One year later: David Tepper doing things his way and getting rave reviews

On a May morning when South Carolina legislators were debating $155 million in tax breaks and other benefits for the Panthers, David Tepper was in the auditorium at West Charlotte High School leading students in a spirited, sing-song version of the school chant.

When Tepper yelled “Dub C!” into the mic, students responded with a “You know!”

This went on for a minute or so before officials got to the reason for Tepper’s visit — presenting him with an honorary basketball jersey as a thank-you for the Panthers picking up the tab for the Lions’ charter buses and hotel rooms when they went to Raleigh for the state championship game in March.

After posing for a few pictures, Tepper — at the urging of a team official — pulled the jersey over his polo shirt and joked about its snug fit.

It was the latest reminder that the second owner in Panthers’ history does things his own way, never mind what tradition or his net worth might dictate.

Panthers owner David Tepper at West Charlotte High School. (Joe Person / The Athletic)

This week marks a year since NFL owners approved Tepper’s record $2.275 billion purchase of the Panthers from Jerry Richardson during their spring meeting in Atlanta.

Tepper, whose Appaloosa Management hedge fund company manages $15 billion, hit the ground running with some sweeping changes after the sale became official in July.

The former minority partner of the Pittsburgh Steelers spearheaded the negotiations with lawmakers in Columbia for the public money to move the Panthers’ headquarters and practice facilities to Rock Hill — as well as a sports medicine complex and surrounding development.

Tepper signed off on the addition of Eric Reid, replaced the NFL shield with the Panthers’ logo at midfield at Bank of America Stadium, expanded the team’s hall of honor, brought back Julius Peppers in an ambassador role, mended fences with Steve Smith and hired two women as part of his revamped senior executive staff.

He left the football operations mostly intact, despite a seven-game losing streak that started in Tepper’s Pittsburgh hometown and torpedoed the team’s playoff hopes.

But Tepper’s most significant accomplishment is one that’s trickier to measure. Leaders in the Carolinas say Tepper has brought a fresh approach to a franchise that had grown stagnant under Richardson, who sold the team in the wake of a scandal that included sexual and racial misconduct.

Tepper also has added a laid-back, open-collar vibe to a banking city with no shortage of stuffed shirts.

“I think he’s a regular guy,” Charlotte businessman Felix Sabates said. “I mean, he’ll drink a beer and eat a hot dog. If you want to talk to him, you call his office, leave a message, tell him what you want and he’ll call you back. He doesn’t hide.”

Sabates, a part-owner of the Charlotte Hornets and a NASCAR team, led a group of local investors interested in buying the Panthers after Richardson announced he was selling in December 2017.

When Sabates’ group bowed out after the bidding reached $1.8 billion, the Cuban-born entrepreneur became friendly with Tepper, who, like Sabates, has a home in Miami. Tepper invited Sabates for a 6 p.m. dinner last year at Milos, a high-end seafood restaurant in Miami Beach.

Sabates was wearing a sport coat when Tepper showed up in shorts and a polo shirt. Sabates asked him if he always ate so early.

Tepper said only when he ate at Milos, which features a happy-hour menu with half-price entrees. It’s worth noting that Forbes estimates Tepper’s current net worth at $11.6 billion.

“I kid him all the time about that,” Sabates said of the Milos dinner. “He’s right. Why pay twice as much for what you eat, (when it) is the same?”

Everyone seems to have similar stories of Tepper, who gained early street cred last August when he drank beer (domestic) with fans at a Roaring Riot tailgate before a preseason game.

And while Richardson wore a suit and tie — and a sour expression — in his owner’s suite, the 61-year-old Tepper is decidedly more relaxed in his demeanor and game-day attire.

“People like him,” Sabates said. “He wears shorts and polo shirts to games. I think that’s pretty cool.”

But Panthers officials and others who have dealt with him say behind Tepper’s “billionaire next door” persona is someone from a working-class neighborhood in Pittsburgh who built his fortune on work and preparedness.

“He is a quantitively driven, logic-driven, well-prepared person,” Panthers chief operating officer Mark Hart said. “Those that have to deal with him as employees, as partners, even those negotiating with and against him, need to understand you must be prepared at all times and make the smartest and best decisions.”

Wes Climer, a South Carolina state senator from Rock Hill, had several meetings with Tepper while the Panthers’ tax-breaks bill was making its way through the legislature. Climer said he didn’t detect “an ounce of pretension” in Tepper, but also came away impressed with his financial acumen.

“He’s got a mind for numbers,” Climer said. “He’s a serious business guy. And that’s evident in every syllable.”

Tepper also wants to be a serious football guy, which is why he spent the first couple of days of training camp last year never far from coach Ron Rivera or general manager Marty Hurney on the practice fields.

