Carolina Panthers: Making a case for Cam Newton to stay in Carolina

And the economic outcome could be detrimental.

The big cheese of the Panthers’ brass is David Tepper and he’s stated before that he’s a “numbers guy”, understandably so because he used to manage a hedge fund. While the decision to retain or release Newton would ultimately be a “football decision”, it would honestly be very surprising if Tepper doesn’t put in his two cents about the financial fallout from this decision, and it would be even more surprising if he doesn’t urge the team take the immediate financial loss to ultimately cover a long term gain.

In an article on CarolinaHuddle.com it is asserted that Cam isn’t just a quarterback, he’s a brand of his own. The Panthers won’t just be releasing another player, they’ll be releasing a fan favorite who can practically guarantee multiple streams of revenue and publicity. Christian McCaffrey is a legendary player who might be able to make up for it, but, as of late, attendance at games might suggest that the loss of Newton would be unwise for the long term support of this franchise.

To put it into perspective, consider the Panthers as a company that has been selling the Newton product for almost ten years. Newton has done so well that he’s sparked his own fanbase, television appearances outside of NFL network, and his own private companies. Now that there is someone else occupying Newton’s main stream of publicity and has produced wins, does that mean the Panthers should discontinue Newton? Sure they’d save themselves some money doing that, but if the team doesn’t make it to the playoffs and winds up with multiple seasons of losing records or without playoff appearances, they’d net an even greater loss than what they would have paid for Newton. The Panthers’ brass will have to take that into consideration because, after all, the fan is the most important member of the team…right?