We’ll keep this short and sweet. And if you believe this one, we’ve got 1,000 acres of clear land to sell you in downtown Pittsburgh for $1:
The Post-Gazette reports that the Pittsburgh-Allegheny County Sports & Exhibition Authority (SEA) “has its sights on bringing a WNBA basketball team” to the city – but an analysis to determine the feasibility of it all “would focus strictly on the operations of the team and would not include any public incentives to try to entice a team to the Steel City.”
Too late, it’s a promise already broken.
For you see, as the P-G also reports:
“SEA board members approved an agreement Thursday with consultant CAA ICON totaling up to $40,000 to conduct a financial feasibility analysis that would be used to help to attract a professional women’s basketball franchise.
“Aaron Waller, SEA executive director, said the analysis is the latest step in the authority’s quest to secure a team as the WNBA grows in popularity and considers expansion.
“Earlier this year, the Pittsburgh-Allegheny County authority paid $90,000 to CAA ICON, a Colorado-based sports consulting firm, to determine if the region could support a National Basketball Association or Women’s National Basketball Association franchise.”
So, the SEA, a public agency, already has spent $130,000 to determine if it’s financially feasible to attract either an NBA or WNBA team to Pittsburgh.
Consider “to attract” to be the operative phrase in this little exercise in future public purse raiding. And if such studies conclude such a thing is “financially feasible,” you can bet that the SEA and or other agencies will be ready to throw all kinds of incentives at such a team.
But it should not be up to taxpayers to determine such “feasibility,” it should be up to any private sports team to do so, spending its own money in pursuit of profit in a new city.
And there should be absolutely no public money expended “to attract” any such franchise. After all, Pittsburgh already has its expensive share of professional wards of sport.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
