The Post-Gazette, citing sources, says the Pittsburgh Steelers are expected to play a 2025 regular season game in Ireland.
Uh-oh. Uh-oh? While we have no qualms about such an event, we do have grave reservations about what this might lead to on an ancillary basis.
You’ll recall that the Irish press first reported in 2023 how the Allegheny County Airport Authority and Aer Lingus have been negotiating direct flights from Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) to Dublin.
And there’s ample evidence to suggest that it would come with a heavy public subsidy from the Airport Authority. How much? Well, if it’s anything like the deal handed to the Irish airline to fly into Cleveland’s Hopkins International Airport, it should make everyone’s head explode.
As various media accounts have it, JobsOhio, the state of Ohio’s “private” economic development arm, gave Aer Lingus a minimum revenue guarantee of nearly $12 million over three years, paid only if the flight does not meet its performance goals.
Talk about incentivizing failure.
Cleveland contributed $600,000 while Cuyahoga County contributed $825,000.
The Cleveland flights bowed in May 2023. And there’s now talk of extending the subsidy program. But….
The Plain Dealer of Cleveland reports it’s “unclear whether Aer Lingus has collected any of the incentive money during its first 19 months of operation in Cleveland.”
JobsOhio spokesman Matt Englehart “wouldn’t say whether the airline has received any of the revenue.
“’Due to the industry’s competitive nature and the dollar amounts associated with these agreements, the agreements and amounts are proprietary,’” he said.
Cue the laugh track to mock the arrogance of it all.
We can do nothing but fully expect that, in concert with next year’s now-expected Steelers game in Ireland, that the usual suspects will use the event as an excuse to cut a deal with Aer Lingus, and/or as a leveraging tact to extract money from not just the Airport Authority but the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County coffers, too.
And if the Steelers lead the charge for public subsidies, they should be roundly, loudly and publicly excoriated.
Those involved in such things are quick to claim there’s a robust demand for such flights, including Cassotis.
“What we have told Aer Lingus as well as every other airline that we’ve spoken to, is that we expect that once a non-stop service is put in … you’ll see that that local market will more than double within one to two years,” she told Irish media.
Well, if that’s the case, that should cover the cost of the flights without public subsidies.
Right?
Taxpayers have no business being venture capitalists. Period. And if any Airport Authority deal includes the same kind of incentive for failure, the entire board, and Christina Cassotis, should receive their walking papers.
Meanwhile, in other Airport Authority-related news, the Allegheny County Retirement Board has settled a lawsuit filed by County Controller Corey O’Connor, challenging the practice of using hefty Airport Authority executives’ bonuses to calculate higher retirement benefits.
That, in a climate in which the county pension fund is sucking for air, woefully underfunded and likely headed for full insolvency if stabilizing action is not taken. That’s the subject of another lawsuit, filed by District Attorney Steve Zappala.
Remarkably, even the Airport Authority agreed that the practice was wrong.
But what continues to rub us the wrong way has been the continuing, and seemingly blanket, acceptance of such high bonuses.
The Post-Gazette filed a Right-to-Know request to unearth all the executives’ payouts, above and beyond the typically publicly revealed massive payout to CEO Christina Cassotis.
The P-G recounts that she received a $254,718 bonus in 2023, a $240,300 bonus in 2022 and a $184,500 bonus for 2021. Her salary was $566,040 in 2023.
The P-G, citing its Right-to-Know discovery, also says eight other current or former executives earned bonuses varying from $40,648 to $85,036 last year and from $22,200 to $66,300 in 2022. Salaries for those employees ranged from $210,355 to $306,514.
But even O’Connor defends what should be considered, by most accounts, a public fleecing.
And lest anyone forgets, the Airport Authority is a public authority and any and all money it deals with is public money.
Paying out such lofty bonuses is a continuing afront to sound public policy.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
