As season ticket prices rise, are Panthers PSL owners getting their money’s worth?

The first game Britt Kimel attended as a season-ticket holder was among the most magical nights in Carolina Panthers history. He sat in Section 522. Row 5. It was Jan. 5, 1997, the day the expansion Panthers stood up to the reigning Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys and proclaimed their NFL arrival.

“The stands were shaking upstairs,” Kimel recalled of the playoff game, won by Carolina, 26-17. “I haven’t missed a home regular-season or playoff game since.”

It’s been 27 years since that victory. That’s 216 home games Kimel has attended. The now-63-year-old fan and his wife have changed where they’ve sat in the stadium a few times since then. They now reside in Section 120, Row 1, just behind the “A” in the Panthers’ east end zone, one of the most electric places in Bank of America Stadium.

Even so, Kimel is doing what he thought he’d never do. He said he’s beginning to seriously consider selling his Permanent Seat License (PSL) and subsequently forfeiting his access to season tickets.

“It’s beginning to get borderline cost-prohibitive for a lot of folks, myself included,” Kimel told The Charlotte Observer.

He later added: “It’s entertainment that we’re paying for, and to be honest with you, the last couple of years haven’t been very much fun.”

Kimel isn’t alone in the feeling. More so than in recent years, PSL owners are weighing the value of their seats as the Carolina Panthers charge headlong into a rebuilding effort at the same time that ownership implements an increase in season-ticket prices. Many PSL owners — the people who’ve purchased the rights to buy Panthers season tickets — are contemplating unfamiliar prospects:

• Do they renew their season tickets, paying the increase even as the team tries to avoid a seventh straight losing season?

• Do they not buy this year’s season tickets and subsequently forfeit their Permanent Seat Licenses?

• Do they put their PSLs up for sale?

There seems to be a new urgency to these questions.

“Let’s say two or three years down the road, if I just can’t justify the price anymore, that’s when we’ll probably just up and sell the PSL straight out,” Kimel said, “and just take our chance buying single-game seats along the way.”

Carolina Panthers price increase doesn’t tell the full story

Last week, the Panthers announced that the price of season tickets would increase on average “just over 4%.” That figure refers to the “overall blended ticket price,” the team said — in other words the average price of all seats owned by PSL owners across the stadium.

Ticket pricing in the lower bowl will rise by an average of 7%, per a team spokesperson, while upper-level seating will only increase by an average of 1%. Most — 90% — of upper-bowl seating will remain flat from the year before.

The news was met with predictable backlash. Fans shared their disappointment online. Chris “Mad Dog” Russo on ESPN’s First Take expressed his confusion and displeasure day-of, seeming to speak directly to owner David Tepper in his rage: “You’re not serious, are you?”

It’s true that the Panthers are in the overwhelming majority of NFL teams to increase their season-ticket prices. It’s true that similar increases are common year-to-year — and that, per a team spokesperson, the Panthers’ average season-ticket increase this year (4%) is in the bottom 25% among teams who raised prices.

Still, many have pointed out that there are factors that make the decision particularly unpalatable.

For one, as aforementioned, the Panthers’ on-field product is uninspiring. The Carolina franchise hasn’t had a winning season since 2017, the season before Tepper purchased the Panthers from founding owner Jerry Richardson. The Panthers are tied with the New York Jets for worst record in that span at 31-68. On-field issues came to a head when Carolina finished a league-worst 2-15 in 2023 — a year that resulted in the firings of general manager Scott Fitterer and head coach Frank Reich, and a year that didn’t yield a first-round draft pick in 2024 after a blockbuster trade with the Bears last offseason to acquire quarterback Bryce Young.

Even as the hiring of head coach Dave Canales and the promotion of general manager Dan Morgan has inspired hope, it’s clear: turning around the franchise will take time.

For another, as many PSL owners have pointed out, this season-ticket increase comes just as Panthers season-ticket holders are getting “less” of a product than they received the year before.

Since the preseason was shortened to three games per team in 2021, all Panthers season-ticket holders have had 10 guaranteed home games. That means either eight or nine regular-season games and one or two preseason games at their home venue. (The preseason tickets are not optional; they are part of the season-ticket package. PSL owners also have priority of buying face-value tickets to their seats if the Panthers make the playoffs.)

This year, though, PSL owners expect to see one preseason game and eight regular-season home games in Bank of America Stadium. That’s because the ninth “home game” on the Panthers’ schedule will be at a neutral site, in Munich, Germany, as part of a global initiative promoted by the NFL.

It’s worth noting that eight home regular-season games is the same amount as 2023. Still, the sentiment among some season-ticket holders is that the 4% increase is a bit misleading. To put real numbers to it: Kimel paid $3,100 in season tickets for his two seats last year for 10 Panthers home games. This year, those same seats saw a slight uptick to $3,310 for nine Panthers home games.

Per a Panthers spokesperson, the team considers its season tickets as a package price given the fluctuation of the NFL schedule year over year. Other teams with an international home game this year are taking the same approach. The Bears — who will play in London and thus have eight true regular-season home games and one preseason home game, too — are raising ticket prices on average by 8%, for instance.

The Panthers are offering all fans — not just season-ticket holders — a chance to buy tickets to the game in Munich via a separate package.

