Penguins Fortunes May Hinge On a One-Armed Bandit

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The New York Sun

Pittsburgh Penguins owner Mario Lemieux has a lot to be thankful for this holiday season, especially the trifecta he managed to pull off over the summer.


Lemieux’s Penguins are back on the ice thanks to a sweetheart collective bargaining deal worked out in July by commissioner Gary Bettman, whose gamble of locking out NHL players during the 2004-05 season produced a hard league salary cap. Later that month, Lemieux and the Penguins won the NHL draft lottery and, with it, the right to nab uber-prospect Sidney Crosby. After making the Penguins the NHL’s least-watched team in 2004-05 with an average attendance of 11.877, the hockey faithful in Western Pennsylvania are once again snapping up lots of Penguins tickets and merchandise.


But Lemieux still needs more to keep the Penguins in Pittsburgh. The outmoded Pittsburgh Civic Arena, which opened in 1961 with the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera – not the city’s second-rate AHL Hornets or the NHL in mind – just doesn’t produce enough revenues from luxury boxes, club seats, and concessions to keep an NHL team in the black.


The Penguins’ lease with Pittsburgh ends in 2007. Last Friday, the Pittsburgh-Allegheny County Sports and Exhibition Authority announced it would work with anyone seeking to build a new arena. Lemieux and his partners want to take them up on the offer, but in order to do so, they need more money. The answer? Slot machines. The problem is simple. The Penguins’ ownership has to win a slot parlor license from Harrisburg politicians.


For years, the Penguins have been unable to sway local lawmakers to help fund an arena. “The problem is nobody has any money,” Penguins president Ken Sawyer told NHL.com in August. “The Steelers’ and the Pirates’ and the Eagles’ and the Phillies’ stadiums were all deals done in advance of 9-11. The economy was strong, the state had a surplus every year, it was a totally different world. The economy changed, so it’s a really a question of money. And there’s a general public opinion against money for stadiums.


In lieu of public opinion, the Penguins are hoping Harrisburg lawmakers grant them a slot machine casino license in the near future. The casino would be built adjacent to a new arena as part of a master plan. Otherwise, the franchise could pull up stakes and move to Kansas City; Portland, Ore.; Houston; or maybe Las Vegas.


But even if Harrisburg grants the request for slots, will the NHL allow Lemieux, the player-owner of the Penguins, to become a gambling boss? The answer is, why not? The National Hockey League has indicated that it approves of the Lemieux plan for funding a new arena.


Well, players are not supposed to wager on their team or their sport. Owners aren’t supposed to, in theory. Yet Lemieux could end up running a slot machine casino while playing for and owning an NHL franchise. Sports traditionally put up barriers when it comes to gambling. Just ask Pete Rose. But in the 21st century, those barriers disintegrate if the gambling benefits an owner.


The NHL dropped its anti-gambling stance long ago when it accepted money from the Alberta Provincial Hockey Lottery, which put money into the pockets of the owners in Calgary and Edmonton. Alberta decided to share lottery “proceeds” to keep the Flames and Oilers financially competitive with some of the NHL’s smaller market franchises.


Bettman has also been pushing other Canadian provinces to share their lottery monies with NHL teams. As long as there is no sports book, and as long as players aren’t involved, Bettman is fine with gambling.


Other sports are similarly two-faced when it comes to gambling. The NFL allows owners to own racetracks and has no problem with various state lottery and racetrack sales partnerships with individual teams. But in trying to protect its image with the public, it does not allow its television network partners to accept Las Vegas ads during Super Bowl telecasts.


And when it comes to players, of course, there is little flexibility. The NFL objected in 2002 when Steelers running back Jerome Bettis got involved in a development project in Pittsburgh that would feature slots. Bettis’s group was going after the same slot machine casino license Lemieux’s group is currently seeking.


In June 2004, Bettis met with the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus, which had threatened to vote against legalizing slots if gambling industry leaders didn’t commit to ensuring that minorities play a role at all levels of the industry. The Caucus supported the slot parlor legislation after meeting with Bettis. The slot parlor legislation eventually passed and now Pennsylvania is handing out slot parlor licenses.


Bettis was eventually cleared of violating an NFL bylaw that allows teams to accept advertising revenue from racetracks and state lotteries but prohibits players or coaches from appearing in the gambling ads. Bettis was questioned because of the slot machine tie-in and afterward Bettis walked away from the development plan because of the gambling aspect and the fact he was still active. Bettis said he could return to the project after his playing days are done.


As far as the NFL is concerned, it’s okay for an owner to be involved in gambling, but not a player – except, of course, if the player happens to be an owner. The NFL had no problem when Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell in 1995 to move his team to Baltimore and to a new stadium that was going to be funded from proceeds from the Maryland State Lottery. Owners play by different rules.


Detroit Red Wings and Tigers owner Mike Ilitch’s wife Marian (who is part of the team’s ownership) has a huge piece of the Motor City Casino and is trying to open casinos in Hawaii and on Long Island. The Motor City Casino does not take book on sports events.


NBA Commissioner David Stern and his owners sold a WNBA franchise to the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut in January 2003. Stern and his 30 owners have also decided to hold the 2007 NBA All-Star Game in Las Vegas after the Maloof Brothers, who own the Sacramento Kings and the Palms Casino in Las Vegas, lobbied the Commissioner and his staff to hold the game in the Nevada gambling capital.


Coincidentally, the Maloofs are seeking a new arena in Sacramento and should that not materialize, the family might consider moving the team to Las Vegas. The Maloofs are also interested in bringing an NHL team to the city as well.


Gambling is omnipresent, from lotteries and scratch-off games to horse tracks featuring slot machines to Native American casinos. It’s ingrained in the culture and if Mario Lemieux – the owner and the player – gets lucky and Pennsylvania regulators give him a gaming license, gambling money will pay for his new arena in Pittsburgh.


The New York Sun

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