In what will probably go down as one of the least dramatic NFL votes of all-time, billionaire hedge-fund manager David Tepper was officially approved as the new owner of the Panthers on Tuesday after the league's 31 other owners voted unanimously to approve him during the first day of the NFL's Spring League meeting in Atlanta.
The vote to approve Tepper came less than one week after Carolina announced that the billionaire had reached a deal with current Panthers owner Jerry Richardson to buy the team. However, Tepper won't officially become the Panthers owner until the deal is completely finalized, which is expected to happen in July. According to NFL.com, Tepper will be paying $2.275 billion to purchase the team, which is a record for a North American sports franchise.
Richardson and his group of investors originally paid $206 million for the team in 1993.
With a net worth of roughly $11 billion, Tepper has more than enough money to foot the bill for the Panthers. Tepper made his money as the founder of Appaloosa Management, an $11 billion hedge-fund investment firm that he started in 1993, coincidentally the same year that Richardson bought the Panthers.
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This isn't the first time that Tepper has been an NFL owner. The 60-year-old billionaire bought a 5 percent stake in the Steelers in 2009, but he'll have to give that up before he officially takes over in Carolina.
During a short press conference on Tuesday, Tepper made it clear that he's about only one thing and it's a thing that Panthers fans will easily be able to get on board with.
"The first thing I care about is winning," Tepper said. "The second thing I care about is winning. The third thing I care about is winning. That's on and off the field. That includes the charity aspect, the community aspect and how you make the community better. So you win a lot of ways and I don't like to lose in any way."
One interesting thing that Tepper got asked about during his press conference was the possibility that he would relocate the Panthers. Although he said it would be "logical" to have a stadium in Charlotte, Tepper didn't rule out potentially putting the team in other parts of the "Carolinas."
"It's going to be the Carolina Panthers," Tepper said. "There's a logical place for this team and it's Charlotte and it is the Carolina Panthers and that means this team has to have some sort of presence in the Carolinas."
However, this doesn't mean people in South Carolina should be expecting the team to move there anytime soon, because Tepper also said he didn't have enough knowledge to answer any potential questions about a new stadium.
"As far as a new stadium, you're asking me too much and the only thing I have a market on right now is the lack of knowledge," Tepper said. "I like to know what I know and I know what I don't know, so I don't want to say too much what I don't know."
Tepper's purchase of the team comes five months after the Panthers were put up for sale. Richardson had announced in December that he would be selling the team following allegations of workplace misconduct. Richardson is currently being investigated by the NFL and has pretty much stayed out of the spotlight since the allegations became public following the publication of a Sports Illustrated story on Dec. 17.
In the story from SI, the magazine reported that several Panthers employees had complained about Richardson over a variety of things. Allegations against Richardson include inappropriately touching female employees and using a racial slur against a former team scout who's no longer with the Panthers.
Tepper offered only a few brief words when he was asked about the investigation.
"I'm a person that believes in equality for everybody, including men and women," Tepper said. "The past is the past, the future will be that."
Tepper is actually the second Steelers minority owner in six years to buy a team. Before purchasing the Browns in 2012, Cleveland owner Jimmy Haslam also owned a small stake in the Steelers. Panthers fans will be hoping that Tepper's first few seasons in Carolina go way better than Haslam's first few seasons with the Browns.
