September 04, 2004
The lure of the slots
With the smell of slot-machine casino money in the air, Pittsburgh Penguins owner Mario Lemieux looks to be setting his sights higher than a mere new hockey arena: Asked if he'd be okay with another company getting Pittsburgh's slots license on condition of building an arena (instead of the Pens getting the license and using casino profits to build an arena, as has previously been discussed), Lemieux replied: "That's something we'd have to look at. I'd think that, at this stage, we'd need a little bit more than just a new arena for us to make it work." Notes the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Dejan Kovacevic in his indispensible "Penguins Q&A" column:
It could mean nothing more than that, as the Penguins have maintained for months, they not only want a new arena but also want control of its operations and revenues, same as the Steelers and Pirates have.
It could also mean that, in addition to the arena, they want the millions of extra dollars in slots revenue and are not willing to give the Gaming Control Board an easy out to giving the license to someone else when they feel they can have it for themselves.
So either it's a veiled threat to leave town if an arena lease isn't to Lemieux's liking, or a veiled threat to leave town if he doesn't get both an arena and a casino.
