Carolina Panthers

[Boom Boom Apathy]

He'll appeal and get it reduced to 1. It's not worse than what Gronk did.

Which is why the NFL still doesn't take CTE seriously. It's a physical sport and concussions WILL happen, even with the cleanest of hits because that's the nature of the game. If driving his helmet into the ear hole of an unsuspecting player is only 1 game, then they aren't really serious about it. Those are the completely avoidable hits.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

And I think you're vastly overestimating the potential for Combs owning the team. Forbes put out their list of potential buyers and Combs doesn't even appear on it. Their conjectured potential buyers, broken down by category:


Current Members of the Panthers ownership group

• The Belk Family
• The Levine Family
• Steve and Jerry Wordsworth

Other NC Locals

• Bruton Smith
• Jim Goodnight
• John Sall
• Michael Jordan
• Joe Gibbs

NC Outsiders

• Mark Cuban
• Jeff Bezos
• David Tepper
• Jon Bon Jovi

From the "Other NC Locals" list I'd assume you can remove Goodnight, Sall, and Jordan (Goodnight and Sall had no official interest in buying into the Canes even as minority owners and Jordan's wealth is tied up in the Hornets to the point where his ownership stake in the Marlins is something less than 1%)

If I had to imagine it, your leader in the clubhouse is for either one of the current minority owners to step up their stake and/or for Smith to become involved as either a minority or majority owner.

 

[Svechhammer]

And I think you're vastly overestimating the potential for Combs owning the team. Forbes put out their list of potential buyers and Combs doesn't even appear on it. Their conjectured potential buyers, broken down by category:


Current Members of the Panthers ownership group

• The Belk Family
• The Levine Family
• Steve and Jerry Wordsworth

Other NC Locals

• Bruton Smith
• Jim Goodnight
• John Sall
• Michael Jordan
• Joe Gibbs

NC Outsiders

• Mark Cuban
• Jeff Bezos
• David Tepper
• Jon Bon Jovi

From the "Other NC Locals" list I'd assume you can remove Goodnight, Sall, and Jordan (Goodnight and Sall had no official interest in buying into the Canes even as minority owners and Jordan's wealth is tied up in the Hornets to the point where his ownership stake in the Marlins is something less than 1%)

If I had to imagine it, your leader in the clubhouse is for either one of the current minority owners to step up their stake and/or for Smith to become involved as either a minority or majority owner.

Bezos could be an interesting wild card here. There seems to be some real momentum in possibly getting the Amazon HQ in either the RTP or Charlotte, and being able to buy the Panthers while moving the HQ here could be the kind of opportunity that he won't be able to let pass by.

 

[bluedevil58]

I think it's a pipe dream that Amazon HQ comes here. Has this really gained traction? Everything I read was in favor of Boston or Atlanta. My money is on the ATL getting it. That is the only tier 1 market my company is in and business is booming. We literally have no data center space there anymore and can only sell cloud until a new DC is built.

 

[HisIceness]

Marcus Smith has voiced interest in buying the Panthers along with Bruton.

This makes sense. Local guys, one of whom (Marcus) was the guy behind MLS to Charlotte. He's also if I'm not mistaken in his early to mid 40's so we'd have young blood to boot.

Personally I'd rather have someone local in this case if possible. I'm not entirely sure I'd trust an outsider even with LA already having two teams.

 

[Unsustainable]

Smith / Gibbs combo would be cool.

 

[Negan4Coach]

I think it's a pipe dream that Amazon HQ comes here. Has this really gained traction? Everything I read was in favor of Boston or Atlanta. My money is on the ATL getting it. That is the only tier 1 market my company is in and business is booming. We literally have no data center space there anymore and can only sell cloud until a new DC is built.

If you owned Amazon and had the choice between shit ass ATL, the unlivable Washington DC area, Taxachucettes and this place, which would you choose?

#SiliconValleyEast

 

[bluedevil58]

You're overlooking a few things though. ATL is a major internet carrier hub and also has a major international airport. It's a bigger city than ours with superior logistics and connectivity options. Not saying you're wrong. Just things to consider. If you're Amazon they are big things to consider.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

There is one question and one question only to answer for Amazon:

Where does all your money buy the most influence?

 

[Negan4Coach]

You're overlooking a few things though. ATL is a major internet carrier hub and also has a major international airport. It's a bigger city than ours with superior logistics and connectivity options. Not saying you're wrong. Just things to consider. If you're Amazon they are big things to consider.

By "superior logistics" do you mean "horrid traffic" and "an airport experience akin to Dantes Seventh Circle of Hell?"

