How much are the Panthers worth to the taxpayers of North Carolina? | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    Christian Hine, writing at Pundit House.com reports that House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger issued the following statement last week:

    "Conversations with the Carolina Panthers organization and local and legislative officials are ongoing and productive. The Panthers not only produce thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in economic impact, but are a source of pride for the Charlotte region and the entire state. We remain steadfast and committed to keeping the Panthers in North Carolina and will continue to work together to achieve that goal."

    Click here to go to the original source.

    For those, particularly Downeast, who have not been keeping up with what's going on in the Great State of Mecklenburg let us review.

    The Carolina Panthers want a new stadium. They want the taxpayer to pay for a major chunk of the cost. Something around $150 million of the estimated cost of over $300 million. Rumors have it that the most likely to get $150 million from the taxpayers is to impose an additional 'prepared food and beverage' tax. There have been insinuations from the owner of the Panthers that if they don't get a new stadium that he will move the team to another city. The idea in support of spending all that money is that the Panthers are an economic engine for Charlotte and indeed the economic development cheerleaders claim the ball team improves the economy of the region, including much of the state.

    We don't believe that. The major reason we don't believe a football team has a regional economic impact is that we have seen no solid data to support such a conclusion.

    Now we're not talking about the hype that comes from "tourism consultants" and experts. Rather, we have yet to see any solid data to show that the money that is spent by people attending football games in Charlotte was money that would not have been spent anyway, for something else, had the fans not gone to the football game. And one reason we doubt such events really generate more net revenue is because of our experience as a small business owner that operated a business (a convenience store at an interstate exchange.) It befell my lot to analyze our sales and try to determine what measure would boast sales and profits and how to avoid the opposite. About 40% of our business was non-local.

    Every year the local Chamber of Commerce sponsored a traditional festival that drew thousands from "near and far" according to their literature. They had consultant who told us how many boatloads of money the festival visitors spent. The only problem was our sales did not show that. After carefully monitoring our sales the few weekends before and after the festival and what happened during the weekend of the festival over several years when the crowd ebbed and flowed (typically as a result of weather) we had some pretty solid data. We crunched the numbers and found that we actually lost money because of the festival. And we never made as much more money that weekend than we contributed in advertising and special to support the event.

    We then checked with some other businesses and even collected some sales tax data. Same picture. While the festival goers did spend money in town that weekend, they spent less at local establishments than they did when there was no festival.

    Because this piqued our interest, we began to check with some other businesses in other towns that had such festivals or "regional events." Generally, we found the same pattern. Local business not only do not reap a bonanza, they actually lost sales.

    One of the most interesting situations we discovered was an oil company that owned several convenience stores in proximity to the State Fair Grounds in Raleigh. Few events in the state draw a larger unusual (not typical) crowd than does the State Fair. It comes two week-ends a year and it's gone before and afterwards. You would assume that local businesses would see a direct impact. Such is not typically the case we were told, and if those two weekends were significantly different from those before and after it was a negative impact, except for the sites that offered parking to fairgoers.

    Shortly after doing our research we read a report from some "travel and tourism" expert who posited that 250,000 visitors (or some such number) spent an average of $75 or so and concluded that the State Fair had an $18,750,000 economic impact. What the expert did not tell us was how much of that money would have been spent in Raleigh that weekend had the State Fair not been operating. Nor did they tell us how much of the $18,750,000 was immediately removed from the local economy as the fair left town. And, of course, they don't tell us how much the local businesses lost those two weekends.

    Absent some solid data, we just don't believe these "economic impact" numbers...for the State Fair, the Carolina Panthers or such happenings.

    But we would suggest there is a way to know how much the Panthers are "worth" and how to pay for a new stadium. Add it to the price of the tickets.
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