Having one fewer home game to attend has drawn the ire of season-ticket holders online. It has also sparked some action. When longtime PSL owner Erika Moulton heard of this discrepancy, she said she called her PSL representative and asked that they either lower her invoice for this season or issue her a credit for next season to reflect the extra game she’s paying for.

“I think as more PSL owners call and ask that, I think we might be able to get something started,” Moulton said.

Being a season-ticket owner is an expensive endeavor

In 2018, The Observer reported that there were 62,000 PSL tickets controlled by 23,000 account holders. Those loyal fans had invested many thousands of dollars into their seats — paying the one-time fee of a Permanent Seat License and then buying season tickets every year thereafter as the PSL obligates them to do. (After all, it’s either pay for season tickets, or lose the rights to your seats, which can be handed down to your children.) The Panthers would not disclose an updated number of PSL owners.

To understand the Permanent Seat License system, it helps to be aware of its history.

The PSL was a concept adopted by Richardson at the dawn of the franchise. The PSL was masterminded by longtime Charlottean Max Muhleman, and when tickets were first sold in 1993, a PSL cost between $600 to $5,400 a piece, depending on the selected seat.

The concept contributed more than $100 million to the stadium’s eventual cost of around $187 million — and it ultimately helped land long shot Charlotte an NFL franchise. The venue now named Bank of America Stadium opened in 1996.

Nearly three decades later, the same people who paid for a PSL at the franchise’s birth are the same who are contemplating what to do next.

Jason Agard, meanwhile, has already decided.

Agard, who attended home games in Clemson in 1995 and then at Ericsson Stadium and then at the-renamed Bank of America Stadium with his father for years, said he sold his tickets “a few months ago,” before the price increase announcement. The Rock Hill, S.C., native owned four PSLs in Row 19 of Section 121.

“It’d gotten to the point where it’s just a little bit out of our financial means to be able to spend that much money to go to a game,” he said. “When you pay anywhere from $50 to $70 for parking, and then you’re paying $10 to $15 for an adult beverage, or $12 to $15 for some nachos — and then we’re sitting at the lower level, and it’s getting to where it’s almost $500 to $600 (total for the four seats) to go to a game...

“By the time you add it all together, it just doesn’t seem feasible.”

He added: “In short, it’s no longer a hobby when you’re spending that much money.”

According to a September 2023 study by Bookies.com, the cost for a family of four attending a Carolina Panthers game — which included the cost of parking, concessions and four of the cheapest tickets available — averaged to be about $460. That ranked below the league average but above NFC South compatriots New Orleans Saints ($327.50 average) and Atlanta Falcons ($293.10).

Agard added that when he sold his PSLs this offseason, he said he learned that the PSLs his father purchased in 1994 for under $1,000/each seat would now cost about $10,000, if the Panthers were to sell them. He said he instead put them on the PSL resale market for about half of that price and then ultimately resold the four PSLs for about $2,200 apiece. Similar PSL resale prices are shown online at the franchise’s resale marketplace for lower-bowl seating.

“So if you were to buy them today, and then have to resell them, you would lose a lot of money,” he said.

Other factors that make Carolina Panthers fans wonder

And even if pricing isn’t an issue, there are other factors that make PSL owners wonder. Among them: the overall experience in the stadium.

If you’ve lived in Charlotte for a decade, you don’t need much convincing to acknowledge that Panthers fandom can be something to behold. The fan base has shown admirable persistence in the past few years — a Panthers spokesperson reiterated for this story that the team’s season ticket renewals in 2023 ranked among the highest in the NFL and that the renewal rate for 2024 is pacing consistently with previous seasons — and that’s a credit, in part, to the Panthers for furnishing a good atmosphere even despite the team’s recent struggles.

Still, there are shortcomings.

It wasn’t unusual during these past two years, for instance, to see a bulk of the lower bowl decked out in the team’s opposing colors. Purple when Minnesota came to town this year. Red when the 49ers made their descent in 2022. When the Cowboys arrived in Bank of America Stadium this past season, it felt like an invasion, with an overwhelming majority of lower-bowl fans donning the colors of America’s Team.

This is the result of PSL owners hoping to make some money back after paying for their season-tickets before the season starts and selling their seats to out-of-town fans.

Drew Harriss, who’s owned PSLs since the beginning of the franchise, said he never has sold his tickets to opposing fans. Part of that is being a loyal supporter. Part of it though, too, he acknowledged, is when a less-compelling opponent comes into town, or when the weather is lousy, those tickets are difficult to sell. That checks out: The Panthers made national news last season when prices for tickets to the Atlanta rain-fest were going for $3 before fees on Ticketmaster.

But again, if he doesn’t buy his season tickets, he forfeits his PSLs, and the Panthers turn around and put it back on the market.

“They got us hooked because you feel like you got some bad money in it, right? Because of the PSL cost,” he said. “And you’d lose that. But I’m really considering not having tickets at some point in the near future.”

While a simple solution is hard to find, a better football team would certainly help alleviate some fan frustrations.

“My intent is not to do that,” Kimel, the aforementioned fan who has been to 216 consecutive home Panthers games, said of selling his PSLs. “My intent is to keep the streak going along, and hope that this coming season will be a little bit better than this past season. Two or three years down the road, I’m hoping that (I’ll be able to say), ‘OK, we’re seeing real progress.’”

He then added: “And if you win, the fans will be there.”

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