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Steelers say integrity led to opposition
Tuesday, December 01, 1998 By Ed Bouchette, Post-Gazette Sports Writer
The Steelers urged Gov. Ridge to veto House Bill 907 to distance the club from what many legislators have characterized as a backdoor attempt to provide state money for Pittsburgh baseball and football stadiums, team President Dan Rooney said yesterday.
"Our integrity, that was the reason," Rooney explained.
Legislators last week unanimously passed House Bill 907, which they thought was a routine housekeeping matter, only to learn later that it might enable Ridge to provide funding for the Pittsburgh stadiums without legislative action to raise the state's debt ceiling. An effort to raise the ceiling fizzled Wednesday in the House and won't be reconsidered until next month, at the earliest.
When the possible impact of HB 907 became known last week, many state lawmakers reacted angrily and wondered whether the Steelers and Pirates, Mayor Murphy and Allegheny County Commissioners Mike Dawida and Bob Cranmer had somehow secretly engineered what they had come to call the "stealth legislation." Legislative leaders yesterday were still considering whether to launch an investigation on that point.
But Ridge vetoed HB 907 yesterday, saying, "It is inarguably clear to me that the Legislature did not intend to authorize these projects" in approving the bill.
Rooney said his team had nothing to do with the bill and that he hoped the broader effort to raise the state's debt ceiling to facilitate stadium financing in both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia would pass the Legislature in January.
Art Rooney II, Dan's son and the team's general counsel, asked the House speaker to investigate how the bill was drafted and passed. He wants to clear the name of Chuck Kolling, a lobbyist not only for the Steelers but also for the Pirates, the city of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County.
Critics, including some legislators, have accused Kolling as the mastermind of the bill. Many are suspicious because he was the first to tell Murphy of the measure's potential impact.
"Chuck Kolling has been a hard-working, straightforward lobbyist for more than 20 years now," Art Rooney said, "and I think his reputation does not deserve to be tarnished by this."
The younger Rooney said Ridge had provided fresh assurances that he would work with the new Legislature to pass a bill to increase the debt ceiling and authorize $150 million to $160 million for the proposed new stadiums in Pittsburgh.
"We just felt all along," Art Rooney said, "we want to do a project that this community can be proud of, and that everybody can feel good about the way it was done, when it gets done. And we just didn't think the backdoor approach was the way to do it."
Art Rooney said the Steelers are proceeding with the same game plan. He said that if time drags on without legislative approval, the team will then have to consider other options. Architects from HOK in Kansas City, hired by the Steelers, have been working on the stadium's design. Deposits are being solicited from fans for seat licenses and luxury boxes.
"Certainly, there will be some point in time," he said, "that we can't continue to spend money without a solid (state) commitment."
Said Dan Rooney: "This is a real serious situation from a lot of standpoints. ... I have to say this: If we don't get (a new stadium), we may not be able to have the kind of football team we're used to having. That's one of the concerns."
The other is that the Pirates will leave, and that the entire project will fall apart. The Steelers can afford to wait until January, but the Pirates have said they would lose $30 million if their new stadium isn't ready by 2001.
"If you delay this thing, you're going to delay the Pirates, and that is a serious matter for the Pirates," Dan Rooney said. "If either one of us or both of us can't open in 2001, it's going to cost a lot of money.
"I don't know what would happen under those circumstances. Say we don't get the new stadium and we operate Three Rivers Stadium as we have been. I think we're then definitely at a disadvantage financially from these other teams."
Dan Rooney mentioned the recent announcement by Patriots owner Bob Kraft to move his New England team from Massachusetts to a publicly funded stadium in Hartford, Conn.
"We sure don't want to look elsewhere. We want to stay here. We may have to look at the alternatives that are here. But, hey, look, we probably need the state in any regard. If we would go to Washington, Pa., or Cranberry or something like that, I would say the state has to be part of it."
Dan Rooney said the Steelers have worked not only on their stadium but also on development around the stadiums, including expansion of the Carnegie Science Center next door to Three Rivers Stadium.
"We have tried to do everything we can to make this project good. We were the first ones to come up with this development idea. We then were told, 'OK, the Pirates should be involved.' We agreed to that. We agreed when we had the problem with the science center (which was concerned that the new Steelers stadium would impinge on its future growth and parking), and we got that worked out."
Both Rooneys expressed dissatisfaction with Philadelphia legislators who were key in stalling the House vote last week on the debt ceiling bill.
"I hate to use the word 'double-crossed,"' Art Rooney said. "We were concerned all along with the Philadelphia situation. Their projects are at a different stage than where we are, and there are more questions about the local commitment there. For that reason, there were questions about how committed they were to getting this thing done."
Dan Rooney called it ironic because he said he had helped save the Philadelphia Eagles from a move to Phoenix in 1985.
"We had a league meeting," Dan Rooney said, "and I stood up and said, 'We cannot let (Eagles owner Leonard Tose) go.' I thought the lawyers were going to start coming after me. I said, 'We cannot let him go. Philadelphia is one of the old-line teams, one of the teams that was here 50, 60 years. It's just not right.' Philadelphia is a very important city. You could call it the birthplace of the nation.'
"The irony is, Philadelphia's now the one giving Pittsburgh the trouble."
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