Carolina Panthers Logo — The Carolina Panthers are a professional American in football in the National Football League (NFL), based in the city of Charlotte. They are members of the Southern Division of the National Conference (NFC). Their home games played at the Bank of America Stadium.
On October 26, 1993, NFL owners unanimously selected Carolina as the license number 29 and the first expansion team since 1976. Fireworks exploded over Charlotte before jubilant fans gathered to celebrate the good news. “This is a dream come true for me and my partners and 10 million people in the Carolinas,” said the owner and founder Jerry Richardson of the Carolina Panthers, who became the second former player who manages to own an NFL team along with George Halas of the Chicago Bears.
The “dream” began on July 16, 1987, when Richardson met in Charlotte with a group of interested parties to discuss the feasibility of incorporating the competition of cities for two licenses for the extension of the NFL. On December 15, Richardson officially announced the offer of an NFL franchise for the Carolinas. One of the first orders of business was choosing a site for the stadium. The locations in North and South Carolina were considered. On December 15, 1989, Richardson Sports selected a site in Charlotte as the future home of a private stadium funded by the NFL that would seat over 70,000 fans.