Bruton Smith talks a big game. Because the billionaire NASCAR track owner talks so much, sometimes he even backs it up.
It's hard to see his latest yammering turning into reality, but it's worth bringing up since he did — again.
In an interview this weekend with Motorsport.com, Smith said he and his three sons had just been talking about potentially buying the Panthers.
"Would I buy them? I’ve got some boys that want me to, and so we may — on a weak moment — we might would do that," Smith said.
It's not the first time Smith, the owner of Sonic Automotive and Chairman of Speedway Motorsports, has floated the idea. Three years ago, he said he'd be interested “if the price is right.” That comment came shortly after Jerry Richardson's succession plan was revealed — the team will be sold two years after his death.
Richardson, 79, has turned his $200 million investment into a franchise Forbes values at more than $1 billion. But Smith doesn't think they're all that valuable following February's Super Bowl.
"You’re dealing with a loser," he said. "They didn’t win. Right? So you’re buying a losing team. If they had won, it would have been different."
So Smith's mouth isn't slowing down. Neither are the 89-year-old's aspirations.
It's unclear if Richardson's estate would consider selling to Smith when the Panthers eventually go up for sale. But if words matter, the only major sports venue owned by Smith in the Charlotte area will remain in Concord.
"Here’s the thing, the guy that owns I think 48 percent, Jerry Richardson, you know that stadium (Bank of America Stadium), if you want to see a rendering of that stadium it’s probably hanging somewhere there at the speedway there in Charlotte because I hired the company when we worked and designed that stadium," Smith claimed. "When I was doing that I was going to build it across the street from the speedway.
"Well, Jerry messed around there and with Hugh McColl’s (former Chairman and CEO of BofA) help, he got the team. Well, I just backed away and let him go, and I gave him the blueprints on that stadium, and he built it like I would have done it. But he forgot. He has not gotten around yet to thanking me for giving them to him. I paid $50,000 to design that thing, working with this company up in Ohio. But Jerry, bless his heart, I guess maybe he didn’t think or something, and he’s never said, ‘Thank you’ or anything, so far. So we’ll just have to wait and see."