Tepper also had a close-up view of the Panthers’ draft from his seat in the war room, where Rivera said Tepper asked the right questions.

“He was engaged. He was seeing what was happening,” Rivera said. “Again, he’s a numbers guy. He sees the numbers right away and so we were answering the questions that came up about the numbers.”

The Panthers are in the process of increasing their use of analytics, which was non-existent under Richardson. Rob Rogers, who handles player contracts and the salary cap, will oversee the fledgling analytics department.

And while Tepper kept Hurney and Rivera despite last season’s long skid, which coincided with quarterback Cam Newton’s shoulder injury, league insiders don’t expect Tepper to stand pat if the Panthers miss the playoffs again.

In a group interview before the Pittsburgh game last November, Tepper said he’d learned patience during his time with the Steelers. But one of the first things Tepper mentioned after getting approved last year in Atlanta was his strong desire to win.

“That’s on and off the field,” he said at the time. “That includes charity aspect, community aspect and how you make a community better. So you win a lot of ways, and I don’t like losing any way.”

Community leaders say Tepper takes the “two states, one team” slogan seriously, though the Panthers’ location also gave Tepper some built-in leverage when he was exploring property for the new headquarters. The Panthers looked at more than two dozen sites on both sides of the state line before focusing on 200-plus acres in Rock Hill.

The complex, modeled after the Cowboys’ The Star outside of Dallas, will feature a sports medicine facility, along with mixed-use development and an indoor practice facility that can host high school football games and other events.

“My understanding is the Panthers’ organization will use a fourth of that (220-acre property). And so (Tepper) envisions a substantial commercial and mixed-use development out there, in a part of Rock Hill that could really stand to benefit from that kind of development,” Climer said.

“His vision runs in that direction, not just a gym and a parking lot.”

Tepper hired Hart as his director of development, the same position he held with the Steelers. Team president Tom Glick has a strong soccer background — important given Tepper’s interest in bringing an MLS team to Charlotte.

Tepper likes the idea of bringing other events to the stadium, be it an MLS team, a beer festival or possibly a Final Four.

When Tepper mentioned the possibility of putting a roof over the stadium to North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and later to reporters, some dismissed it as flippancy.

That’s almost never the case with Tepper.

“He’s a big thinker,” Sabates added. “He’s not one of these guys that looks at a dollar going out the window (and thinks) it may not come back. Everything he does is very thought out. He knows how to execute things.”

That undoubtedly will include a new or greatly enhanced stadium at some point in the future. Besides lacking the field-level suites that have become the norm in new stadiums, Sabates says the scarcity of parking around BoA also is troublesome.

“That stadium is old and tired. And to make money, you’ve got to have a world-class facility with parking. There’s no parking there,” Sabates said. “If he takes that stadium (and levels it) and builds another one where they can park 20,000 cars, you do the math.”

But for all the talk about revenue streams, tax breaks and Tepper’s net worth, Sabates says one thing that often gets overlooked is Tepper’s largesse.

“He’s incredibly, incredibly generous with charities. You just don’t hear about it. Believe me, he’s given a lot of money away,” Sabates said. “I’ve asked him a couple times, ‘I need you to do this for so and so.’ And there’s never been any questions (about) if it makes sense.”

Gary Simrill, another South Carolina lawmaker from Rock Hill, echoed Sabates’ sentiments.

“He’s the real deal,” Simrill said of Tepper. “His mantra is really the scout mantra, and that’s, ‘Leave it better than you found it.’”

Which is how Tepper found himself on West Charlotte’s campus earlier this month. The initial plan was to have the basketball team bus to BoA Stadium and present Tepper with the honorary jersey, but Tepper called and said he wanted to come to them.

West Charlotte athletics director John Yewcic wasn’t sure what to expect, but knew Tepper was going to be a hit when he started in on the “Dub C” chant.

“It was great to see. It was awesome,” Yewcic said. “Just to walk from the gym to the auditorium with him, you’d never know he’s a billionaire. He was just a nice guy, great guy, easy to talk to. You know, he’s a Pittsburgh guy. I’m a Pittsburgh guy. There’s good people in Pittsburgh.”

“Western Pennsylvania’s a blue-collar state. Steel mills, coal mines. It’s blue collar. I mean, you work. He didn’t get his easy. He worked for it,” Yewcic added. “And he knows his beginnings and where he came from, and understands it. Just for the few minutes I spoke with him, he’s just a down-to-earth guy.

“If you met him on the street or somewhere and just had a conversation with him, you’d never know he was the billionaire owner of the Carolina Panthers.”

(Top photo of Tepper: Jeremy Brevard / USA Today)