The Steelers are considering the use of a 5% surcharge
on tickets and the sale of PSLs "to make up a hefty portion"
of their $76.5M contribution toward a new football stadium,
according to Tom Barnes of the PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE. The
Pirates are looking at three potential revenue sources to
make up their $40M contribution -- ticket surcharges, PSLs
and the sale of naming rights to the ballpark. Most of the
money for the $803M project, which includes stadiums for the
Steelers and Pirates, is coming from the city, county, state
and teams. But a "small part of the financing is also
earmarked from a controversial source: a proposed tax on the
salaries of out-of-state baseball and football players who
play here" (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 6/23). In Pittsburgh,
columnist Bob Smizik, on the Pirates: "A new stadium will
draw fans on its own for a short period of time. But
baseball is what has to draw people over the long haul and
there is no large body of evidence to suggest that baseball
by itself can do that" (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 6/23).
