CHARLOTTE (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Bank of America has become a name intertwined with the history and story of the Carolina Panthers, but after 20 years the future use of their name above 800 Mint St. is not so set in stone.
Bank of America and Tepper Sports Entertainment have been in talks over naming rights for the stadium past 2024, when the current contract ends.
BofA entered into a 20-year contract with the Panthers and Tepper in 2004 to the tune of about $7 million per season.
The new negotiations have been described as one of the most complex naming rights contract discussions in the NFL, and a hard number doesn’t accurately reflect the financial impacts this could have for both organizations.
Experts say both camps appear to be focused on the evaluation of the growth of the Charlotte market and the stadium has had on personal business over the past 20 years.
In 2004, the Carolina Panthers were a young team with a single Super Bowl appearance.
Today, the Panthers have made two Super Bowl appearances; while the stadium hosts events throughout the years which include games played by Charlotte FC, and concerts and entertainment events featuring the biggest names in the industry.
Dr. Craig Depken II, an economics professor at UNC Charlotte, explained that “when somebody says ‘live from Bank of America Stadium,’ or ‘here I am at Bank of America Stadium here’s my Instagram click.’ Every time that’s additional value.”
Depken has never been involved in naming rights negotiations but has studied them for decades.
From the study he’s done on past deals, he said that the only thing that would have changed in 20 years, “is value associated through social media and online networks. There have been people working on that. Trying to figure out how valu[able] those mentions of BofA [are] – fill in the bank with some tweet somewhere.”
“Bank of America is able to kind of parlay down to all of those together to the point to where they can say here is how all of those mentioned impact their business,” he said.
Queen City News reached out to representatives for both Bank of America and Tepper Sports Entertainment. Bank of America representatives said, “There’s nothing to report.”
Tepper Sports Entertainment representatives produced the following:
“Out of respect for our partners and the proprietary nature of our contracts, the organization does not publicly comment on the status of our partnerships.”
Both sides would not comment on the deadline for when an agreement would need to be reached.
