Pittsburgh Sports Report - Glimpse Of The Future? By Bob Grove

Pittsburgh Sports Report
October 2004

Glimpse Of The Future?
By Bob Grove

On the night of Saturday, Oct. 16, Mellon Arena will be empty except for the ever-present security man inside the doors of Gate Two. There will be no ice clinking around glasses in the Igloo Club, no pizza being delivered to the super boxes, no business discussions between periods in the club seats.

No 11-year-olds eyeing Marc-Andre Fleury jerseys in PenStation and searching their mom's face for a sign that it might be all right to ask. No 18-year-olds sitting in dressing rooms, pulling on an NHL sweater for the first time, watching Mario Lemieux prepare to the face the New York Rangers.

The brutal reality of the NHL lockout, which will be one month old on the night when the Penguins were scheduled to open their 2004-05 home schedule against the hated Rangers, is that nobody knows when the sounds of hockey as we know it will return.

'It's definitely not business as usual,' says Penguins' general manger Craig Patrick.

That NHL owners and players were solidly entrenched behind their management and labor lines - the league seeking to reduce salaries and the players vowing never to allow restrictions on their earning power - was well known before the point was formally hammered home Sept. 15 with the league's announcement of the lockout.

The familiar rhetoric skated one more aggressive shift that day, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman denouncing 'union leadership that negotiates only through confrontation,' while NHL Players Association president Bob Goodenow said it was 'absolutely stupid and ridiculous' for Bettman to suggest players were picking a fight.

The hockey world some time ago seemed to accept the notion that it would be possible to reach a settlement and begin play by January, which was the storyline for the 1994 lockout. But this labor battle has since taken on even darker undertones, with many beginning to believe the NHL could become the first major professional league to cancel an entire season.

If that scenario isn't eerie enough for Pittsburgh hockey fans, they can always allow themselves to think about the fact it might just be a glimpse of the future. The team's long-term survival here is tied directly to its ability to find funding for a new arena, and that is anything but certain.

In fact, the region right now is beginning to think long and hard about the economic impact of losing NHL hockey, and it's not a pretty process.

Financial Reality

The Penguins through September had avoided layoffs, although that was to some extent possible because a number of employees had already left for other jobs. Owner Lemieux and management have already taken pay cuts, and Mellon Arena manager SMG and concessions company Aramark are braced to lose money.

Restaurants and hotels in the city, especially those near Mellon Arena, are also preparing for a drop in business. The financially troubled city believes it will lose about $2.2 million in amusement and parking tax revenues.

'It is very chilling,' says Bob Imperata, executive vice-president of the Greater Pittsburgh Convention and Visitors Bureau. 'It's not something we, as marketers for this region, want to see. There are plenty of things to do in Pittsburgh, but you never want to lose a key factor like the Penguins.'

The Bureau estimates that the Penguins attract $15.3 million annually in non-ticket revenue from visitors to the region. That includes $10 million spent in hotel stays - 43 nights per season there are entire hockey teams, media contingents and officials staying in hotel rooms, not to mention fans - and another $4 million at restaurants.

'You always have guys coming in from, say, Monroeville and spending money at a restaurant before the game and maybe after the game,' says Imperata. 'The bigger revenue comes from visitors from outside the region, who may come here to do a number of things, and they're usually not coming here alone and they need a hotel room.

'We see lots of convention groups looking for things for their people to do, opportunities like the Penguins. It's one more opportunity taken away to raise revenue from outside the region.'

On-Ice Impact

Patrick doesn't have to worry about wins and losses just now, but he's not sailing through the early stages of the lockout with an idle smile, either. His American Hockey League affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton will be playing, but he doesn't expect his NHL coaching staff to follow around the Baby Penguins.

'We're not going to be in a position where we want to spend a lot of money,' he said. 'We will spend time seeing the AHL and some ECHL games, but we won't be taking exorbitant trips to wherever. We don't know how long this is going to last.'

Penguins' coach Eddie Olczyk attended the Baby Penguins' training camp last month, 'but other than that Craig and I have not had a whole lot of discussions about the specifics' of what Olczyk and assistants Randy Hillier and Joe Mullen might do going forward.

Pittsburgh's other players are spread out around the globe, many playing overseas while some, like Lemieux and recently-signed free agent Mark Recchi, are skating on their own right here. Particularly painful for the Penguins and their fans is the irony of having the oft-injured Lemieux in perhaps his best shape ever at a time when there's no rink for him to fill.

'When he's feeling good, there's no question in my mind he's the best player in the league,' says Olczyk. 'He can do whatever he wants.'

Except play.

PSR Senior Writer Bob Grove has been covering the Penguins since 1981 and currently serves as a regular co-host on the Penguins Radio Network.