Nutting to Fear? Is Pirates' Audit Incoming?

Story by Very Angry Pirates Fan Luke Ranalli

It's not baseball season so who cares about the Pirates, right?

Well, a proposal was brought about by Rep. Jim Gregory and Tim Bonner who intend to review the impact that pro sports stadiums and their respective teams have on the economics of a city.

This proposal was posted on October 28th of this year and is set to audit all stadiums in the commonwealth of PA. So it's not just the Pirates being singled out - Acrisure Stadium, Lincoln Field where the Eagles play, Citizens Bank Park home to the Phillies, and PNC Park are all umbrellaed under the proposed legislation. 

So what does this mean? Well, not exactly what you might think. 

Back in 1991, all four teams negotiated with Harrisburg for grants that totaled $320 million between 2002 and 2006, $85 million going to each Philly team and $75 million going to each Pittsburgh team. This agreement came with a 30-year lease term, which also required each team to report on their finances every ten years of said lease, proving they made at least $25 million in additional tax revenues. If these terms were not met each team would be required to pay the difference. Thus far, each team has been able to prove they exceeded these numbers, however, with the next interval of reports due this month there is another study that will be looked at by the Independent Fiscal Office. This study will examine the regional economic benefits resulting from both the Phillies, and the Pirates stadiums.

This is much more complicated than it may seem, if it doesn't already seem pretty complicated. If you ask any economist (nerds), there really isn't that much revenue a professional sports stadium actually brings into its home town and the con's definitely outweigh the pros, depending on your view of sports in general. When you think about the revenue coming in from a professional sports team, you have to think about external factors. All the money the actual stadium makes is going back into the team, well should be anyway, and the only revenue that the public actually sees is what comes from sales tax. Basically, more ticket sales means more alcohol, food and beverage, ect sales that can be taxed. Well, that's a big problem considering the abysmal attendance in the last decade or so for the Pirates. 

Regardless, attendance is only a fraction of what a city should care about when it comes to external revenue coming to the city. Considering most games are attended by residents in and around the Pittsburgh area, that tax revenue is coming from locals anyway. One way to offset this is to hope that the owners and professional athletes making millions will live in the city they play for and spend money in said city to keep the wealth circulating to local business and tax revenues. Last time I checked though, most professional athletes live outside of Pittsburgh, Cranberry being a popular area, which if you didn't know isn't even Allegheny County, it's Butler. I looked into where Bob Nutting lives as well (pretty half assed though) and while I couldn't find where he currently resides with my minimal digging, there were quite a few articles about the last home he sold which was in Ligonier that just so happens to be in Westmoreland County. 

But I digress, the real issue here is that a sports team needs to be competitive for it to be lucrative. The Pirates haven't made the playoffs since 2015, which I don't even consider losing a wildcard game playoffs but that's just me. The last time they had more than one playoff game was in 2013, and they lost the NL divisional to the St. Louis Cardinals. This hurts looking into this but, the Pirates have hosted just five playoff games since 1993.... Since I have been alive the Pirates have won a grand total of three playoff games.

Without playoff appearances there is no real revenue coming into the city. Opposing teams aren't staying in our hotels and eating at our restaurants. Fans of those teams aren't doing the same as well as going out to local bars to celebrate or to enjoy Pittsburgh culture and activities while they wait for the game to start.

Ok, back to the study and what it actually means to Pittsburgh and the Pirates organization. It has already been stated that this study isn't expecting to find any wrongdoings by these organizations, the purpose is to see if there is tangible evidence that a successful team has a significantly bigger economic impact on a city than an unsuccessful one. Considering the Pirates are in the bottom five in the MLB consistently, and the Phillies recently made it to the World Series and multiple playoff appearances and wins in the past two decades, and they are in the same region it makes the data even more viable.

Now, with all that being said, there are other factors to consider. One is if the team is making its fanbase happy, which is obviously an intangible measurement. Even if we as a city are fed up with losing, who's to say going to games won't give a father and son memories that last a lifetime, not because the Pirates won or lost but because it was an activity they enjoyed doing together. I know plenty of older yinzers who go to games just for nostalgia, giving them happiness in reliving the good old days. I personally have family that comes to town every Summer and one of the activities we always plan for is a Pirates game. Value does not necessarily have to translate into revenue, and if PNC Park brings them joy regardless of a Pirates win or loss, then there is still value in having the team here.

In a time when everyone is being affected by the economy and how far a dollar can go, can cities really justify sports teams and new stadiums being built if they can't bring additional revenue to the city? Is winning all that matters when it comes to a sports franchise (sounds kind of silly to say out loud)? Considering the fact that if you lived in Billings Montana, the closest team to you would be the Colorado Rockies, which would be over an eight hour, 500+ mile drive. Isn't it valuable enough that if you wanted to go to a game you can without having to drive to another state? What actually makes a professional sports team worthwhile? 

I think there are many different ways to answer that question, but in asking it and in doing this research, I think the most important question I asked myself at the end of this is could I imagine not having the Pirates in Pittsburgh. What if the Penguins were sold back in the early 2000s when it was a real possibility. Would Sundays be the same without the Steelers? Even if the Bucco's never win a World Series in my lifetime, I'm glad I am only a 15 minute drive from the stadium if I felt the urge to get out of the house and check out a baseball game on a warm Summer day.