Why is a bigger city better? Maybe I'm just biased, but I'm from NYC, have lived in DC, Florida, several other smaller places, and have traveled extensively on business through most of the country, and I absolutely love this place. Big enough city to give you everything you need from an urban area. Small enough that it doesn't hand you your ass day in and day out in manifold ways.

It stands to reason that since many other tech firms also seem to agree, Amazon could as well. Then again, who knows. Maybe they put it in Herndon. Ugh.

 

[bluedevil58]

There is one question and one question only to answer for Amazon:

Where does all your money buy the most influence?

That's a hard question to answer and here is why. At some locations you factor in overall cost of living. At others you factor in major population centers. The higher the population, the higher the overall revenue opportunities. If Amazon judges by cost of living. CLT or RAL wins.

 

[bluedevil58]

By "superior logistics" do you mean "horrid traffic" and "an airport experience akin to Dantes Seventh Circle of Hell?"

Why is a bigger city better? Maybe I'm just biased, but I'm from NYC, have lived in DC, Florida, several other smaller places, and have traveled extensively on business through most of the country, and I absolutely love this place. Big enough city to give you everything you need from an urban area. Small enough that it doesn't hand you your ass day in and day out in manifold ways.

It stands to reason that since many other tech firms also seem to agree, Amazon could as well. Then again, who knows. Maybe they put it in Herndon. Ugh.

I get it. I am biased as well. I too travel and have a hard time leaving this location. Even if it meant for much better pay and the same cost of living. Here just sets the bar too high. Everything is new and lots of greenery. Plus the mountain and coasts close by. Very hard to beat. Allow me to drop some knowledge. As we all know , one of Amazons highest revenue generators is Amazon web services. One of AWS's major cloud nodes is in Northern Virginia. t probably makes sense to have an HQ there or somewhere close by. Again, there are also major carrier hotels and connectivity options there. We and several others have carrier hotels there so larger companies can have direct connect into the hyper scalers from anywhere in the USA from this location. if I were a betting man, that's probably going to be a highly likely spot as well.

I'm not sure it will be Washington, DC to the high cost of living. But Ashburn, Reston, ETC. Highly likely.

 

[HisIceness]

Amazon will probably end up going to some random place that no one thought of like St. Louis if it isn't DC or Atlanta.

Article I read today seems to hint that they really like Atlanta FWIW.

 

[Negan4Coach]

I get it. I am biased as well. I too travel and have a hard time leaving this location. Even if it meant for much better pay and the same cost of living. Here just sets the bar too high. Everything is new and lots of greenery. Plus the mountain and coasts close by. Very hard to beat. Allow me to drop some knowledge. As we all know , one of Amazons highest revenue generators is Amazon web services. One of AWS's major cloud nodes is in Northern Virginia. t probably makes sense to have an HQ there or somewhere close by. Again, there are also major carrier hotels and connectivity options there. We and several others have carrier hotels there so larger companies can have direct connect into the hyper scalers from anywhere in the USA from this location. if I were a betting man, that's probably going to be a highly likely spot as well.

I'm not sure it will be Washington, DC to the high cost of living. But Ashburn, Reston, ETC. Highly likely.

That's true. I didn't consider that AWS is absolutely huge with DoD and the IC, which is of course in NOVA. Dulles is right there by Herndon, even though it is a shit airport to get out of.

 

[Svechhammer]

You're overlooking a few things though. ATL is a major internet carrier hub and also has a major international airport. It's a bigger city than ours with superior logistics and connectivity options. Not saying you're wrong. Just things to consider. If you're Amazon they are big things to consider.

Don't sell Raleigh short, though. Our data infrastructure is pretty damn good, with at least a couple major companies having their data centers in the RTP. And RDU, while not a major hub, does have nonstop service to most domestic regions with a growing international scene. Many companies find this to be better than ATL or CLT considering the ease you have with getting into and out of the airport.

That said, I don't necessarily want Amazon to come. They are going to financially pillage the region they locate into, and I'm not sure we are really ready for a 50k employee complex here. I-40 and 540 would be a nightmare during rush hour.

 

[the halleJOKEL]

ravage me, amazon

my body is ready

 

[StormCast]

That's a hard question to answer and here is why. At some locations you factor in overall cost of living. At others you factor in major population centers. The higher the population, the higher the overall revenue opportunities. If Amazon judges by cost of living. CLT or RAL wins.

Cost of living is way, way down on Amazon's list. This is a corporate auction to the place that offers the best tax incentives. The press release will extol cost of living, area demographics, etc. but this like any other company location play.

