Take a look at the new Carolina Panthers’ training facility being built in Rock Hill
More than two years ago, Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper spoke in front of a crowd in Rock Hill and proclaimed that big things were to come.
“They’re going to know Rock Hill for more than Football City, USA,’ “ he said.
That day, as Tepper stood alongside South Carolina governor Henry McMaster in June 2019, marked the signing of legislation that would bring the Panthers and their new expansive practice facility and headquarters south across the state border. Today, the project in Rock Hill is well underway and visible from a distance with the steel framing of the facility taking shape.
Although delayed from its original timeline of opening in Aug. 2022 by COVID-19, the plan is still to get the team and football operations in the new headquarters for training camp in 2023.
“We’re on a no-fail mission here,” COO of Tepper Sports & Entertainment Mark Hart said. “We’re gonna get here one way or another for training camp 2023.”
Next year’s camp is expected to be held back at Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C.
In total, the Panthers are investing more than $1 billion to develop and build the site..
The Observer took a tour this week of the construction site 13 months after crews first broke ground. The following is a breakdown of what we saw.
(A photo gallery of the tour can be found at the bottom of this story.)
What’s happening right now?
Project manager John West with Mascaro/Barton Malow has worked on plenty of big projects in the past. In Pittsburgh, he helped build a new facility for the Steelers in the city’s South Side, PNC Park and Heinz Field, to name a few.
The goal of this multi-year project for the Panthers, however, is to go beyond football and create a destination in Rock Hill. The 700,000-square-foot training facility, including the indoor practice field, is expected to help promote growth in the surrounding area, while also improving the environment for the team.
In total, 340 workers were on-site when the visit took place and about 800 are expected at mass force. Of the total workers, 85% come from either North Carolina or South Carolina.
Happening simultaneously with the facility construction is work on the Interstate 77 interchange that will connect the facility and highway through one of the main new roads, One Carolina Drive. A separate crew is working on that with the South Carolina Department of Transportation, and it should be open just prior to the facility.
A major hurdle for site construction has been an unexpected abundance of rocks beneath the soil. The crew found “blue granite” underneath the surface that required a variety of methods to remove, including explosives.
“Rock Hill is named Rock Hill for a reason,” Hart said. “We found out pretty quickly.”
Enormous piles of rocks — about 15,000-cubic yards — have been placed on the site that will be repurposed for temporary roads and slope stabilization.
Rainy weather has also caused delays, but the plan remains to open on time. The team began erecting steel in June 2021, and two months later the shape of the facility can already start to be seen. To remain on schedule, the crew has worked six- and seven-day weeks at times.
The goal is to have all of the steel erected by the end of January 2022. While the focus has been on finishing the practice facility and team HQ, the next step will be finalizing a developer to begin planning out the rest of the available land, including dining, entertainment, retail and hotels.
What will the Panthers’ facility look like?
On both sides of the steel that shape the future facility or “The Rock,” there are large patches of dirt where a variety of fields will go. One will encompass three grass fields, where the team will primarily practice, unlike the new turf field at Bank of America Stadium.
“Grass, obviously, is maybe a more traditional surface,” Hart said. “We have grass practice fields at Bank of America Stadium. Wofford has grass. You can do different things with grass. It’s certainly much suitable for practice because you’re not hosting different events out there.”
Players will be able to walk directly onto them from the locker room, unlike the few minutes it can take to get to the current practice fields in uptown.
A note on these grass fields: Based on the current design, they will be open to the public in some capacity. There are no major trees planned or large walls blocking the field. Panthers practice should be visible from multiple nearby walking trails, although there will be fences up blocking physical access. At the practice fields in Charlotte, trees along S. Cedar Street block the view from the public.
“I think this space is going to attract a lot of people, it is going to be very visible. That’s part of what we’re trying to do here is to connect more of our fans and the community to our franchise and our team,” Hart said. “Maybe all of us have to adjust in some way. Look, we’ve got three fields, obviously, we have fencing and people can’t get too close, certainly. ... In no way will we hamper our team’s performance.”
The opposite side will house an indoor artificial field that has 80-foot doors; those open up to another turf field in a 5,000-seat venue, called “The Park.”
The intention of The Park is to be multi-use for high school sporting events, concerts and more. Early estimates by the team showed that about 20,000 people could attend a major event there. The Panthers said they are unaware of another indoor facility that opens up to an outdoor field as theirs will. And while the size of that turf field meets FIFA regulations, there are no plans to host Charlotte FC games in Rock Hill; although, practices could be held there.
One of the parts of the facility Hart highlighted was the new Atrium Health sports medicine component of the facility that will be located on the ground floor with the player locker rooms and cafeteria. The 30,000-square feet will be for sports performance, therapy and rehab, and include hydrotherapy and a recovery area.
“I don’t know any other facility like this that’s got 30,000 square feet of physical rehab and sports medicine space, run by a premier healthcare provider, right in the building,” Hart said.
What’s next?
While construction takes place, preparations continue away from the development so that things can run smoothly.
Meetings have already begun with the city of Rock Hill to make sure that everything will be set up for the team to move into the building when the time comes, the team said. Conversations have also been held with the school district and mayor of Rock Hill, John Gettys, about hosting high school games at “The Park.”
The financing of the headquarters is also currently under discussion.
On May 6, Hart sent an email to York County asking them to work with Rock Hill and the project developer to secure bond money that had yet to come from the city. Hart cited an agreement the team has with Rock Hill and the county where the city would secure $225 million in bonds for infrastructure.
Bonds were to be issued by the end of October 2020, but were pushed back to Feb. 26, 2021.
Without the $225 million in bonds there is “a high risk necessary infrastructure objectives will not be met,” Hart wrote in the email.
This week, Hart said that they are still working that situation out and that it may have to be resolved in stages.
“It can be a very complicated issuance and matter. There’s lots of bankers involved, lots more is involved,” Hart said. “They are sorting a lot out now, but I have all the confidence in the world that’s going to get solved.”
While getting everything done on time remains the priority, looking ahead to the impact the new headquarters will have on the football team and the community remains the end goal.
This story was originally published August 26, 2021 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Take a look at the new Carolina Panthers’ training facility being built in Rock Hill."
