Apr 11, 2002 3 min read

PITTSBURGH (AP) – Managing general partner Kevin McClatchy on Wednesday dismissed speculation the Pittsburgh Pirates are for sale, saying any such report is “ridiculous.” “We’ve been through some bad years here and now, that we’ve got a half-decent team, I’m hearing this,” McClatchy said. “There’s always going to be speculation, but it’s not true.

“That’s one rumor I’m happy to put to bed. The Pirates are not for sale.”

McClatchy wasn’t aware of the rumor until being told a Baseball Weekly columnist, citing unidentified baseball sources, wrote there were “rumblings” that McClatchy wanted to sell or take on additional partners.

McClatchy heads a group of 28 limited partners who bought the team in 1996 for about $95 million from a public-private partnership that had owned it for 10 years. Only four investors have left the group since then, with other investors – including newspaper publisher G. Ogden Nutting of Wheeling, W.Va. – purchasing their shares.

McClatchy wouldn’t object if somebody stepped forward and wanted to invest in the team -“Anytime somebody wants to do that, you would listen to it,” he said – but said he wasn’t actively seeking new partners.

The Pirates are in much better financial shape than they were in 1996, when McClatchy’s group bought them a year after they lost $18 million. The Pirates reported a $1.2 million loss last season, their first in new PNC Park, but the franchise’s revenues have jumped substantially since moving into the new ballpark.

The Pirates’ operating revenues of $108.7 million last year ranked 18th overall in the majors, or about double what they were in 1995. Also, their $49 million in ticket revenues last season were more than double what they were in the mid 1990s.

Forbes Magazine recently estimated the Pirates are worth $240 million, or nearly three times what McClatchy’s group paid, although McClatchy also dismissed that figure as being “ridiculous.”

The report may have surfaced because Pirates season ticket sales are down 40 percent from a year ago, from about 17,000 to 10,000. Also, the possibility of a labor strife in baseball during or after this season could be economically devastating to a small-market franchise such as the Pirates.

Still, after suffering through six consecutive losing seasons since he bought into the team, McClatchy said he is more interested in putting a winning team on the field than he is in looking to sell, even for a substantial profit.

“I enjoy my job,” said McClatchy, a former amateur first baseman who grew up a Giants fan in northern California. “Last year, losing 100 games, that was tough but this year I’m looking forward to having some fun.

“I want to see something positive come of the work we’ve put in, that’s why I got into this in the first place. We’ve got the new ballpark, and that’s great … and now we want to put a winning team into it.”