Jerry Richards and the Charlotte City Council Have Lost Their Damn Minds with the Proposed Upgrades to the Panther's Stadium

"Carolina Panthers president Danny Morrison said the team plans to begin renovations on its 16-year-old stadium immediately after the 2013 NFL season and estimates the project could take two years to complete. The master plan calls for between $261 million and $297 million in upgrades, according to Morrison. Charlotte's City Council is backing a proposal to give the Panthers nearly $144 million from a food and beverage tax increase to pay for stadium upgrades and the team is seeking more than $60 million in state funds." http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/8941095/carolina-panthers-begin-stadium-renovation-2013-season

"The team's top four priorities are installing new escalators to carry fans to the upper level ($28 million), video and ribbon boards and sound system ($59 million), technology upgrades ($25 million) and improving the stadium's infrastructure, including new seats ($62 million). Team officials also want to expand entry gates and ticket offices to make it easier for fans to enter ($16 million), improve concourses ($35 million) and club and suite level ($29 million), and possibly add an indoor practice facility ($30 million)." http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/02/11/2672875/panthers-break-down-stadium-improvement.html

There are homeless people living on the streets, shelters are at capacity, unemployed parents are struggling to provide necessities for their families, animal shelters need funding for expansion and education due to all of the irresponsible pet owners, college costs are so astronomical they're preventing people from acquiring higher education, entire parts of the city are in various levels of deterioration or dilapidation, the mental healthcare system needs a complete overhaul, 17% of Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina’s service area lives in poverty- including almost 209,000 children and seniors, the education system is a joke...I could go on forever. All of this is prevalent not only in Charlotte, but the whole state and country. I went to one Panther's game this past season and let me tell you, the lackluster experience I had then had absolutely nothing to do with the lack of escalators or my experience with the entrance gates or sound system, and more to do with the fact the team is garbage and like all stadiums, everything sold inside its walls is overpriced. I have a sense of loyalty for the team since they represent the Carolinas, but take them somewhere else if this stadium is just too subpar to go on- oh, the humanity! The audacity of the city to raise taxes (that could potentially hurt business at local bars and restaurants) so they can give $144 million to a stadium for an unnecessary face-lift instead of funneling the money to benefit the citizens and improve the city beyond one structure is absolutely atrocious, vile, disgusting, reprehensible, irresponsible, completely lacking in common sense, and should- quite frankly- be illegal. THEN for Richards to ask for an additional $62.5 million from the state is absurdity. He may say he'll never move the Panthers from Charlotte, but he's only obligated to stay here for the 15 years agreed upon in this preposterous deal. If the Panther's can't make the "necessary" changes with the $96 million they plan to contribute, maybe they can take a little from the players' salaries or wait until they sell enough $9 lukewarm draft beers to cover the rest. Even better, Bruton Smith has offered to buy the whole operation for the right price and even went so far as to say, “I would commit to the city – and I would not ask for money.” I think Richards has a bright future as a politician seeing as how he has a complete misunderstanding of real issues deserving funding.