Ownership Info from Darin Gantt

[Carl Spackler]

Just now, RetiredCollegeCoach said:

That's fair. I guess I'm just tetchy because the guy who started this thread consistently pretends to be in the know while providing boilerplate analysis of secondhand sources that are a week or more old...while not knowing a single damn thing that hadn't already been reported - even things that are borderline open secrets.

Hey I'm with you, I'm washing my hands of the NFL if Navarro gets shafted -- because that means the NFL is shafting the Carolinas as a whole. 

[RetiredCollegeCoach]

Like, "I Am Number Four" was a cute joke two weeks ago. Anybody who's actually bothering to look into this themselves - f*ck, ask your bartender - knows who it is. I can read what Darin Gantt says on the internet already without this guy starting a thread.

[iamhubby1]

4 minutes ago, RetiredCollegeCoach said:

You can know right now if you pull your head up out of the sand and quit relying on your polite and uninformed internet "friends". The answer is f*cking well known.

 

    The more folks appear to ignore you, the saltier you become. Kinda ironic coming from someone who complains endlessly about how your "Son" is treated. 

 

    Shouldn't a good coach lead by example. Maybe that's why you are "Retired". Because you seem to have forgotten that one.

[Mr. Scot]

2 minutes ago, RetiredCollegeCoach said:

That's fair. I guess I'm just tetchy because the guy who started this thread consistently pretends to be in the know while providing boilerplate analysis of secondhand sources that are a week or more old...while not knowing a single damn thing that hadn't already been reported - even things that are borderline open secrets.

Actually, it's more that we know you're full of s--t.

[RetiredCollegeCoach]

4 minutes ago, iamhubby1 said:

 

    The more folks appear to ignore you, the saltier you become. Kinda ironic coming from someone who complains endlessly about how your "Son" is treated. 

 

    Shouldn't a good coach lead by example. Maybe that's why you are "Retired". Because you seem to have forgotten that one.

The list of reasons I retired is as long as your arm. If you have a long f*cking arm. Am I "salty" about being ignored? Not as such...it's more that it's weird as hell to see people keep speculating about stuff that everyone - who cares to know - already knows. I have stated some pretty basic stuff repeatedly, yet people keep elaborately pondering mysteries that are very much solved. This is not deep insider sh*t, either. It's "I know a guy who knows a guy who f*cked a girl who knows a guy" sh*t.

It's like it's 1999 and you're walking out of the sixth sense next to two people having a really involved conversation about, you know, whether or not the kid can see dead people. I thought that was...already resolved?

[TheSpecialJuan]

I just hope Marty Hurney is replaced as soon as possible. 

[pnthrs]

This interview certainly has some rehash that's weeks old but the JR being pissed at the league is getting more meat on the bone. 

[Mr. Scot]

Just now, Professor Chaos said:

At this point, if Tepper does win he's going to be instantly disliked by half of the fan base. It's going to look like he bullied his way into owning the team when a guy who was actually passionate about it got screwed.

The only way I could realistically see him winning is by significantly raising his bid.

Honestly, if he does, kinda hard to hate on him for that.

[RetiredCollegeCoach]

1 minute ago, pnthrs said:

This interview certainly has some rehash that's weeks old but the JR being pissed at the league is getting more meat on the bone. 

I don't have a source on this, but presumably JR has been pissed at the league ever since this began, anyway.

[NanuqoftheNorth]

50 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Sounds to me like Tepper is just trying to get into the club at a discounted rate because he knows he’s the guy they want. Ultimately the other owners would be cutting their own nose off to spite their face if they forced JR to take a lesser bid. It’s in their best interest for the Panthers to go for the maximum value possible. It’s Tepper’s own fault that he’s low balling and the owners should be pissed at him for trying to take advantage of their preference for him.

This^^^.

Don't tell me these billionaire owners can't find at least one non NFL business associate to join Tepper in making a stronger offer for the Panthers.

What is a few hundred million more between friends?

Hopefully Navarro gets the nod.

[Mr. Scot]

1 minute ago, pnthrs said:

This interview certainly has some rehash that's weeks old but the JR being pissed at the league is getting more meat on the bone. 

Interview page is dated yesterday.  And of course, the NYT stuff only happened in the last few days.

A lot of what Gantt is talking about from the NFL side probably came from the owners meetings a few weeks ago.  It jibes with stuff that Albert Breer reported around the same time.

