CHARLOTTE, N.C. — When two of the worst teams in the NFL at this point in the season play in Germany in November, a group of elected leaders and public officials from Charlotte will be in Munich to cheer on the Carolina Panthers.
The city of Charlotte has yet to release the names of staff members who are going but did provide a list of councilmembers nearly an hour after missing WCNC Charlotte's 10 a.m. deadline. WCNC Charlotte first requested that information to be released more than a week ago.
Councilmember Malcolm Graham is the city's Jobs and Economic Development Committee Chair. He is going and said the visit is about "a lot more than just a football game." He said the city's travel plans will elevate the Charlotte brand internationally, while, at the same time, will help leaders learn how another major city is tackling similar urban problems.
"It's an opportunity for the city to really demonstrate its international flair," Graham said. "We have one of the largest airports internationally. Germany represents a large portfolio of the international companies that are located here in the city of Charlotte. We can also use this trip as an opportunity to retain and recruit new corporations from that particular part of that world to see Charlotte in a different light."
He said eight councilmembers and an unidentified number of city staff will spend several days abroad representing the Charlotte region, which is home to 250 German companies; more than any other country. Graham said the contingent, which includes corporate leaders, will have a number of scheduled activities, including meeting with German public servants and the NFL.
"It's international recruitment, international retention, an inner city visit in terms of what they're doing in reference to housing and mobility as well as sustainability and of course, there's the game," Graham added. "It's really just an opportunity to tag our brand to the brand of the NFL."
A city spokesperson told WCNC Charlotte, in addition to Graham, Mayor Pro Tem Dante’ Anderson, Ed Driggs, Marjorie Molina, Renee’ Johnson, Tariq Bokhari, LaWana Mayfield and Victoria Watlington will attend the Germany trip.
Germany Honorary Consul Reinhard von Hennigs said the Charlotte entourage will also have the chance to visit major German trade shows and take in marketing seminars.
"What's happening there is much more than the game," von Hennigs said. "The game is the excuse to be there."
He said he's hopeful the personal touch through networking will lead to action.
"To have executives, to have elected officials from Charlotte in Munich and say 'This is Charlotte; we represent Charlotte,' is a great opportunity for business development," he added. "I can see a strong community reaction from German companies who would like to come to the United States and say, 'Well, if Charlotte is so prominent here, let's try it out. Let's visit Charlotte and evaluate whether Charlotte is a good market for us.'"
While two-thirds of the city council plans on traveling to Germany, a handful (including the mayor) intend to stay behind. Councilmember Tiawana Brown is among those who declined to attend.
"For me and my platform and my constituents, it would not be in my best interest to go," Brown said. "For me, I'm a representative that represents District 3 that's growing, that has the highest crime rate, unhoused population is growing in that district. I would like to take the resources and allocate them in my district. I am definitely not criticizing my colleagues for making a decision. They all won their election, just like I won my election, so use it wisely."
WCNC Charlotte requested public records outlining some of the expected costs of the trip more than a week ago. While the city has not yet provided airline receipts and hotel confirmations, public records show, when the city took a smaller contingent to Paris in 2020 for a Charlotte Hornets game, that trip for six cost more than $17,000.
A city spokesperson said Economic Development targeted nearly 100 businesses in Paris before and during the 2020 trip, but indicated the visit to Germany "is a little more coordinated and is a larger recruitment market for Charlotte."
An email, obtained by WCNC Charlotte, shows the city attorney recently decided councilmembers need to buy their own tickets to the football game itself at a cost of $150 to $175 each.
"After consulting with the City Attorney's Office, it has been determined that city should not purchase/provide game tickets for the Charlotte (sic) Panthers game in Munich Germany for Council," Charlotte Communication & Marketing Director Jason Schneider wrote in an October 15 email to the mayor and councilmembers. "The tickets appear to be a personal entertainment expense rather than a business expense that is subject to reimbursement from the City. Tickets will be made available for councilmembers should they choose to purchase tickets for themselves or guests."
The city's planned, mostly taxpayer-backed trip abroad, comes just four months after the Charlotte City Council gave the Carolina Panthers' owner $650 million to help renovate Bank of America Stadium.
When the city council made that decision, the non-profit, non-partisan Taxpayers Protection Alliance criticized the use of tax dollars. Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs Dan Savickas is questioning the subsequent trip as well.
"It's not a good luck, especially in the midst of this $650 million renovation deal," he told WCNC Charlotte. "It's another sad use of taxpayer resources, especially when you're asking for $650 million of taxpayer funds to renovate this stadium and then you're out off-shoring home games to Germany and then the taxpayers are funding you to go to that."
Graham doesn't see it as a waste at all.
"It's money, and we have our problems here, and people are going to say, 'How many people do they really need to send to Germany? Is that really a good use of taxpayer money?'" WCNC Charlotte's Nate Morabito asked him.
"I think it's a great use of the resources that we have as a city," Graham responded. "We're an international city that competes not only with Nashville and Austin, Texas, and Atlanta, Georgia, and Chicago, Illinois, but we compete internationally, and I think it's really important for us to have a good representation from the city that has a number of touch points. There are a number of individuals on council, as well as from our staff that represents various touch points from within the city, so they all have a vested interest in going, in learning and sharing and bringing back that information, so that we can be better a city. Were going to work hard for sure and then we're going to pray on Sunday that we get a win."
A city spokesperson added the U.S. Department of Commerce program, Select USA, will host a Charlotte-specific event in Germany "to highlight the region."
Mecklenburg County Commissioner Susan McDowell-Rodriguez said she is the lone county commissioner going to Germany, alongside the county's economic development director.
"To be clear, it's an economic development trip for me, not a football game trip," she said. "It's important to me that the county has a seat at the table in terms of economic development."
Look for more on his story as it develops.
Contact Nate Morabito at nmorabito@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.