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Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh hockey legend and two-time savior of the Penguins (both as a player and then an owner), recently made a bid with Penguins' co-owner Ron Burkle to buy the Pittsburgh Pirates from the team's current ownership group, lead by West Virginia newspaper man Bob Nutting. While some characterize the Lemieux group's bid as "serious," Nutting brushed it off when asked about it last night by simply saying that the team isn't for sale.It's the same answer Nutting has given in the past when asked about the status of the Pirates. Billionaire Pittsburgh native Mark Cuban has also made rumblings about buying the team, though nothing serious has come of that recently either. The Pirates are, of course, frequently targeted for this type of conversation both because they haven't had a winning season since 1992 and perennially have among the lowest payrolls in baseball.
Lemieux assumed ownership of the Penguins in 1999 when the club filed for bankruptcy and his deferred salaries made him the team's largest creditor. Over the course of his ownership (which overlapped with the end of his playing career), the Penguins have risen from four seasons as one of the worst teams in the NHL to the defending Stanley Cup Champions currently looking to lock up their fourth straight playoff bid. Of course, the NHL works with a salary cap and thanks to a team full of young stars, the Penguins have one of the most ravenous fan bases in all of hockey. Success in one sport doesn't always translate to another for owners.
Nutting himself has only technically been the primary owner of the Pirates since 2007, though he and his family had invested money in the team long before then. In his three years in charge, the Pirates have cleaned out their front office and put a renewed focus on scouting both domestically and internationally to rebuild the team from within, but they've also cleared out most of their Major League roster (just two starting position players on Opening Day 2010 will carry over from Opening Day 2009) in the rebuilding effort, resulting in their extremely low payroll. That's managed to both anger some Pirate fans, as well as make the team a target for revenue sharing violations in the eyes of others.
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