The Pittsburgh Penguins have reached a deal with city, county and state officials on financing for a new arena, a television station reported Monday night.

KDKA-TV, citing unidentified sources, said the deal is "done" and will be announced before Tuesday's game against the Buffalo Sabres at Mellon Arena.

— Associated Press

• The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has more details here
  

Interesting timing on this one, given the news leaked out late, late Monday night/Tuesday morning (it's a good thing I wasn't on the sports desk tonight, as this kind of post-deadline mayhem usually involves two bottles — one of aspirin and another of rye).

I can't say that I'm particularly surprised, as all along I found it incredibly hard to fathom a team with this much hockey talent, in a market with a recent history of championships and some star power in its ownership group would ever really leave.

I understand why the posturing was necessary, and hopefully Mario Lemieux had fun out in Las Vegas on his visit(s), but hopefully this business can finally put to rest the Kansas City Penguins speculation we've been hearing the past few years.

But don't worry about flocking to see Pittsburgh during the Igloo's final days; the archaic Mellon Arena will be going strong for another two seasons.