Ohhhh, Sell the Goddamn Team!

It Would be so nice if Mr. Nutting actually listened to Pirate fans instead of being concerned only with lining his pockets.

Winning offer: An open letter to Pirates owner Bob Nutting

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Dear Mr. Nutting,

Major league sports is a brutal business. What with aggressive player agents, deep-pocketed competitors and more venues vying for the public's entertainment dollar, it is not a pursuit for the faint of heart.

Still, your family has had an ownership stake in the Pirates for 14 years and you've been the controlling owner since January 2007. Not once during the Nuttings' involvement has the team had a winning season. The Pirates' streak of 17 losing campaigns exceeds any run of futility in the history of professional sports. It is, no doubt, as frustrating for you as it is for the fans.

The difference between you and the other Pirates faithful, though, is you can do something about it.

When you took over the Pirates, you talked about your commitment to win. It hasn't happened and, even with the latest clutch of young prospects, it's unlikely that 2010 will be a winning season. When you installed a new management team, they said they were out to change Pirates culture. That cultural shift produced more Pirates losses in each of the last two seasons than the year before. When the fans showed their growing impatience, you said there would be accountability. Let's draw a hard line in the infield dirt on when the Nutting regime will be accountable and return this storied franchise to a modicum of respectability -- or else depart the scene.

That change could come sooner if you were open to the reported offer by Penguins co-owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle to buy the baseball team. Your insistence that the Pirates are not for sale would seem to put an end to the whole idea. Let's hope not.

As a sports owner powerhouse, Lemieux-Burkle has been able to put the necessary money into the hockey team to keep top talent on the ice. To no one's surprise, the Pirates and Penguins are poles apart in terms of image, success and symbols of Pittsburgh.

The Pirates ownership of the Nutting era has never spent much on players. Yet team officials over the years have resisted the notion that this has any bearing on the 17 losing seasons. Even this year, the franchise will be a bottom feeder in terms of total salary in Major League Baseball, with the added twist that ownership is now trying to sell cheapness as a virtue, saying it is necessary to save money for when today's Pirates prospects blossom into the superstars the team will want to keep tomorrow. If only it were so.

That's why you shouldn't dismiss an offer by the Penguins' co-owners out of hand. With their management smarts, superior finances and record of success, they could build this team into not only a sure winner but also one with staying power. Like the Pirates we remember.

In that way, by selling the team you can finally deliver on your promise of producing a winner, and probably years ahead of schedule. You would become an overnight sensation, Pittsburgh's newest baseball hero. It's worth thinking about.

Sincerely,
More than a few Pirates fans

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10035/1033306-192.stm#ixzz0eckodVZ6


Post title was taken from this gem from the WDVE morning show

Please Oh Please Oh Please Let This Happen...

From Mondesi's House...

LEMIEUX INTERESTED IN OWNING THE PIRATES? YES, PLEASE.

Posted by mondesishouse | 11:41 AM

For years, there's been a hope that Mark Cuban would buy/save the Pirates, for the reasons being that A. he was from Pittsburgh and B. he was rich.

As weak as the Pirate ownership has been, I was never on board with the Cuban dream. Call it merely a hunch, but I didn't feel that it was the right fit, although that's certainly open for debate. And I never had a firm grasp of how serious he really was about buying it.

But the news I read last night from Dejan Kovacevic in the PG is something that I can believe in. Believe in, back, support, whatever you can do to push it forward, you can bet that I'll be on board.

Both franchises appear to be telling a different side of what happened, but one thing is for sure: the Pirates' and Penguins' head honchos recently had a closed-door business meeting. The Penguins sources are saying Lemieux's Penguin partner, Ron Burkle, made an offer to buy the Pirates. The Pirates are saying it was about another matter, and continue to insist that the team is not for sale.

Bob Nutting is no dummy. His group has been feeding this cash cow on a diet of revenue sharing and broadcasting rights for a long time, and according to Forbes, it is worth about $288 million. For comparison's sake, Kevin McClatchy paid $95 million for the team back in 1996. So basically, in the last decade-plus of strictly losing baseball, the value of the franchise has nearly tripled. One can only imagine what it would be worth with a winner on the field, selling more tickets, more merchandise, and higher local broadcasting rights.

If anyone has proven to know what they're doing in the field of pro sports ownership, it's the Lemieux/Burkle group. What they've done with the Penguins did take a matter of some luck in the draft, but also needed the right touch to finish what the lottery Gods gave them. That's hiring Ray Shero, that's managing the payroll, that's having a fan relation staff second to none. They know Pittsburgh, they know Pittsburgh sports, and they know Pittsburgh sports fans. Having their people in charge of the Pirates could be a dream come true for the long-suffering Bucco fan.

Where this goes from here is up in the air. To have this news come out during PirateFest is probably the worst-case scenario for that organization, but face it, their existence has been worst-case scenario since Sid Bream crossed the plate in 1992. They're used to dealing with bad news.

But from a fan point of view, now that's where this gets interesting. If you thought there was pressure on Pirate ownership in the past, that's going to pale in comparison to what will happen next. Mario Lemieux has been The Best Thing To Happen To Pittsburgh at least three times by my count - he saved the Penguins on the ice, he saved the Penguins from bankruptcy, and he saved the Penguins from moving. And that's not to mention the Stanley Cups and millions of dollars raised for local charities. How there's not 10 statues of this man around town is a mystery in itself.

Bob Nutting? Let's take the high road and say he's not quite as distinguished with the locals. And that league-low $35 million payroll and likely 18th consecutive losing season isn't going to win him many more friends.

This is a story that began months ago, but is only being talked about now. I think it could be one of the biggest developments in Pittsburgh sports history if it actually comes to fruition. Turning around that franchise just might be the impossible. But if there's one guy who we can count on to do the impossible, it's Mario Lemieux.

and the link to the Post Gazette story is HERE