The answer remains “No.”
The Tribune-Review reports that the owner of the Pittsburgh Riverhounds soccer team “remains committed to [a] $175 million Highmark Stadium expansion” at Station Square.
And the team continues to seek a $7 million state grant to help underwrite the project.
Owner Tuffy Shallenberger Jr.’s rationale for seeking taxpayer help is that the expansion would triple seating at the stadium, required for the Riverhounds to become a United Soccer League Division One team. The expansion also would enable Highmark Stadium to attract major entertainment events, he says.
Combined, that would provide a significant economic boost for the region, goes the pleading.
Shallenberger is seeking the public subsidy through the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP), which has already earmarked $4 million toward existing stadium projects.
Shallenberger further rationalizes that because the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins received RACP grants to help them build PNC Park, Acrisure Stadium and PPG Paints Arena, the Riverhounds are no less deserving.
But as the Allegheny Institute’s Frank Gamrat told the Trib, “The main beneficiaries of the stadium need to pay for the stadium. It’s not the taxpayers’ responsibilities to line [the owners’] pockets.”
The think tank also opposed public subsidies for the new playgrounds for the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins.
And as this scrivener asked last August:
“If this stadium expansion is such an economic generator that, of course, will profit the franchise’s owner handsomely, why in the world should John and Jane Q. Public have their pockets turned out for it?
“The only investment the public should make is through the tickets it buys to attend the facility’s events.”
And so, too, should Shallenberger be responsible for the extra demand that his project will place on the public infrastructure.
The bottom line remains that the millions of dollars that the Riverhounds already have been pledged and/or received is millions of dollars too much. As a matter of fundamental economics and sound public policy, there should be no public money in the Riverhounds expanded stadium.
If it’s truly going to be such the great economic generator with the wonderful private-profit potential Shallenberger claims it is, he should be able to line-up private investors and/or bank financing to pay for his project.
That the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins snookered public officials into picking the taxpayers’ pockets to build their playgrounds is not a license for Tuffy Shallenberger to do the same.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
