ROCK HILL. S.C. — There are growing concerns that the new Carolina Panthers training facility project may be dead.
The multimillion-dollar construction project has been at a standstill for more than a month after Tepper Sports and Entertainment paused construction.
Congressman Ralph Norman told Channel 9′s Tina Terry that the taxpayers deserve to know what is going on with the project.
“I think he owes it to the taxpayers to say these are our differences, this is what we’re working on. He doesn’t have to go into the details,” Norman said about Panthers owner David Tepper.
Governor Henry McMaster said he’s spoken Tepper and was optimistic about the future of the project.
“We can get going,” McMaster said. “We want the Panthers to be right here.”
Tepper Sports and Entertainment announced it would pause construction on its Rock Hill training facility on March 7, saying the city of Rock Hill failed to get the finances to pay for public infrastructure.
Since then, Channel 9 has noticed little to no activity on site.
“The longer it goes, people will just assume that it’s dead. If it just sits idle, contracts have to be honored. People in a project this big have to (have) clawback clauses where you have a time to finish it or you pay money,” he said.
County council member Brandon Guffey told Terry that he has major concerns about all of the companies contracted to do work on the facility.
[ ALSO READ: York County councilman ‘not optimistic’ on plan for Panthers practice facility ]
He said he and other York County leaders worked with the Panthers last month to try and save the project.
“We did our part to show good faith hoping to save those jobs, so that all those equipment leases and other contracts wouldn’t be broken, affording the Panthers organization the opportunity to truly show that we are two states, one team,” Guffey said.
In June of 2019, Tepper promised to bring the Panthers’ footprint into Rock Hill, but so far he has made no comments about the future of the site.
Norman said this doesn’t instill confidence in the team.
“The taxpayers deserve better. The taxpayers deserve a lot better than what they’re getting,” he said.
On the phone, a spokesman for Tepper Sports and Entertainment told Terry he had no comment.
[WATCH BELOW: Resolution by York County leaders supports Panthers project, but does it benefit taxpayers?]
This browser does not support the video element.