Commentary
Pens going underground! For the Herald-Standard
The skepticism that has dogged Sports Finance and Management Group’s claim it can build Pittsburgh a new arena $100 million cheaper than most estimates went off the charts Friday.
That was when officials of the California-based SFMG said their plan was be to construct the new venue underground.
The Pittsburgh Penguins would thus move from the Igloo to the Coal Mine.
Even in a region which prides itself on sports shrine paneled basements, the idea of going downstairs to a hockey game or truck pull is too bizarre.
So the two announced arena construction plans are founded on very flimsy platforms. The Penguins’ preferred method is to use a lot of public money and to legalize slot machines to raise their share.
SFMG wants to start digging and will presumably send up a plume of white smoke when the building is ready. Who knows, if you dig deep enough, maybe there are natural ice formations.
You can make the case that people who bought Penguins tickets last year were throwing money down a hole but SFMG’s plan appears to be ridiculous.
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The Pittsburgh Steelers were quick to speak out against the idea of a proposed North Side casino.
Steelers’ president Art Rooney III said, “A casino on General Robinson Street is inconsistent with the presence of two professional sports franchises and one college football program.
OK, questions:
The Pirates and Steelers can’t even be neighbors to a casino but the Penguins can use slots money to build an arena?
Of 60,000 people at a Steelers game, are there 500 unaware of the point spread?
Didn’t the Rooney family make a lot of money owning racetracks?
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The Pittsburgh Pirates are hot to host the 2006 All-Star game and it isn’t just because it would be a big event for the city.
The hammer of All-Star ticket availability motivates people to buy season tickets. It worked in 1994 as season ticket sales took an unnatural upward spike thanks to the All-Star lure.
Having already exhausted the novelty of a new ballpark and a full schedule of promotions, the
Pirates apparently now need another outside source to artificially stimulate business.
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Less than 24 hours after former NFL player Pat Tillman was killed while serving with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan, cold-hearted opportunists had listed 110 Tillman-related items on Ebay, the online auction site.
One other seller, a creep in Klamath Falls, Ore., revised the listing of a generic Arizona State T-shirt he had been offering since Wednesday. His new listing added the information “Pat Tillman’s college” in the title so the item would show up when potential buyers ran a search on Tillman’s name.
He added the sentence, “Wear this shirt to remember him” in his item description. The minimum bid was $9.99.
Perhaps the seller can use the profits to buy a conscience.
Sports correspondent John Mehno can be reached online at: johnmehno@lycos.com