According to a report, the Pittsburgh Penguins were the only professional team out of the 123 teams in the MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL to receive a loan from the Paycheck Protection Program, that is part of the CARES act, signed into law earlier this year.
The New York Post reports the Penguins received $4.82 million to keep workers on the payroll.
The program is intended to help small businesses struggling, but the Penguins are worth about $650 million, the 11th most valuable team in the NHL, according to Forbes. That’s $15 million less than reported in 2019.
The Post reached out the Penguins organization for comment and the team said in a statement:
With our arena being ordered closed since March and without any event revenue, we requested that our landlord, the Sports & Exhibition Authority (SEA), consider a temporary deferral of our annual rent payment due in September. This request was denied,” the Penguins replied.
“Accordingly, we borrowed $4.8M under the CARES Act program in mid-August and applied the funds to our $6.1M September rent payment to the SEA, which was used by the public agency to make its required bond payment.
“The SEA indicated it is facing similar financial difficulties due to the closure of the SEA-owned Convention Center, and we are pleased these funds were used to support an important public agency during these challenging times.”
The Penguins furloughed 40 workers in the offseason, but those employees have since been brought back.
The Penguins are owned by former player Mario Lemieux, and Ron Burkle
Burkle made headlines last week after it was reported he had purchased the Neverland Ranch complex that used to be owned by late singer Michael Jackson.
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