Saying they got no boost in business from PNC Park, some Downtown restaurateurs have asked the Pirates to push back the starting times of night games.
But the Pirates, who say their fans prefer the current 7:05 p.m. start time, aren't inclined to do so.
Despite record Pirates attendance this year, many Downtown restaurateurs didn't see their business increase on baseball nights, said Kevin Joyce, president of the Western Pennsylvania Restaurant Association.
Yesterday, he asked the Sports & Exhibition Authority, a city-county agency, to join his group in trying to persuade the Pirates to move the starting times of 25 to 30 weeknight games to 7:35 p.m. and to start at 7:45 p.m. or 8 p.m. on weekends.
"Starting the games 30 minutes later would make all the difference in the world," letting diners finish their meals and still get to the games on time, said Joyce, owner of the Carlton restaurant in One Mellon Bank Center on Grant Street.
"The new baseball stadium was supposed to help economic development, but we [restaurateurs] didn't experience it last season," he said. "In terms of sales and profits, it's been a difficult year."
Other factors that hurt restaurants were the national economic slowdown that kept people eating at home, the closing of the Liberty Bridge for several weekends, the closing of the Downtown subway some weekends during construction of the First Avenue station, and the news media "putting a scare into people several days ahead of time" by broadcasting Downtown road closures and predicting traffic jams, he said.
Dick Freeman, Pirates senior vice president, said yesterday that no decision has yet been made about starting times in 2002, but it seems unlikely that the 7:05 p.m. time will be altered.
According to surveys of season-ticket holders, "over 80 percent" preferred 7:05 to 7:35, he said.
Parents with children want the games over earlier, especially when schools are in session.
Steve Leeper, executive director of the sports authority, said baseball "is one of the few sports where you can bring young children to a game, so it's important to have earlier start times on a school night or during the summer."
Leeper didn't say whether he would join the restaurant association in lobbying the Pirates for later starting times.
He objected to Joyce's assertion that the opening of PNC Park hadn't helped Downtown restaurants. Leeper said restaurants along Sixth Street, just across the bridge from the ballpark, were often filled before and after games. Other restaurants were busy, too, he said.
Freeman said the Pirates' 2002 schedule hasn't been finalized. Schedules were sent to ticket holders but may change if baseball goes ahead with plans to eliminate two franchises before next season.
In other matters yesterday, the sports authority:
Agreed to pay no more than $185,000 to realign 18 underground caissons along 10th Street, which are part of the support system for the roof of the new convention center. Preliminary estimates of the cost to straighten the vertical, 70-foot-long underpinnings had ranged from $200,000 to $250,000.
Agreed to buy a 125-space stadium parking lot at Allegheny Avenue and Reedsdale Street (the former Steelers practice field) from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation for $491,500. The authority has been leasing the lot.
Agreed to release a payment of $567,256 to EDAW, an Alexandria, Va., design firm, for its work on the Esplanade West, a brick walkway along the Allegheny River, and design of the Great Lawn. Both are part of the new North Shore Riverfront Park being built between the two stadiums. Both elements are to be open by summer. The payment is part of the overall $2.4 million contract the authority awarded EDAW.
Pirates balk at restaurants' pitch 
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