Three Rivers Stadium headed for e-auction block

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by Mark Roberti

(IDG) -- The first World Series night game was played there. Roberto Clemente got his 3,000th hit there, and the Steelers' Franco Harris made the "immaculate reception" there in 1972. And now Pittsburgh's famed Three Rivers Stadium is going to be sold piecemeal over the Internet.

The Stadium Authority, which has managed Three Rivers since it opened in 1970, has inked a deal under which FreeMarkets (FMKT), a Pittsburgh electronic auction company, will sell everything from the 25-by 63-foot Sony (SNE) Jumbotron to silverware through online and offline auctions. The stadium will submit to the wrecking ball on Feb. 18.

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FreeMarkets will conduct an auction Nov. 10 through its online asset exchange. On the virtual auction block will be big-ticket items, including the Jumbotron, six Whiteway scoreboards, the Dektronics electronic marquis outside the stadium and large blocks of seats.

FreeMarkets has hired Cowan Alexander to run physical auctions Jan. 6 and Jan. 8 at the stadium for smaller items, including pieces of turf, individual seats, kitchen utensils, weights with team logos, TV monitors, and signs.

FreeMarkets is promoting the online auction to minor-league baseball stadiums, hockey teams and other organizations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. There probably won't be too many groups in need of a Jumbotron, but Doug Wnorowski, a senior VP who heads FreeMarkets' asset business, doesn't foresee a problem.

"All it takes is two who are interested parties to make the auctions a success," he says. "I expect we'll have at least two for all the high-tech equipment we're auctioning off."

Wnorowski won't say how much the auctions are expected to raise for the Stadium Authority, but he says it likely will be several million dollars. But don't expect to show up at Three Rivers in January and bid on the ball that Franco Harris caught, or a Pirates' World Series trophy. Those items will be transferred to PNC Park, the Pirates' new stadium, and to Steelers Stadium when they open next year.

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FreeMarkets, Inc.
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