New Ownership

This morning we were all told of a the major news story that Dejan wrote about in the Post Gazette of the meeting of Mario Lemeiux and Ron Burkle with Bob Nutting. There seems to be a divergence in opinions on what happened at this meeting. Some are saying, mainly on the Penguins side, that Lemeiux and Burkle were meeting to discuss the purchase of the Pirates with an offer being made, while the Pirates are saying that the meeting was about an entirely different topic.

A story like this, as soon as I read it, would immediately get the general yinzer populace in a tizzy. When I use that term, I mean it to apply to the general 'fan' out there in Pittsburgh. You know who I am talking about, the ones that deride anything the Pirates do, are currently putting the Penguins on a pedestal, and the ones that probably called for mass changes to the Steelers as they did not make the playoffs. Simply put the people that would really take this seriously are the groups of fans that have been calling for Mark Cuban to simply come out of nowhere and buy the Bucs.

I'll admit on some level this does seem like a good idea. I'll even admit that it makes a good PR move for the team to at least have Nutting out of the way, if only because the family name has been associated with the bad parts of ownership over the decade plus of losing.

Many would stop there and just full heartedly want this to happen because of that. But take another step back and ask what would change? Not much, just that the ownership office would have a different name plate. Ron Burkle is loaded with money, and yet it is not as though he is dumping millions into the Penguins. Mario Lemieux is a hockey legend, but what weight would that carry in the baseball world? In actuality we would be pretty much where we are right now, just with an ownership group with better name recognition. Nothing else would change.

So why would they meet? Obviously there was a reason for the meeting. There have been some theories that have been floated out there. One that makes sense to me is the media possibilities that emerge from the combining of the two teams under one ownership. Could it be the creation of a television station? That could be likely. It could also be to have a balanced portfolio of assets, as you could use the revenue streams from both teams to look better on the balance sheet.

While it is intriguing to think about new ownership of the Pirates, the team is not for sale. Bob Nutting has gone on record numerous times saying the team is not for sale. Any talk of him selling the team right now is ridiculous. Because of that this story really means nothing, other than more stuff for the yinzers to fantasize about.