PITTSBURGH -- The Rivers Casino will pay $7.5 million a year toward construction of the new Penguins arena.

The city-county Sports & Exhibition Authority, which is building the $325 million Consol Energy Center, said Monday that the casino will make two payments a year for the next 30 years.

A licensing condition requires the casino to help fund the arena. Holdings Acquisition Co., which owns the casino, made a $2.3 million payment last month after the state Gaming Control Board threatened sanctions.

The casino's owners, who rescued the stalled project from possible bankruptcy last year, had said they believed the first payment wasn't due until at least next year.

The arena is scheduled to open for the 2010-2011 season.

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@