 

[DaveG]

Cost of living is way, way down on Amazon's list. This is a corporate auction to the place that offers the best tax incentives. The press release will extol cost of living, area demographics, etc. but this like any other company location play.

Bingo. It doesn't hurt that Raleigh-Durham has a large part of the infrastructure in place already (RDU being the one thing that would probably need to be expanded for this) but all of that isn't going to matter when it comes down to it. The deciding factor is going to be "where gives Amazon the best deal". Now could that be Raleigh? Yeah quite possibly. But I wouldn't bank on it, some sucker city/state government is going to make a deal with the devil to get this done.

 

[DaleCooper]

The deciding factor is going to be "where gives Amazon the best deal".

I actually don't really believe this to be true (pure speculation on my part though). I think from day one Amazon has had a good idea of one or two cities where they want to go and they used this ludicrous competition to get cities to whore themselves out so that their preferred locations would offer up big incentives packages.

I've always had a dream of a league of American cities that make a pact not to allow themselves to be leveraged against each other for corporate wellfare, tax financed stadiums, etc.

 

[DaveG]

I'd think it was more then 1 or 2 but yeah they probably did have a good idea of some number of cities that they wanted to work with on this. Probably had a list of about 5-6 or so to start with, but they'd also be smart to keep their options open in this regard. Absolutely they'll use whatever offer they get from (insert not preferred city here) to play off of (insert preferred city here), but that also wouldn't preclude them from ending up at (insert not preferred city here) shy of it being a logistics nightmare if nobody else is willing to come close to their offer.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Amazon is unstoppable. They are singlehandedly putting whole markets out of business. Book sellers, even Barnes and Noble, are either gone or on their last breath. B&N still has hope as a big % of publishing house sale come from B&N's advanced sales, but like the way of VHS, DVDs, etc...eventually the vast majority, if not all, books will be digital. Department stores are going under at a fast rate. Walmart and Target better figure something out or they will go the way of Kmart and Sears and with the purchase of Whole Foods, Grocery stores, once thought of as irreplaceable will start to diminish as well. And none of that even considers how big AWS is.

I doubt it would really happen, but they may get to the point where someone in the government actually brings an anti-trust suit against them. Amazing for a company that barely makes any profit (compared to their revenue).

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

I'm hoping they will pick Atlanta. It's quickly becoming the Silicon Valley of the east and they seem to have a massive presence here already (as it's a major city). Also they'd bring a ton of jobs with them, be able to recruit from Tech (big draw), and I can go work for them.

I don't really see why having HQ near one of their major AWS data centers is necessary. That DC is already well-established and has a ton of people working it. The entire purpose of having the multiple DCs around the world is latency and redundancy. From a latency perspective not only is Northen VA plenty close to Atlanta, but it's HQ, not a place where they'll be hosting massive application. They need a good place to set up a major office building, with all the infra and work that goes with that. Atlanta is a good place for that, save for the traffic. From a redundancy perspective if there's a major natural disaster now they've lost both one of their ~10 major DCs as well as their whole HQ.

 

[Panthaz89]

This is such a joke if it was a nobody who got concussed Davis literally wouldn't be seeing any time missed...ffs I see the same blocks on STs returns regularly and the one where the Giants player hit the Dallas players and knocked him out cold last year was much worse. 15 yard penalty is supposed to be the only penalty PER NFL RULES..he wasn't targeting Adams at all so stupid. A guy is sprinting over you can't control your body that much when you already are coming in at full speed. Its funny that the NFL likes to suspend him for something in the rules as if he's Burfict twisting someone after a play. Oh yeah and where was all this bs when everyone was headhunting Cam last year....They would probably wait until Cam got hurt cuz now its only severe if you injure the other player. Gronkowskis should of literally seen jail time for attacking a player's head after a play and got 1 game.

 

[RodTheBawd]

This is such a joke if it was a nobody who got concussed Davis literally wouldn't be seeing any time missed...ffs I see the same blocks on STs returns regularly and the one where the Giants player hit the Dallas players and knocked him out cold last year was much worse. 15 yard penalty is supposed to be the only penalty PER NFL RULES..he wasn't targeting Adams at all so stupid. A guy is sprinting over you can't control your body that much when you already are coming in at full speed. Its funny that the NFL likes to suspend him for something in the rules as if he's Burfict twisting someone after a play. Oh yeah and where was all this bs when everyone was headhunting Cam last year....They would probably wait until Cam got hurt cuz now its only severe if you injure the other player. Gronkowskis should of literally seen jail time for attacking a player's head after a play and got 1 game.

Are you f***ing serious?

 

[Negan4Coach]

Panthers playing like absolute dog poo against a terrible team. Its unreal.