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On October 26, 1993, NFL owners unanimously selected Carolina as the 29th NFL franchise and the first expansion team since 1976. Fireworks exploded over uptown Charlotte as jubilant fans gathered to celebrate the news. "This is a dream come true for me and my partners and for the 10 million people in the Carolinas," said Carolina Panthers Owner/Founder Jerry Richardson, who became just the second former player 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 entering the multi-city competition for two NFL expansion franchises. On December 15, Richardson officially announced an NFL franchise bid for the Carolinas.
One of the first orders of business was to choose a stadium site. Locations in North and South Carolina were considered. On December 15, 1989, Richardson Sports selected a site in uptown Charlotte as the future home of a privately financed NFL stadium that would seat more than 70,000 fans.
Across the Carolinas, support for an NFL expansion team poured in at an unprecedented rate. U.S. Sens. Jesse Helms of North Carolina and Ernest Hollings of South Carolina lobbied NFL owners on the Carolinas behalf. Likewise, North Carolina Gov. Jim Martin and South Carolina Gov. Carroll Campbell formed a blue-ribbon committee of leading citizens in both states. Fans demonstrated their enthusiasm by selling out preseason games in Raleigh, NC in 1989, Chapel Hill, NC in 1990 and Columbia, SC in 1991.
At the League owners meeting on March 18, 1992, the NFL reduced the list of expansion candidate cities from eleven to seven with the Carolinas making the cut. Two months later, the NFL narrowed the list of expansion hopefuls to five communities – Baltimore, St. Louis, Memphis, Jacksonville and the Carolinas.
However, on October 20, 1992, NFL owners decided to delay the expansion vote until the fall of 1993 because of a labor dispute between the League and the players. Fortunately, on January 6, 1993, the League and the players approved a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. On March 23, 1993, the expansion race officially resumed.
On June 3, Richardson Sports revealed its impressive plan to privately finance a 72,300-seat stadium from the sale of Permanent Seat Licenses, club seats and luxury boxes, beginning on July 1. A remarkable 15,000 pieces of mail from first-day orders were collected. By the end of the first day, all 8,314 club seats sold out and all 104 luxury suites were reserved and ultimately leased. First-day PSL orders totaled 41,632.
Finally, on October 26, 1993, NFL owners unanimously selected Carolina as the 29th NFL franchise.
In their first-ever game at the 1995 Hall of Fame Game in Canton, OH, the Panthers defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars 20-14 to become the first team in NFL history to win its initial contest. The Panthers not only were competitive in their inaugural season but established an NFL mark for most wins by an expansion team, posting an impressive 7-9 record and more than doubling the previous expansion-best mark of three victories. During an expansion-record four-game winning streak, Carolina upset the San Francisco 49ers 13-7 at 3Com Park, marking the first time in League history that an expansion team beat the defending Super Bowl champion. After beginning the season 0-5, the Panthers finished the year 7-4 and registered an expansion-best 5-3 home record at their home-away-from-home field at Clemson Memorial Stadium.
Carolina improved dramatically during its second season, advancing to the NFC Championship Game. Carolina opened the 1996 campaign in Ericsson Stadium, the team’s new state of the art stadium, and defeated the Atlanta Falcons 29-6. The Panthers ended the regular season in dramatic fashion at Ericsson Stadium as Carolina beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 18-14 with a last minute goal-line stand to conclude the season with a 12-4 record and win the NFC West division title. The team recovered from a 5-4 start to win its last seven games and earn a first-round bye in the playoffs. In their first-ever playoff game, the Panthers defeated the defending Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys 26-17 at Ericsson Stadium, where Carolina completed the season with an undefeated 9-0 mark.
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