The Tribune-Review, citing reports by Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet and others, says the bid bantered about by Mario Lemieux and Rob Burkle to prospectively buy back the Pittsburgh Penguins won’t be near enough to what it would take to bring the ‘Guins’ ownership back to the erstwhile Steel City.
What Messrs. Lemieux and Burkle are speculated to have offered, or be willing to offer, Fenway Sports Group (FSG) of Boston is known but to them. FSG paid $900 million for the venerable NHL franchise in 2021.
Observers say it likely would take a bid in the neighborhood of $1.8 billion. And that’s even if FSG wants to sell, which reports conclude, at least for now, is likely not the case.
But say FSG changes its mind and decides to unload the lackluster Boys of Winter for whatever price. What we certainly don’t want to hear is that to seal the deal, Lemieux and Burkle want some kind of private-public partnership to raise all the dough necessary to make the deal rise to a full loaf.
Sorry, but local taxpayers already have been shaken down to subsidize the Pens (and the Pirates and Steelers, for that matter). Taxpayers have absolutely no business being venture capitalists anew for a new iteration of Lemieux, Burkle & Co.’s Pens ownership.
We have a certain affinity here at At Large for the pursuit of self-sufficiency. Thus, we are pleased to see the news, as reported by the Post-Gazette, that the city has extended the lease for Manchester’s “Food for the Soul Garden” by three years.
The Land Bank wanted to buy the four parcels associated with the garden, then convey the tracts to the nonprofit that runs the garden, but that has been delayed. The tracts are part of the city’s Adopt-A-Lot program; the gardens have been generously funded, in part, by local foundations.
The future of the community garden, now five years running, had come into question when the city first indicated the lease would not be extended because the tract had been earmarked for housing.
But per the P-G:
“For many in the neighborhood, the Food for the Soul urban farm has become more than a plot of land: Over its five-year lifespan, it has produced thousands of pounds of food for neighborhood residents, and fostered a spirit of community among its volunteer workers.
“’Most of us weren’t gardeners,’” said volunteer Liz Boxley, a resident of this North Side neighborhood. ‘Most of us didn’t even know one another. So we built such a great fellowship in the garden.’”
And that discipline of self-sufficiency that we mentioned at the outset is an important community crop that too often has been left to die on the vine.
Kudos to the city for recognizing and continuing to foster such a positive program. Now, if it really wants to make a bold statement, it should either extend the Food for Soul Garden lease in perpetuity or convey the property.
The bottom line is that public policies that work are worth every penny.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
