The news last week that the state will lend the city-county Sports & Exhibition Authority $25 million to $30 million to begin securing land for an arena represented another significant and positive step toward the realization of a project everyone from Gov. Ed Rendell on down agrees is needed for the region.
The jump-start will accelerate the process, no matter who winds up winning the slots license upon which so much depends. This was going to have to be done sooner or later, anyway, so why not go ahead and get things started?
Still uncertain is the future of the Penguins, with or without the new facility.
It's plausible new ownership could consider Rendell's "Plan B" proposal acceptable and keep the franchise here.
But it's also plausible the eventual new owners of the Penguins will decide a sweetheart deal in Kansas City, Las Vegas, Portland or Houston is preferable to $8.5 million up front and $4 million annually over 30 years.
Should Isle of Capri Casinos land the slots license, the Penguins are staying put, period. But Isle of Capri remains the only slots-license applicant that can guarantee the Penguins' long-term future in their current home. And for some reason, Rendell, mayor Bob O'Connor and Allegheny County chief executive Dan Onorato refuse to throw their public and private support behind the Penguins-Isle of Capri partnership.
It's a dangerous game they're playing.
They'll have to play some more to prevent the team from leaving in the event the slots winner isn't Isle of Capri.
Specifically, they're going to have to come up with a "Plan B to Plan B," one that lessens the financial burden on the franchise to pony up for the arena project.
Rendell, O'Connor and Onorato are counting on the franchise being entrenched in Pittsburgh, and they're betting that its loyal fan support, visibility and history here will be worth a great deal to whomever winds up purchasing the team, enough to convince them not to relocate.
It's not a completely unreasonable assumption.
Those are factors that will have to be weighed carefully in the event someone considers packing up and moving elsewhere.
The grass isn't always greener.
But is a place in the market and an established brand name in the marketplace worth $4 million a year for 30 years, particularly when it's quite likely the Penguins wouldn't have to spend that much green elsewhere?
That's a question only new ownership can and will answer.
The one Rendell, O'Connor and Onorato don't want to find themselves having to answer is, how does the arena get built if there are no Penguins around to contribute, and how would such a facility maximize its profitability without an anchor tenant?
Again, wouldn't it be a lot easier for everyone involved to just take the $290 million up front from Isle of Capri?
