Pens start looking out of town
By Jeremy Boren and Rob Rossi
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, December 22, 2006
Penguins owner Mario Lemieux is threatening to take his hockey sticks out of town.
Politicians are trying to stop him.
"After seven years of trying to work out a new arena deal exclusively in Pittsburgh, we need to take into consideration the long-term viability of the team and begin discussions with other cities that may be interested in NHL teams," Lemieux said in a statement Thursday.
"The team is off the market, and we will begin to explore relocations options in cities outside Pennsylvania," he said.
Eager to allay fears the team will leave, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato spoke with National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman by phone yesterday. Afterward, Onorato minimized the NHL's threats to allow the Penguins to move.
"Nothing's really changed, other than Mario and Bettman, in their last two statements, have stressed the legal ability for them to move the team, which is not news. We all knew that," Onorato said. "They have a legal right to shop it around."
Ravenstahl said he was encouraged after talking to Bettman, but stressed the need to talk with Lemieux.
"We can't negotiate with ourselves," Ravenstahl said. "Until we have the opportunity to negotiate with the Penguins' ownership group, we won't know for sure" about the club's future.
Negotiations for a new arena are on hold until the team's deal with St. Louis-based Isle of Capri Casinos expires in March. Isle of Capri and the team lost a bid for a state slots license to Detroit-based Majestic Star Casinos.
Majestic Star is pledging to contribute money to an arena, but Isle of Capri had offered to pay $290 million for that purpose immediately.
Two cities are interested in the Penguins -- Portland, Ore., where the Rose Garden plays host to the NBA's Trail Blazers, and Hamilton, Ontario.
Kansas City's Sprint Center is scheduled to open in September, but that city won't land the Penguins unless Lemieux and minority owner Ron Burkle sell.
Last month, William Del Biaggio III signed a long-term lease with the Sprint Center giving him exclusive rights to bring an NHL club to Kansas City. Del Biaggio had agreed to purchase the Penguins in 2005, but the team pulled out of the deal that summer after winning the rights to draft center Sidney Crosby.
Rose Garden general manager Mike Scanlon said his decade-old facility is ready. It can seat 20,000 people for hockey, and underwent a $12 million upgrade last year. It could house the Penguins by September, Scanlon said.
"We're not going to try and take away a hockey team from somebody, but we've made the NHL aware that if a team is up for relocation, we are interested," Scanlon said.
Hamilton City Councilman Terry Whitehead said attracting a hockey team is a goal, but the city's 17,500-seat Copps Arena would need at least $50 million in renovations.
Whitehead said Hamilton would need "an owner with deep pockets." Hamilton is close enough to Toronto and Buffalo that representatives on the NHL Board of Governors could challenge placing a club there, Whitehead said.
Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie, who has ties to the Hamilton area, last week broke off talks with the NHL to purchase the Penguins.
Winnipeg, Manitoba, is an unlikely candidate to attract the Penguins. That city's MTS Centre seats about 15,000, and the NHL would insist on an arena that could hold at least 17,000, a league source told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Doug Hall, general manager of Houston's Toyota Center, said he could not comment about the Penguins.
Pittsburgh's Sports & Exhibition Authority still hopes to build an arena. But it would be paid for with yearly contributions from the casino, sale of naming rights, a 30-year tax-exempt bond issue and a to-be-negotiated commitment by the Penguins.
"We're willing to perhaps match the Pirates' deal," Ravenstahl said. The baseball team pays $1.6 million a year on a 30-year lease at PNC Park.
SEA Executive Director Mary Conturo said there were no plans to meet with the Penguins regarding a new arena.
She said the Penguins believe an arena could be built in 24 months, instead of 27. Groundbreaking could happen in September, not June.
Onorato and Ravenstahl canceled a scheduled news conference today with Majestic Star CEO Don Barden after Lemieux issued his statement.
"If the Penguins do end up leaving Pittsburgh, it's not because there won't be a new arena," Majestic Star spokesman Bob Oltmanns said. "There's absolutely going to be a new arena."
Officials can't discuss alternate financing for an arena until the Penguins are released from their obligation to Isle of Capri, or it expires, Oltmanns said. He called the situation "unfortunate."
Onorato said he's optimistic about reaching a deal.
"There might be some bad feelings on Mario's side, but I think everybody is going to step back and see this might be Gary Bettman's way of saying, 'We need to get this done or this team will leave.' "
Marc Ganis, president of Sportscorp LTD, who advised Allegheny County in the 1990s on deals to build North Shore stadiums for the Steelers and Pirates, said he wasn't surprised by Lemieux's stance.
"It's smart," Ganis said. "(The Penguins) have to find a way to maximize the value of the franchise. If they are in the middle of a contentious, difficult, drawn-out negotiation with the public sector, they are going to be diminishing their asset.
"They're doing this for two reasons: First, it applies a certain amount of pressure on the public sector. Second, in case a deal in Pittsburgh can't be worked out, it advances their options."
Staff writer Andrew Conte contributed to this report.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pitt.../s_485225.html
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Sweet pieces! I would love to have a hockey team...portland penguins--it sounds good to me 
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