ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 25, 1996 TAG: 9608270016
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C.
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
THE CAROLINA PANTHERS have the NFL's most state of the art playpen.
Welcome to Kitty Land.
The large letters on the sides of the giant edifice bound by Mint Street, I-277 and the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks may say ``Ericsson Stadium,'' but there's little question who calls this city's newest monument to growth home.
At each of the three entrances to the new stadium, two panthers greet the sellout crowds which will appear next Sunday for the first NFL regular-season game of 1996.
Hold the kitty litter. These panthers are made of bronze and coated in a black patina. Each is 22 feet long, stands 8 feet tall atop marble pedestals and weighs nearly a ton. Each has its mouth open wide, teeth bared, and doesn't appear to be saying, ``meow.''
Still, plenty of people will spend autumn Sundays crossing the paths of these black cats.
The Carolina Panthers may be a second-year expansion team, but they have a stadium fit for a Super Bowl - which Charlotte could get, if it had more hotel rooms. Ericsson Stadium may be the nicest playpen in the NFL. It has 72,685 seats (all chairbacks), and almost every one has a drink cup and program holder in front.
It has 412 concession windows, unisex bathrooms, 137 private suites with a capacity to add 53 more, 13 elevators, 2,300 doors, two 50-foot high scoreboards, and a scoreboard control facility that's larger than many network TV production rooms. And on the exterior, it is black, silver and blue, the team colors.
It is distinctive, and it fits with downtown Charlotte, a section the city always has called ``uptown.'' Even the arches above the exterior walkways at the top of the stadium tell you what sport plays here. Etched into the arches are notches to look like they were imprinted with the laces of a football.
Through an adjacent railroad underpass, the Panthers' practice facility has two grass and one turfed field. Not that they necessarily have to work out there. The Panthers' locker room is so large, coach Dom Capers could have his players run their 40-yard dashes indoors.
It is huge, yet, it is not. From the highest seat in the stadium - what would be Section 548, Row 34, Seat 28, $19 above the corner of one end zone - you can see the Charlotte skyline. You also can read players' uniform numbers as they play on the grass field. That's because it's only 20 feet from the back of the end zones to the stadium wall, 50 feet from the sideline to those walls.
Most of what's inside and out at Ericsson Stadium is what Panthers founder and owner, Jerry Richardson, wanted. The Baltimore Colts receiver-turned-food mogul obviously is a detail man. He also must be an idea man.
``When Mr. Richardson told the architects he wanted the exterior of the stadium to be black, blue and silver, they told him he was crazy,'' said Lex Sant, a Panthers communications assistant and regular tour guide of the new stadium. ``He told them to figure out a way to do it.''
They did. The stadium is the largest structure in Charlotte, its square footage exceeding that of the 64-story NationsBank tower. It has a black obsidian granite stone facade, with lots of tinted glass - and the panther sculptures. It also was built with private funding, mostly through the Permanent Seat Licenses (PSLs) the club still is selling.
There are panther heads - the club logo - everywhere, such as the carved end of a bar rail in the club lounge. It is done without being overwhelming, however. The landscaping outside the stadium not only is generous, with 17,000 flowers and plants, but also is indigenous, including plantings popular in the Carolinas, like loblolly pines (North Carolina's state tree), crepe myrtles and willow oaks.
``The approach was to make it as enjoyable for the fans as possible,'' Sant said. ``Mr. Richardson's desire was to have the people coming here feel that they weren't just going to a football game, but that they would have a special experience.
``The stadium was designed so that every bit of space is used, but it isn't cluttered. You have the bathrooms here, the concession stands here. The idea was to keep people from standing in long lines, but when that happens at times, you don't miss the game. The radio call of the game is piped onto every concourse, and there are monitors you can watch.
``What is special about this place is the degree to which it's fan -friendly.''
The stadium was designed by HOK, the Kansas City, Mo., firm that has become known for its ballpark work, including Camden Yards, Joe Robbie Stadium, Coors Field, the TransWorld Dome and Chicago's United Center. HOK also is doing the Washington Redskins' new stadium, scheduled to open next season in Prince George's County, Md.
The facility has wider concourses than usual. Seats are 19 inches wide, 21 inches in club seating. The 412 concessions points means one sales berth for every 176 spectators. The average stadium provides one sales point per 300-350 of capacity. The club level and suites have a combined 39,000 square yards of carpet. Wheelchair seating is 1 percent of capacity.
Who paid for it?
The public did, and didn't. Of the $187 million to build the stadium, $56.4 million in tax money and $8 million in bonds went primarily for the stadium site land, road improvements and a nearby parking deck. The PSLs, seat ownership priced from $5,400 down to $600, are still selling.
The Panthers have sold about 2,000 PSLs just since the stadium opened Aug.3 for the club's preseason opener. About 2,500 remain available, in the stadium's upper level, for $3,000. In addition to the 55,000 PSL seats belonging to season-ticket holders, Sant said the club wanted to keep 10,000-15,000 seats available for single-game sales.
Yes, some of those are still available, too, at $32 and $19.
The suites come in five sizes, 10 to 16 or 40 seats. The smaller ones rent from $75,000 to $100,000 annually for a 10-game season, on 6- to 10-year leases. There also is money in the stadium name.
Ericsson, a Swedish manufacturer of cellular phones, has a U.S. base - appropriately for the Panthers' ownership family - in Richardson, Texas. One trade publication reports that 40 percent of all of the cellular phone calls made in this country are made on Ericsson equipment. The firm paid a reported $21 million, over eight or nine years, for title rights to the private facility.
It is the kind of stadium the NFL wants more of its franchises to have in the future. Besides Jack Kent Cooke's new privately funded home for the 'Skins, HOK is designing NFL stadiums in Baltimore, Nashville, Tampa Bay and Cleveland, which has been promised the Browns' replacement by 1999.
When the NFL owners' meetings were held here in May, the money men got a tour of the almost-finished Panthers' palace. They left envious. San Francisco 49ers president Carmen Policy said he was ``perplexed.''
``You've got the new kids on the block with a facility that's more than state of the art. It's actually beautiful. And we have a 50-year-old franchise with five Super Bowl trophies and by comparison we're living in a bombed-out zone [Candlestick - turned 3COM - Park].
``Maybe it wasn't a good idea for me to come here. Seeing this and leaving is just like going on a date with Michelle Pfeiffer and then going back home and expecting to have dinner with Minnie Pearl.''
There's a shorter way to explain how impressive Ericsson Stadium really is.
It's the cat's meow.
LENGTH: Long : 141 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN Staff. 1. Giant bronze panther statues,by CNBstanding 8 feet high and 22 feet long, and weighing nearly a ton
apiece, guard one of the three main entrances to the Carolina
Panthers' new Ericsson Stadium in Charlotte. 2. The Charlotte
skyline looms over the new 72,685-seat Ericsson Stadium, home of the
Carolina Panthers (left). 3. One of the many features at the
Panthers' new home includes a drink cup and program holder at almost
every seat (top). 4. Private suites like this one come in five sizes
at Ericsson Stadium. Small ones are $75,000 a year. 5. The
scoreboard control room is state of the art and resembles a
television production studio. color.