ROCK HILL, S.C. (CN2 NEWS) – While work still remains paused at the Carolina Panthers Headquarters and Practice Field over financial woes, a business owner is taking matters into his own hands, in hopes of getting some sort of answers from Rock Hill City and York County officials.
To catch you up to speed, on March 7th Tepper Sports and Entertainment announced it would pause construction on the site because the city of Rock Hill was unable to contribute the agreed upon investment, meaning millions of dollars in infrastructure bonds.
The city says it was just weeks away from issuing the debt.
Just last week York County council voted on a resolution for an “alternative financial option” to keep the deal on track which would be no borrowing of money from any government, instead would be requiring the Carolina Panthers to fund infrastructure upfront for construction.
That has to be approved by the City of Rock Hill and the Carolina Panthers to move forward.
The city council is meeting for its regular council meeting Monday night. It is unclear if the resolution will come up in executive session.
Ryan Sanderson, owner of Knowledge Perk Coffee in Rock Hill wrote a letter to city and county members, as well as city staff and Mayor John Gettys, asking them to address the Carolina Panthers issue and have meaningful dialogue regarding the county’s recently passed resolution dealing with funding.
Sanderson’s says in the last couple of weeks, customers who come in to get a coffee are also expressing how frustrated they are to not know or understand what is happening with the project.
Sanderson says the Carolina Panthers deal will have a big impact on small businesses like his if it does come or not.
More than a dozen other business owners also signed Sanderson’s letter.
He also created a petition online called “Rock Hill York County Collaboration, Get the Carolina Panthers Deal Done!”
Sanderson says so far, 2 county council members have gotten back to him about his letter.
The Rock Hill City Council will meet this Monday night – it’s unclear if they will discussing York County’s funding offer.
