Friday, June 23, 2006
The Pirates’ Owners Commit Piracy
It must be late June. The Pirates are out of the pennant race before the All Star game. Again.
The Steelers will open training camp soon and the sports pages can shift coverage to them and recent Pirates draft choices and how they are doing in the minors.
Remember the heady days when Mayor Murphy and Governor Ridge shoved Plan B down our throats? The new ballpark was going to provide the revenues needed to enable the Pirates to field a competitive team. Six years into playing in the new ballpark and the Pirates are no closer to fielding a winning team than they were in 1995 when Kevin McClatchy and his group bought the team.
Over $200 million in taxpayer money invested; the loss of property tax revenues for the parcels of real estate used to build the stadium and the forgiveness of $60 million in team debt by the URA. Taxpayers will never see a return on their investment.
Why? All because it was claimed the Pirates would leave if they did not get a new stadium. But the team could not just move. Under a 1985 loan agreement they had to give the Mayor time to find a buyer who would keep the team in Pittsburgh at the Pittsburgh market value. In short, the threat to leave was hollow and meaningless. Nonetheless, the politicians defied the will of the voters anyway and diverted tax dollars to build PNC Park.
So, here we are with a pitiful excuse for a ball team and owners that have been greatly enriched because of the generosity of elected officials using taxpayer money. Amazingly, some still wonder why voters are cynical.
The Steelers will open training camp soon and the sports pages can shift coverage to them and recent Pirates draft choices and how they are doing in the minors.
Remember the heady days when Mayor Murphy and Governor Ridge shoved Plan B down our throats? The new ballpark was going to provide the revenues needed to enable the Pirates to field a competitive team. Six years into playing in the new ballpark and the Pirates are no closer to fielding a winning team than they were in 1995 when Kevin McClatchy and his group bought the team.
Over $200 million in taxpayer money invested; the loss of property tax revenues for the parcels of real estate used to build the stadium and the forgiveness of $60 million in team debt by the URA. Taxpayers will never see a return on their investment.
Why? All because it was claimed the Pirates would leave if they did not get a new stadium. But the team could not just move. Under a 1985 loan agreement they had to give the Mayor time to find a buyer who would keep the team in Pittsburgh at the Pittsburgh market value. In short, the threat to leave was hollow and meaningless. Nonetheless, the politicians defied the will of the voters anyway and diverted tax dollars to build PNC Park.
So, here we are with a pitiful excuse for a ball team and owners that have been greatly enriched because of the generosity of elected officials using taxpayer money. Amazingly, some still wonder why voters are cynical.
