It looks like the fate of the Penguins is now in limbo again.
First, if you didn’t hear, Jim Balsillie backed out of his offer to buy the team. Why? Because the league basically told him that if the deal for Isle of Capri Casinos to build them a new arena doesn’t happen because they aren’t awarded the slot casino contract for the city of Pittsburgh, then they wanted a “Plan B” in place so he couldn’t move the team. Scott Burnside talks about the effects of this in his recent COLUMN.
The second problem has now come up with the fact that a “Plan B” is in fact needed to get a new arena built. According to an ARTICLE from CBC’s website, Isle of Capri lost the bid. So what happens now?
There is talk that some groups are interested in buying the team. One group involves Mark Cuban, the loud-mouth owner of the Dallas Mavericks and Pittsburgh native. The other involves those that own the Steelback Brewery in Ontario.
I am not an expert in the least on this subject, but I would say that it’s not looking all that great here for the Pens. The city of Pittsburgh has two new sports stadiums that I am sure were partially funded by the government and partially funded by the taxpayers. Doing it for a third time probably isn’t going to sit well with anyone. So the only hope is that someone can come up with the money privately to build an arena, like the Isle of Capri deal. Obviously since the other casinos bidding didn’t jump on board with the idea, the Isle of Capri knew their chances weren’t good for winning the bid so they tried to entice the customer. Unfortunately for the Pens it didn’t work.
From what is sounds like from Burnside’s column, Balsillie was the kind of guy the league could have used. I am hoping the biggest reason that Bettman elbowed him out of the deal was to protect the Maple Leafs and Sabres, because Balsillie more then likely would have moved the team to Hamilton, Ontario, which is right between the already close cities of Toronto and Buffalo. In some respects I can understand that. The metro area of New York has three teams and one of them (the New Jersey Devils) have a hard time drawing fans and they are dealing with a much larger population base then the area around Lake Ontario. But if it’s just for Bettman to flex his muscle to show league stability, then that’s a shame. After all, who is he trying to impress less then two years removed from the cancelled season? The fans know what’s going on, and the stability of the Penguins has been in limbo for a while. It’s bad timing since they have some really great young players that could possibly recreate the glory days of the early 90’s for the Pens.
December 21st, 2006 at 3:33 am
Dear. Mark Cuban
You should try and organize an investor group. I know you are a smart guy and the risk of going alone on buying a sports team isn’t to be taken lightly (although you are doing a hell of a job with the mavs) you could not only save christmass by keeping the pens in pittsburgh but you could work some of your promotion magic and get them back on their feet. P.S if you even consider buying the team (with investors) could I possibly jump on ship? - macepup@gmail.com -
December 21st, 2006 at 7:26 am
You PS is kind of funny to me, Mason. Many of us play the lottery when the jackpots get rather high. Right around the time that Mario Lemieux was looking for investors, the jackpot was some enourmous amount. I was single at the time and figured that if I won, I would consider trying to contact Lemieux’s lawyers and see if I could be a part of the investment group.
I certainly hope someone can find a way to keep the team in Pittsburgh.
December 21st, 2006 at 1:15 pm
The city paid in full for both new facilities (as well as a new convention center) and is BROKE at this time. The Steelers even make the city pay for the $500,000 worth of upkeep to the grounds each year. The Melon Arena is fine! They can’t fill the place as it is. Why build a place twice as big?
December 21st, 2006 at 1:29 pm
[…] 24 hours after the announcement that there will be slots gambling on the North Shore of Pittsburgh and there are already 24 blog entries from this controversial and unexpected decision. […]
December 22nd, 2006 at 10:36 pm
The gaming control board should all be fired for this. On Thursday all 3 local news stations took a pool whether they think this was the correct group to win the slots. 78% said NO!! Isle of capri was a no brainer. Someone got paid off big time!!! The only chance the Penguins have to stay now is Mark Cuban. If he really is interested in buying them. Mark if you see this you are our last hope.
December 23rd, 2006 at 7:32 pm
I just wanted to mention that even though I referred to Cuban as a loud mouth, his involvment with the NHL would probably be a good thing. Passionate owners is what they need. And if he can get an arena built, that would be even better.
March 25th, 2007 at 9:02 am
[…] The second part of this question had me looking back at things and making me think. I don’t know if I ever expected a response from something and got nothing, but a recent post only solicited two comments which I figured might get more. To take the long way to explain, back on December 20, 2006 I POSTED about how the Isle of Capri lost out on the city of Pittsburgh casino bid thwarting their plan to build an arena at no cost to the city or taxpayers. I ended up getting two comments from guys that probably never read my blog before and more then likely haven’t read it since, and one link to that post from another site. It surprised me that my post would get such a response. Because of this, I was a bit surprised that my REVIEW of Senator Obama’s book only had two comments (one being yours, Roger). Now, I didn’t expect to have dozens of people making comments, but figured I would get at least three or four comments from people that didn’t normally visit my blog. […]