat or Republican?

[00:22:42] I'll run as a Democrat because, you've got to be honest, I am a Democrat, a Democrat all my life.

[00:22:49] But in this city, if you're going to get elected to a net large position on city council,

[00:22:54] you've got to be a Democrat at this point in time.

[00:22:56] Well, yeah, that is true.

[00:22:58] Unless you're in like Ed Driggs' district or, at this point, maybe Charles Bakari.

[00:23:03] I live in Bakari's district.

[00:23:05] So they're districts, so certainly they can win, but you can't win at large in Charlotte right now as a Republican.

[00:23:13] Yeah, no, I don't even think they put candidates up all the time either.

[00:23:17] Last time, they either ran one or they didn't run a slate last election.

[00:23:22] Yeah, I think that's right.

[00:23:23] Jack, I appreciate the call, sir.

[00:23:25] Thanks, buddy.

[00:23:26] All right, buddy, take care.

[00:23:27] We're talking about the deal for the Panther Stadium renovations.

[00:23:30] 704-570-1110, 1-800-WBT-1110.

[00:23:33] Up next is Bo.

[00:23:34] Hello, Bo, welcome to the show.

[00:23:36] Hey.

[00:23:37] Hey, what's up?

[00:23:38] Well, I have a question.

[00:23:40] All right.

[00:23:41] I'm making an investment, and I'll say it's a $3 million project, and I invest a million dollars.

[00:23:46] I generally have 33% ownership of that, and I'm just wondering how much ownership is the city of Charlotte going to have in our team?

[00:23:54] All right, hang on a second.

[00:23:56] Hang on.

[00:23:57] I have it here somewhere.

[00:23:58] It is nothing.

[00:24:00] You will get nothing, and you will be happy about it.

[00:24:03] Yeah, that's exactly what I thought.

[00:24:05] Well, that's the beauty of the hotel tax, yeah, the tourism taxes.

[00:24:10] See, we're taxing people that don't live here supposedly, and so therefore we can't give them ownership.

[00:24:16] Yeah, with Tepper's record, it truly is just a travesty that we have to work with him for our stadium.

[00:24:23] Yeah.

[00:24:24] I mean, and this is the thing.

[00:24:26] Again, like I don't know all of the inner workings of the different deals, why they fell apart and everything like that, and that's not my fault.

[00:24:33] I've looked up as much as I can look up about it.

[00:24:35] I've read as much as I can read about those deals, but you're never going to have complete insight into everything that happened, right?

[00:24:44] So we are left to have to make a judgment about how to proceed based on what we know that's public information,

[00:24:52] and none of that stuff looks very—again, it doesn't inspire confidence to do deals.

[00:24:58] Right, yeah. Well, I live in York County, and I drive by his Rock Hill deal often.

[00:25:05] What does it look like now? Have they turned it into a—was it like a storage center or something by now?

[00:25:10] They have a multitude of things going on there, but obviously none of them are related to the Panthers.

[00:25:16] Yeah.

[00:25:17] It's going to be a very nice interchange on the highway.

[00:25:20] Yeah, no, that's true. At least you got the interchange done. That's true.

[00:25:23] Hey, Bo, I appreciate the call. I'm just kidding about the storage facility.

[00:25:28] I don't know what they're doing with it.

[00:25:31] I just get the sense that there are these storage locker facilities going up everywhere.

[00:25:37] So if I had to guess what's going to go there, that would be my guess, or apartments.

[00:25:41] All right. Mark, welcome to the show. Hello, Mark.

[00:25:45] Hey, B. How are you?

[00:25:46] Good, man. What's up?

[00:25:47] Good. So I wanted to piggyback on that one guy that called in talking about the performance stipulation.

[00:25:55] Like, I like that. I like that idea.

[00:25:57] But let's—and not to sidetrack and get down a rabbit hole, but let's do this with Charlotte-Beckenberg schools too.

[00:26:05] You want millions and millions of dollars.

