Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 4, 1994 TAG: 9408040058
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PITTSBURGH LENGTH: Medium
The team's board of directors voted Wednesday to give the city six months to find a buyer that will keep the team in Pittsburgh.
Several potential buyers have surfaced. The team has had discussions with groups headed by former Baltimore Orioles president Larry Lucchino and John J. Rigas, chairman of Adelphia Communications, a cable TV company.
``There's significant interest in a number of people, and now it's time to move this along,'' mayor Tom Murphy said. ``Six months will be a challenge.''
Murphy said he believes the owners will do everything they can to keep the team in Pittsburgh, even if that means extending the deadline for finding a buyer.
Pittsburgh is the parent club of the Salem (Va.) Buccaneers Class A Carolina League team.
The owners, a public-private consortium, voted on the sale at a meeting held Wednesday morning at the headquarters of one of the companies, PPG Industries Inc. The Pirates have lost about $60 million since the group bought the team in late 1985.
Under the 1985 sale agreement, the city will have sole responsibility for finding a buyer. The Pirates will have no say in the matter.
The sale price is estimated at about $85 million, including the amount the owners would receive and money needed to pay off loans.
For months, the team's owners and the city have been talking about a proposed city-backed $8 million loan and a new Three Rivers Stadium lease.
The city had agreed to loan the financially troubled Pirates $4 million next month and an additional $4 million in January to keep the team operating through early next season. The Pirates, in turn, would use the loans as collateral for a bank loan.
The Pirates delayed accepting the loan until the city-operated Stadium Authority agreed to $6.5 million in annual lease concessions.
The 107-year-old Pirates, one of the National League's oldest franchises, have had only two owners in the past 40 years. The John W. Galbreath family of Columbus, Ohio, owned the team from the mid-50s through 1985. The current owners bought the team with the intent of serving as temporary owners that would ensure the team remained in Pittsburgh until new owners could be found.
The Pirates been one of the most successful on-field franchises, winning nine National League East championships since 1970 and the World Series in 1909, 1925, 1960, 1971 and 1979.
When the team was sold in 1985, it was in the midst of three consecutive last-place finishes and an attendance low of less than 800,000 a year.
The Pirates have since had two years in which they drew 2 million or more, but the team still is located in baseball's smallest market and continues to draw fewer than the-big market franchises.
Six companies own the club: USX Corp., Westinghouse Electric Corp., Alcoa, PNC Bank Corp., Mellon Bank Corp. and PPG. The other owners are Carnegie Mellon university and three private investors.
Keywords:
BASKETBALL
by CNB