Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 2, 1995 TAG: 9506020061
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The franchise only Wednesday made its first trade in which a real, live player was acquired, but neither Barry Foster nor Frank Reich can claim to be the original Panther.
That was Richardson.
The son of former Baltimore receiver and Carolina pro football visionary Jerry Richardson, Mark wasn't just the Panthers' first employee. Hewas the Panthers eight years ago, even before the Richardson Sports group that landed the 29th NFL franchise was a legitimate dream.
``We ran it out of my living room,'' the younger Richardson said Wednesday night before impressively pitching the NFL team closest geographically to the Roanoke Valley Sports Club. ``It was me, a computer and a phone. Now we have 75 employees and 90 players.''
Richardson was twentysomething then, not long removed from being too small to play much linebacker for Clemson and from the Darden Graduate School of Business at Virginia. In the years since, he sold the Carolinas on their viability as an NFL location, sold the NFL on the same subject, then sold his dad and the league on privately financing the construction of a $180 million stadium with personal seat licenses, or ownership of a seat into infinity.
That's no longer a unique concept, just as the Panthers no longer are just a concept. They have four quarterbacks on the roster and a former Pro Bowl running back in Foster, acquired from Pittsburgh on Wednesday. His $2.7 million salary for 1995 is steep, but the Steelers' asking price wasn't. The Panthers gave up only one of their three sixth-round picks in the '96 draft.
That's cheaper than one of those PSLs.
In less than two months, the Panthers will take the field for the first time, in the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Game on July 29 in Canton, Ohio, against their fellow expansion cats, the Jacksonville Jaguars. And what is Richardson's immediate reaction to that?
``Finally,'' he said.
``Really, it is hard to believe it's that close,'' said Richardson, 35, the club's director of business operations. ``There were times during those 61/2 years before we were awarded the franchise when time seemed to stand still. Now, there are days when you feel like you're on a roller coaster. Since Oct.26, 1993 [the day the NFL awarded the franchise], it seems like it's been a blur.''
Before the Panthers step onto the field next month at Fawcett Stadium to meet the Jags, the Richardson ownership group will have committed $500 million to joining the NFL fraternity. Of that, $225 million was the franchise fee.
``When we started in 1987, we thought it would cost about $150 million to put a team on the field,'' Richardson said.
Of course, the Panthers won't have any trouble signing for the player payroll that must fit under the salary cap, up to $37.1 million per club this season. That's because the $4,864 playoff check Jerry Richardson received from the 1959 Colts has been parlayed into a food services business that grossed $3.4 billion last year.
And if there has been another surprise for the club, it has been the interest shown in the team outside the Carolinas. While the Panthers have a strong marketing presence in Charleston and Myrtle Beach, S.C., the closer proximity of the Roanoke Valley has the Panthers prowling into Redskin country.
``We marketed ourselves as a North and South Carolina team,'' Richardson said. ``We've been pleasantly surprised by the interest in Southwest Virginia, southern West Virginia and eastern Tennessee. We realize now that there's a base of NFL fans who are closer to us than they are to Washington, and they can't get tickets at RFK Stadium [which has been sold out since 1966]. It's an easier drive our way, too.''
The Panthers will play this season at Clemson, then hold about 7,800 tickets per game at 72,300-seat Carolinas Stadium - the one more than 50 percent complete in downtown Charlotte rising four football fields from I-77 - for single-game sales.
Carolina knows it never will replace Dallas as ``America's Team.'' It won't usurp the Redskins as Roanoke's team, either. However, there's no doubt the Panthers already are purring in your backyard.
by CNB