Hedge fund manager David Tepper was expected to finalize a deal Tuesday to buy the Carolina Panthers for about $2.2 billion in cash.
Final terms were still being worked out Tuesday evening, a source close to the process said. But it looks like it’s now complete.
A second source told the Observer that the deal will be subject to an owners’ vote at the next NFL meeting, which runs next Tuesday and Wednesday in Atlanta. Tepper is widely expected to be approved by the owners.
Tepper, a minority owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, apparently hasn’t warmed to Trump since the election.
“The economy’s really good right now, despite different things,” Tepper told a first-year business school student at Carnegie Mellon University, SI reported. “Whether I like the person or not, I’m not going to get into that — although I did call him a demented, narcissistic scumbag. And if you look up ‘demented, narcissistic scumbag,’ you’ll see my name calling Trump that. Just Google those three words.”
Jeff Eisenband, senior of ThePostGame, tweeted Tuesday that Tepper’s political views may color his entry into the NFL.
“David Tepper’s political candidness is going to start his ownership of the Panthers with a series of allies and a series of rivals. But unlike in politics, he can’t get voted out for those views,” Eisenband wrote. “He’s buying the team fair and square in a free market economy.”
The official sale price of the Carolina #Panthers is $2.275 billion, source said. $2.2 billion of that sum will be paid in cash by new owner David Tepper. This is a new record price for the purchase of a US sports franchise. ???
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) May 16, 2018
This is not a big deal. Trump has zero influence over the NFL, and it might cost him a few friends among the old boys club, but it won’t matter. The guy is a billionaire, and the value of his team will remain intact no matter what he says or thinks about our current President.
