Pittsburgh Pirates: Mayor Peduto Offers to Help

The Pittsburgh Pirates are in the middle of a year of turmoil.  It has been so bad that people have called on the city’s Mayor to help.

One thing that has remained the same with the Pittsburgh Pirates since Neal Huntington took over is that the franchise continues to be in the bottom of the league in payroll.  The Bucs payroll in recent years has been even more abysmal.  This past season they had a payroll of $72 million, ranking second to last in the league.  The previous season was not much better, the team ranked as the fourth lowest payroll.

Even during the team’s winning years, Pittsburgh Pirates owner Bob Nutting never spent that additional money to take that next step.  Yes, they made moves, but none that really inspired confidence for a World Series run.  Some put the blame on General Manager Neal Huntington – sure he is to blame – but it really comes down to the Bob Nutting.

This is not news!  If you are a Pittsburgh Pirates fan you know that Bob Nutting continues to plague this historic franchise.  He plays on both sides of the fence; when the team is winning he says that they will invest in the team, they make minor moves that are enough to say they did something, however if they are losing he places the blame on the fans.  Nutting has cited lack of attendance numerous times as a reason for not being able to spend.  Yet, when the stadium was hosting 30,000+ a game, the team didn’t really seem to spend all that more.

Pittsburgh Pirates fans are sick of it.  Last year a portion of the team’s fanbase started a petition to try to force Bob Nutting to sell the team.  While it was great to see fans try to do something, it never was going to make a difference.  Bob Nutting and any other owner cares about one thing, making a profit at the end of the year.

This offseason a portion of the fan base (likely most of the same people) tried to take it a step forward.  Dejan Kovacevic of DK Pittsburgh Sports tried to reach out and have Pittsburgh’s Mayor, Bill Peduto, do an open audit of the Bucs financials.  The point was that the Pittsburgh Pirates use a publicly funded facility in PNC Park and the tax payers should have a right to know if Nutting is truly spending the money he should.

Mayor Peduto was not on board with this for obvious reasons.  Bob Nutting and the Pittsburgh Pirates are a privately owned entity that technically has not committed any reason for them to be investigated.  Would it be nice?  Yes, but it’s not realistic.

Instead Peduto has come up with an alternative way to help out if the opportunity were to present itself.  In his open question Reddit post, Peduto was asked if he could somehow get the team off of Bob Nutting.

"Reddit User Pechinburger: “somehow help to wrest control of the Pirates away from Bob Nutting.”"

Pedutor responded by saying that if Pittsburgh Pirates owner Bob Nutting were to put the team up for sale he would do everything he could to help find suitable investors to purchase the team.  Obviously he would look for someone that would connect well with the city, invest properly, and of course would keep the team in town.

The last time the a potential sale was brought up was two offseason’s ago when billionaire Thomas Tull mentioned he would have interest in restoring the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise.  Tull, the former CEO of Legacy Films, has more than enough capital to afford the team.  His net worth as of 2019 is $1.2 billion.  Furthermore, he recently started up a new company in the cities strip district, making himself more present in the town.

Still, what this all comes down to is Bob Nutting.  He continues to not spend any money to try to improve the team.  The city is getting more and more fed up with Nutting, and every offseason it seems like there is more and more pressure put on the owner.  Hopefully, it leads to some change, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.