With the news last week of a bankruptcy filing and a reorganization of the City’s soccer team as a result of debt it took on in constructing its field, a local agency appears poised to move on attempting a purchase of the structure.
An unnamed source close to the situation has noted that since the City’s Stadium Authority has not owned an actual stadium since the implosion of Three Rivers and has only acted as an approval agent for development between the Sports and Exhibition Authority-owned football and baseball stadium that its board wants to get back into owning an actual stadium.
“The fact that the Mayor said that he wants to see the Authority go out of business by 2028 really got the board members thinking” stated the source “I mean, if you have a professional sports team stadium that is not owned by a public authority (three of the four are under SEA ownership) what are people going to think? Besides, they want to move quicker than the SEA or possibly the URA. Though they have not been in the stadium business a long time I think the soccer team could benefit from [the Stadium Authority’s] expertise and it would allow the authority to hire some staff instead of sharing with the SEA”.
Ownership of the stadium by a public agency like the Stadium Authority would make the facility exempt from paying property taxes.
No word when the proposal is to become real, but mention of April 1, 2015 seemed to be a real possibility.
