Officials revise offer to keep Penguins in Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH -- Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said city and state officials have revised their offer to the Pittsburgh Penguins for financing a new arena to keep the team in the Steel City.
"We have given the Penguins a revised offer but in no way, shape or form have they indicated it's over," Rendell said, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
On Thursday, a state senator who sits on the board that would build the new arena said an announcement of a new deal was imminent, pending the resolution of details. But on Friday, it appeared that a follow-up meeting between the two sides would precede any announcement of an agreement.
"This is something that, when we get the opportunity to speak once again, could happen at any time," Mayor Luke Ravenstahl was quoted in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "Hopefully, the next time we talk, we get a deal done."
The Penguins, who did not offer comment on the revised offer to Pittsburgh newspapers, are expected to tell officials in Kansas City by Feb. 4 whether they would move into new Sprint Center starting next season. The Sprint Center has offered the Penguins free rent and revenue-sharing if they move to Kansas City, which briefly was home to an NHL expansion franchise in the mid-1970s.
The Penguins have long sought a replacement for Mellon Arena, the oldest building in the NHL.
Talks between local and state government and the Penguins hit a snag when the team balked at sharing parking revenue and redevelopment rights for the Mellon Arena site with Casino developer Don Barden, who was awarded a state slot machine license and has pledged to help build the new arena. The Penguins had backed another casino developer, Isle of Capri, which had pledged to entirely fund a new arena.
Barden has agreed to pay $7.5 million a year for 30 years toward a new arena, with the state adding $7 million a year. And Rendell has said the Penguins' contribution to the project -- originally pegged at $8.5 million in up-front funds, $2.9 million a year and foregoing $1.16 million a year in naming rights -- has been "significantly" reduced.
