Charlotte web commenters overwhelmingly say Panthers’ $650m stadium subsidy sucks

So while the Charlotte city government isn’t revealing the responses to the comment form it set up for the proposed Carolina Panthers stadium renovation deal that would cost taxpayers $650 million, WFAE public radio got ahold of the results, and they’re not pretty:

A review of the responses shows that roughly 300 of the 450 people who responded online said they opposed the deal. The most common reason they gave: The city should not use public dollars to subsidize a multi-billionaire, David Tepper. People said he should “pay for his own damn stadium.”…

There were roughly 85 people who were enthusiastic about the project, saying it would raise the city’s profile.

There were roughly 70 who weren’t for or against it. They just said they wanted things like real grass instead of artificial turf or a canopy over the stands.

Now, this is a web poll, which is about the most unscientific thing possible, so we have no idea how well this represents Charlotte residents as a whole, or whether many respondents don’t even live in North Carolina or are dogs or whatever. Still, 300 comments opposed and 85 in favor is not a great ratio, which is no doubt why Charlotte economic development director Tracy Dodson avoided mentioning any numbers in her Monday presentation of the survey results, instead just saying that some people wanted the money used for other things, while others wanted to create opportunities for local businesses — the truth surely must lie somewhere in the middle!

At the behest of five of the 11 city councilmembers (Dimple Ajmera, Renee Johnson, Victoria Watlington, Tiawana Brown, and LaWana Mayfield), the council agreed to move up its single public comment period on the stadium plan from the same day as its June 24 final vote on the project to a week earlier, next Monday, June 17. So we should get a little better sense then of the actual mood of the local public.

Dodson, meanwhile, isn’t waiting to make her own public comments, raising even more eyebrows yesterday by insisting that the $650 million in hotel and restaurant tax money the city would spend on stadium renovations “isn’t going to Tepper Sports and Entertainment” but “is going to a community asset, the facility,” leading to this hilariously patient explanation from WFAE:

Under the plan, the city would spend $650 million worth of hotel/motel and prepared food and beverage taxes on the stadium, which is owned by David Tepper’s company. While the city might write a check to contractors, all of the resulting improvements would also be owned by Tepper.

The money would increase the value of the stadium, allowing the owner to generate more money from games, concerts and other events.

It would be like agreeing to pay for a new roof for your friend’s house. That friend would still own the house and the roof — even if you then claimed the money didn’t go to the friend because you paid the roofer directly.

It’s currently unclear which way the Charlotte city council is leaning on its vote, but maybe we’ll get more insights after Monday’s public hearing, which will last from … 3 to 5 p.m., really, they’ve only allotted two hours for this? It’s also still not on the city public hearing calendar, so unclear if it will be livestreamed, but I’ll post an update here if a link turns up.