Rooney steps down as Penguins’ president
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Penguins President Tom Rooney is stepping down as part of a reorganization ordered by Mario Lemieux, the team’s chairman and star player. As a result of Tuesday’s move, Ken Sawyer, the president of Lemieux Group LP, the team’s parent company, will also take over Rooney’s duties as president of Team Lemieux LLC, the team’s marketing entity.
General manager Craig Patrick will continue to oversee the Penguins personnel and on-ice operations.
“I have made it clear to Ken and Craig that during the upcoming weeks and throughout the offseason, I want a thorough review of the entire organization,” Lemieux said in a statement Tuesday.
The management shuffle came one week after the Penguins dumped players and salaries in a succession of deals intended to keep the team alive until a new NHL labor agreement is reached. The team hopes a new deal will include some sort of salary cap or other restraint that would help it keep costs down.
The current labor agreement expires in September 2004.
“We have a plan going forward and it was Mario Lemieux’s decision just to streamline the organization,” Sawyer said. “Absolutely everything we have done has been geared to making sure we are a mainstay in the Pittsburgh community.”
Lemieux’s desire to replace aging Mellon Arena – the oldest and second-smallest arena in the NHL – became Sawyer’s primary responsibility when he was promoted last fall to president of Lemieux Group LP.
As part of that transaction, Rooney became president of Team Lemieux LLC, the company that runs the Penguins day-to-day marketing operations.
Rooney did not return a telephone message left with the Penguins on Tuesday and efforts to find a telephone number for him outside the organization were unsuccessful.
Lemieux has said in recent weeks he planned to play a more active role in management and personnel decisions. The Penguins have been all but mathematically eliminated from the NHL playoffs for a second straight season and had a 12-game winless streak going into Tuesday’s game with Detroit.
Last week, Rooney told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette he was optimistic about securing financing for the $270 million arena the team hopes to build by 2007 and suggested there is support for the project, even though governmental bodies have expressed concerns about providing subsidies.
Sawyer said last month the team can no longer afford to divert future revenues to cover the team’s share of the arena’s cost, estimated at $108 million. Lemieux has said the team might have to leave Pittsburgh if it can’t replace the arena.