| |
 New lease with SMG needed Lemieux has crucial meeting in bid to buy Penguins
Posted: Thursday April 29, 1999 08:52 PM
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Former Pittsburgh Penguins star Mario Lemieux met face-to-face with the Civic Arena's landlord in a critical phase of his bid to buy the bankrupt team. "We had a good exchange of information," said Chuck Greenberg, a Lemieux attorney, who declined to elaborate further on the talks with Philadelphia-based SMG. Daniel Shapira, a Pittsburgh attorney representing SMG, said the two sides have agreed to meet a second time. A hearing on Lemieux's plan to buy the Penguins is scheduled for Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. On Thursday, Lemieux met with the brother and attorney for potential investor Mark Cuban, the chairman of Broadcast.com, the Internet broadcasting company. Brian Cuban reported that talks were productive, according to the brothers' attorney, Mark Haak. Cuban, whose company is about to be sold to Yahoo for $6.08 billion, has the resources to purchase the team on his own, Haak said. But Cuban said earlier this week that he would be willing to have a partner. A new lease with SMG, which manages the publicly-owned Civic Arena, is crucial to Lemieux's plan. Penguins officials have blamed the team's expensive lease at the Civic Arena, the oldest facility in the NHL, for helping to push the team into bankruptcy. The lease is worth $6 million to $7 million annually. Under its terms, the Penguins are committed to playing at the arena until 2007. Lemieux's plan, which is the only one filed so far, calls for a new arena by 2004. It also calls for payments to SMG to be lowered to $500,000 a year.
| |||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. Terms under which this service is provided to you.
| |||||||||||||||||