But yeah, the "meat" of this story is Richardson's grumbling.  We'd speculated about that before but hadn't really received definitive confirmation of it till now.

Could he sell to Navarro partly out of spite?  Yeah, I think so.  In the end though, that high bid is still the biggest factor.

[carpanfan96]

1 hour ago, Mr. Scot said:

A recent radio interview with Darin Gantt; lots of discussion up front about the ownership issue.

WRAL Interview with Joe Ovies and Lauren Brownlow

 

Highlights:

- The League appears to be pressuring Jerry Richardson to choose David Tepper even if he's not the high bidder

- Owners, including a specifically mentioned Bob Kraft, favor Tepper over all other candidates

- The whole "Tepper Out / Tepper In" thing may have been the league "playing poker" as a way to nudge Richardson

- Over the past few months, Richardson has been known to be notably unhappy about the sale process

- On that front, Richardson has reportedly said to people around him "I don't have to sell this team" several times

- The league's reply to those statements is basically "Oh yes you do" (and yes, they can force him)

- Richardson's response: "Well, even if I have to sell it, I don't have to pick the guy you want me to choose"

- The League not only wants the sale to happen, but they also want it to happen as soon as possible

- The NFL currently views Jerry Richardson as a "problem that they need to get rid of" and they want him off the radar

- Gantt expects the league to issue a minor to moderate penalty quickly after the sale

- They're also hoping for a good sale price in the hope that it will set a precedent for future team sales

- Time wise, we can expect to know who "the guy" is well prior to the draft (final vote of course coming in late May)

- Neither Felix or any of the other local guys were ever a serious option; neither is the team being moved

- FYI: No mention of Alan Kestenbaum, I Am Number Four or anyone else in the course of the interview

 

Overall, pretty informative segment.

First impression: Really sounds like Jerry Richardson has gotten pretty bitter about the whole affair. 

Speculating off of Gantt's comments and past stories, I think Jerry truly believed that his "internal investigation" idea would be respected. The league declined.  He then likely thought that the league wouldn't proceed with the investigation if he agreed to sell the team.  That didn't pan out either. 

So basically, after he showed his ass, the NFL refused to cover it for him.

After decades of being a league loyalist, I gotta imagine that left Jerry pretty pissed off.

Now Richardson is "grumpy" about the process, and apparently saying things to annoy the NFL. It's never been a secret that the league favors Tepper, and maybe Richardson would have been fine with him too.  Jerry's admiration for the Steelers and Tepper's relationship with the Rooneys certainly would have been seen as positives.

Unfortunately for all his fans in league ownership, Tepper lowballed the bid.

Now Richardson likely views the NFL as pushing him to take less money so they can have their guy take over his team, and to be fair, he's right.  So Jerry is making noise that he's gonna do this his way and pick his guy.  There's an element of this that almost sounds like spite.  And while it might sound silly to let something as petty as spite factor into a billion dollar transaction, Jerry is still Jerry.

So yes, he's going to sell the team, but probably not to the successor that the NFL has anointed to take his throne.

Albert Breer pointed out a while back that the league was unhappy with the way the sale "drama" was playing out.  We speculated at the time that it was probably about Navarro being the front runner over Tepper.  Gantt's interview here both bears that out and fleshes it out a little, while also giving us an indication that the end of the saga is probably near.

Bottom Line: More evidence that unless David Tepper seriously increases his bid, the next owner of the Panthers is Ben Navarro.

I told you once we got closer to the sell date that JR would try to buck the league and say he wasnt going to sell the team. So I'm not surprised by any of this. He's going to pick the least favorable option to stick it to the NFL now. 

[Gucceland]

The NFL and owners could easily block the sell to Navarro and force Richardson to accept the next best offer, which we are assuming is Tepper.  It's obvious that Tepper low balled and has the upper hand.  If the NFL forces Richardson to take Tepper over Navarro, it will be a mess.  Its funny how all this information is leaking out, but definitely not by mistake.  Richardson is going to have to air the dirty laundry if the NFL and owners block the Navarro sale.  What a mess.

[Mr. Scot]

1 minute ago, NanuqoftheNorth said:

Don't tell me these billionaire owners can't find at least one non NFL business associate to join Tepper in making a stronger offer for the Panthers.

What is a few hundred million more between friends?

Valid point.

We know the NFL prefers solo owners, and it sounds like Navarro won't be solo but the group will be small.

Of course, Woodie pointed out Navarro could also partner with Jim Goodnight.