[00:26:08] Pete, this morning when I heard they pushed that through, I was so pissed off as a homeowner, as a taxpayer,

[00:26:15] because the schools—if I showed up at work every day and didn't increase my productivity or get better at my job,

[00:26:25] I wouldn't get more pay at my review.

[00:26:28] But CMS just flies by.

[00:26:31] So again, so let's not go down that road, but let's hold CMS to the same standard.

[00:26:36] The other thing that pisses me off with this whole—with the Tepper deal, you keep saying—you mentioned—

[00:26:42] you corrected yourself, said the tourist tax.

[00:26:44] Yeah.

[00:26:45] The tourist tax also goes to the restaurants.

[00:26:47] Correct.

[00:26:48] The restaurants that we all eat at.

[00:26:49] Correct. The prepared food and beverage tax is part of it.

[00:26:52] There are two separate revenue streams, one from the hotels and motels, and then the other comes from prepared food and beverage.

[00:26:58] And I would submit that is mostly us.

[00:27:00] Right. So it's like we can't escape it.

[00:27:04] And so I would really—here's what I would love, is I would love somebody to really do an in-depth scrub of county commissioners

[00:27:12] and city council bank records to see if by some chance there's some backroom deals with Tepper's name on it.

[00:27:21] Well, there doesn't even need to be that.

[00:27:24] The incentives are right out there in the open for everyone, right?

[00:27:27] Number one, they don't want to be the leaders in charge if the team leaves, right?

[00:27:33] They want to be able to celebrate, be at the ribbon cuttings and get all of the glory for keeping the team around, right?

[00:27:40] Number one.

[00:27:41] And the other is that they get to rub elbows with these billionaires and such.

[00:27:47] They get to be included in the club.

[00:27:50] I mean, it's not real inclusion in the club, but kind of, right?

[00:27:53] You're like in the orbit.

[00:27:54] And that's the incentives here.

[00:27:56] So it doesn't have to be any backroom deals.

[00:27:59] Yeah, Mark, I appreciate the call.

[00:28:00] Let me go over to Craig, too.

[00:28:02] Let me get Craig on before the end of the hour.

[00:28:04] Hey, man, what's up?

[00:28:06] Hey, so if the tax is going to go into effect before all this is done?

[00:28:12] It's already in effect.

[00:28:14] We've had these taxes in place for like 20 years, and they are earmarked for tourism-related projects, including Panther Stadium.

[00:28:25] Okay, so I was worried if this tax went into effect and he backed out, if the city would just keep the taxes, start using the money for other Democrat projects.

[00:28:32] Well, you're right.

[00:28:33] If he backs out, if—well, first off, here's my big fear, is that they do the renovations at the $650 million cost.

[00:28:45] And then after all of that money is spent, then there are things that break or whatever a year or two down the line.

[00:28:53] And he's supposed to be on the hook for that stuff, but he says, no, I'm not, different interpretation of the contracts or whatever.

[00:29:01] And then we're right back in the same boat, and we've already made these investments.

[00:29:05] And now we're stuck with this huge renovated stadium with nobody to play in it.

[00:29:11] That's my fear.

[00:29:14] Yeah.

[00:29:16] Well, you know what? Maybe we could start booking some music, because as I understand, we don't have any music in Charlotte.

[00:29:23] Well, at least we didn't until Dave Tepper came to town.

[00:29:27] That's what I remember hearing at some point.

[00:29:29] Yeah, I appreciate the call, Craig.

[00:29:30] Yeah, he brought music to Charlotte.

[00:29:33] We were in a town from Footloose before the ownership change.

[00:29:37] I don't know if you, I'm old enough to remember.

[00:29:39] You weren't even allowed to dance in Charlotte like in 2010.

[00:29:44] It's true.

[00:29:45] All right. That'll do it for this episode.

[00:29:47] Thank you so much for listening.

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[00:30:02] Again, thank you so much for listening.

[00:30:04] And don't break anything while I'm gone.