Mario Lemieux and Civic Arena landlord SMG ended a full
day of meetings last night "without reaching an agreement on
a lease that would have significantly improved Lemieux's
chances of buying the team," according to Ann Belser of the
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE. There were no plans to continue
talks before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Bernard Markovitz's
scheduled hearing today on whether to accept Lemieux's plan
to keep the Penguins in Pittsburgh, dissolve the team or
sell it to an out-of-town buyer. SMG attorney Daniel
Shapira said that both sides "had not resolved either terms
of a new lease for the Penguins [at the arena] or the
possibility of buying out SMG's lease." Without a deal with
SMG, attorneys for the team "planned to file a motion this
morning asking Markovitz to estimate how much the team still
owes SMG" on the $24M loan it received in '91. Lemieux's
attorney Doug Campbell told Markovitz that if the balance is
more than $10M, Lemieux "won't be able to buy the
franchise." Meanwhile, NHL attorney Jeffrey Levitan told
Markovitz yesterday that the league filed an escrow
statement with the court "proving" that $85M from an out-of-
town bidder is on deposit at Chase Manhattan Bank
(PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 6/24). Markovitz noted that an
injunction he signed in March prevents the team from
relocating (Pittsburgh TRIBUNE-REVIEW, 6/24). NHL Senior
VP/Legal Affairs William Daly said "indications are that the
Lemieux plan will be approved" (N.Y. TIMES, 6/24).
ALL BUSINESS: An PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE editorial
calls on Markovitz to grant the franchise to Lemieux, as his
plan "has come a long, long way. ... When his initial plan
appeared to be lacking, he put more of his own money into
the deal. ... [The Penguins] are likely to flourish under
the Lemieux reorganization" (POST-GAZETTE, 6/24).
