The Carolina Panthers’ final price tag is bound to make jaws drop across the United States.
Bids to buy the Panthers from current owner Jerry Richardson have surpassed $2.5 billion, Bloomberg’s Scott Soshnick reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the sale process. The fee Richardson eventually will receive is bound to set a record for most expensive franchise sale in U.S. sports history, eclipsing the reported $2 billion Steve Ballmer paid for the Los Angeles Clippers in 2016.
Richardson, who has owned the Panthers since the NFL granted him an expansion franchise in 1993, put the team up for sale in December amid misconduct allegations against him.
Hip-Hop mogul Diddy was among the most prominent people to express interest in buying the Panthers, but Soshnick’s report doesn’t include him among the remaining bidders. At that price, it’s easy to see why.
