Jerry Reese says Charlotte Knights lied to the public to get funding

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CHARLOTTE — The Charlotte Knights misled the city when it came to how much money the minor-league baseball team could pitch in for the construction of a stadium in uptown, according to the latest lawsuit by a longtime critic of the project.

Charlotte lawyer Jerry Reese, who has struck out multiple times in his attempts to stop the stadium from being built, now says the team intentionally fooled the city into believing that it needed more taxpayer assistance than it actually did. Reese makes those claims in an amendment to a lawsuit he filed in June.

On June 11, the Charlotte City Council approved giving about $8 million to help build the stadium. Two weeks after that funding was approved, Reese claims, the Knights submitted to Mecklenburg County documentation showing that the team could contribute as much as $15 million toward the stadium project. Reese said that documentation contrasts with presentations made by Deputy City Manager Ron Kimble, who had said the Knights could provide no more than $7.5 million toward the $54 million project.

Reese’s allegations that the team misled the city are part of a lawsuit amendment he announced Thursday. The amendment also adds the Knights as defendants in his latest lawsuit, which is No. 8 in his quest to block the stadium project.

City Attorney Robert Hagemann says he hasn’t seen the latest version of Reese’s lawsuit. But, he said, Reese’s claims are unfounded.

The Knights could not be reached for comment.

Reese has had a poor track record when it comes suing over the project. Five of his lawsuits have been unsuccessful. Three others, No. 8 included, are pending.

Union County Superior County Judge William David Lee is hearing Reese’s fifth and sixth lawsuits, but no judge has been assigned to the eighth.

The Knights play in Fort Mill, S.C. Once the stadium is built, the team would relocate to uptown Charlotte.

Payton Guion can be reached at [email protected], (704) 817-1344 or on Twitter at @paytonguion.