Was building PNC Park a mistake?
On Sept. 30, Dejan Kovacevic, owner of the eponymous DKPittsburghSports.com, touched off a social media firestorm with a manifesto headlined: “We as Pittsburghers, together, can take our Pirates back.”
If team owner Bob Nutting could not be compelled to sell the team, he might at least be “dragged before government committees and asked to explain grossly violating, if not outright laws, then at the least the spirit of the agreement struck between the city, the state and the team leading into 2001.”
A deluge of calls, emails and tweets to Mayor Bill Peduto’s and other government officials’ offices swiftly followed. James Hill, executive assistant to the mayor, tweeted later that same day:
“This is an impassioned article. I find myself frustrated. All day, calls & tweets poured into the city in reference to it. I just wish people could find this much passion for civic engagement when it comes to schools, homelessness, equity & poverty or a host of other items.”
Others made similar observations, all fair enough. But they avoided the simple truth that the reason people gravitate toward stories like this is because they’re not complex. They present problems that are, seemingly, fixable. All of us crave snap solutions that will never be there when attempting to tackle homelessness, inequality or climate change.
That’s why DK’s manifesto was retweeted more than 1,300 times and liked 2,700 times. (Many of these tweeters even broke from social media tradition and actually read the linked column.) The long and short of Mr. Kovacevic’s argument is that any government that knows how to walk and chew gum at the same time ought to be able to devote a little attention to the Pirates living up to their end of a civic bargain. And, boy, was building PNC Park ever a bargain. It made Mr. Nutting a billionaire.
The Sports & Exhibition Authority of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County already has the right to look at the Pirates’ books. Section 4.3.3 of the lease agreement says “All financial records of the Team shall be open to the inspection and audit of the Authority and its representatives or agents during the Lease Term ... which inspection shall occur at the Team’s office, following reasonable notice. Authority shall have the right to review and examine all documents and materials in the possession of the Team relating to the financial statements submitted to the Authority ... including without limitation, any and all contracts entered by Team with third-party non-Affiliates, to determine if all expenditures and contract terms were reasonable, and to determine the accuracy of any statements, schedules or other information provided under the terms of this Lease.”
Lawyers may parse that and say it doesn’t mean every financial document. But there’s precedent for a similar-sized metro area playing hardball with its baseball team. In 2003, Mr. Kovacevic points out, “the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, acting in conjunction with the Wisconsin legislature, had become so deeply skeptical of the Brewers slashing payroll shortly after Miller Park had been built — all with public funds — that they convened a blue-ribbon group of leaders, both from various governmental entities and even the local corporate community, to approach the Brewers aggressively about proving their word.”
The Brewers’ ballpark opened the same year as PNC Park, and that team likewise was on a losing streak more than a decade old. The franchise had made the same argument that a new ballpark would allow the team to compete. And when it opened its books, officials said they wanted taxpayers to understand where the money had been going so no one would feel ripped off.
The difference there is that the Brewers owners, the Selig family, wanted to sell — and did in January 2005. Mr. Nutting does not want to sell. So it’s debatable what opening the Pirates’ books might accomplish. Mr. Nutting might just say, “OK, so I make a lot of money in Pittsburgh. It’s not that hard. There’s revenue sharing, and hundreds of thousands of fans come from out of state every summer to watch the visitors beat the Pirates. My lease runs through Oct. 31, 2030. Trick or treat.”
Mr. Kovacevic said he realizes Mr. Nutting is not going to be pushed to sell. “That’s pie in the sky. The idea here is responsible stewardship.” Mr. Kovacevic has been criticized for asking government to put pressure on a private business, but critics should look at the lease agreement.
The Pirates “entered into a public partnership,” Mr. Kovacevic said this week. “This is not like Alcoa.”
He’s angry. As a long-suffering Pirates fan (pardon the redundancy), I recently went in another direction, embracing the seeming apathy of Mr. Nutting. I gave up my share in a season ticket plan I’d had for more than 20 years because the owner has shown me that it’s OK to enjoy baseball without putting much money into it.
Strange part of all this is that it’s hard to make an argument that the region made a mistake building PNC Park. Yes, we might have let the state fund stadia for the Philadelphia Phillies and every minorleague team in Pennsylvania, waving goodbye as the Pirates became the Washington Nationals (before the Montreal Expos could relocate to D.C. in 2005). Instead we built an already iconic ballpark that’s led to a building boom on the North Side and gets a third of its attendance from out of state, doing far more to attract tourists to Pittsburgh than the convention center.
The only aspect that’s fallen way short is the hometown baseball. On Tuesday, the Nationals will become the 28th team to play in the World Series since the Pirates’ last pennant in 1979. But who’s counting?