NHL Penguins need support for arena

The governor said the Penguins need governmental aid and self-investment.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The Pittsburgh Penguins shouldn't expect the state to help pay for a new arena if city and county politicians don't make the project a priority and the team doesn't offer up its own money, Gov. Ed Rendell said.
Earlier this year, representatives from 11 southwestern Pennsylvania counties gave Rendell their Capital Redevelopment wish lists, and none of them included funding for a new hockey arena, the governor said Monday.
Also, Rendell hasn't seen any plan that outlines the hockey team's potential investment, he said.
"That would be a condition and precedent before anyone would consider any government involvement," Rendell told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for its Tuesday editions.
Expressed pessimism
Last week, Penguins star and owner Mario Lemieux expressed pessimism about the team's future in the city if it can't secure financial backing for a new $270 million arena.
Lemieux said he was frustrated that city and county leaders haven't exerted more effort to build an arena to replace 42-year-old Mellon Arena -- the oldest and second-smallest venue in the National Hockey League.
"Everyone has said we need a new arena," said Penguins president Ken Sawyer. "That's the obvious thing that everybody concludes. They all know that in 2007, without a new arena, this team may not be here. So we should find a solution and find one when interest rates are so low."
The team has not said how much it will invest in a new arena.
But when the Sports & amp; Exhibition Authority, a county-city agency, outlined a plan last summer that asked the Penguins to contribute $108 million to a new facility, team officials said the figure was too high.
Naming rights
But the Penguins would renegotiate its naming rights agreement with Mellon Financial Corp. if they move into a new arena, Sawyer said. Mellon pays the team $1.8 million a year under the current agreement.
Allegheny County Chief Executive Jim Roddey also rejected the sports authority's plan, objecting to the amount of money that would come from the Regional Asset District -- the body that allocates funding from the county's 1 percent sales tax.
Roddey has since said he won't discuss any plans for a new hockey arena until he meets with team officials.
Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy won't set aside city tax dollars for the project, his spokesman Craig Kwiecinski said, but supports the use of Regional Asset District money.
"We'd like to see a plan that Mayor Murphy and County Executive Roddey support. That plan didn't have the support of Roddey or Murphy either, so it's not much of a plan," Sawyer said.