Pirates Down To Last Hope Mcclatchy Agrees On Lease, But Must Make Deal Quickly

Kevin McClatchy, apparently the last hope of keeping the Pirates in Pittsburgh, agreed on a lease Wednesday that allows him to move the team if money for a new stadium isn’t secured by the year 2000.

McClatchy, a Sacramento, Calif., newspaper heir, will get $6.5 million in annual lease concessions, an $8 million loan and other incentives from the city if he buys the financially ailing franchise.

But McClatchy, 31, has only until Friday, Sept. 22, to make a deal with the club’s 10 current owners, or the Pirates almost certainly will be sold and moved - most likely to Washington.

“Is there a sense of urgency? I think there is now,” McClatchy said while attending the San Diego-Pittsburgh game at Three Rivers Stadium. “I don’t want to raise any hopes or make any false promises … but I believe we can get this done.”

Investors who previously were “sitting on the fence” are now ready to join his group, McClatchy said. He did not identify any of them.

“We think he has deep enough pockets to get this done,” said attorney William Newlin, Mayor Tom Murphy’s legal adviser for the Pirates’ sale. “Not all of his co-investors are in place … but he’s close. He has some substantial investors.”

What McClatchy doesn’t have is time to complete a complicated financial deal, especially with the Pirates’ owners seemingly more willing than ever to sell the team out of town.

And despite some owners’ contention that having the Pirates in Washington might be a financial and political boon, National League president Len Coleman expressed “guarded optimism” that McClatchy will buy the team.