Bank of America Stadium president Jon Richardson and Carolina Panthers team president Mark Richardson have resigned from the Carolina Panthers football team and their father, team owner Jerry Richardson, is back at the helm, according to
a report in the
Triangle Business
Journal.
A Panthers spokesman told the journal that no announcement on the brothers’ successors is imminent. An investor in the team, real estate executive Johnny Harris, said Jerry Richardson announced the operations change at an investors’ meeting but did not discuss the reason, the article said. Harris told the journal that the investors continued to have “positive feelings about our investment.”
Jerry Richardson, 73, who once played for the Baltimore Colts and built his fortune in the fast-food industry, had a heart transplant in February, the report noted. Jon Richardson, 50, and Mark Richardson, 40, had worked in the team’s front office since its founding in 1995.
Sports business consultant Terry Hanson questioned the timing of the move, 12 days before start of the team’s season-opening game.
“I would like to know, why now?” Hanson says. “I don’t think you would do this at the start of the season. It’s a distraction — not for the players but for [the front office].”
Hanson told the journal he didn’t expect that the turnover would affect ticket sales, sponsorships or broadcast rights. (Source:
Triangle Business Journal,
Sept. 1, 2009.)
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