Peter A. Laudati was a sports promoter and a part-owner of theProvidence Steam Roller of theNational Football League. He was also responsible for the construction of the team's stadium, theCycledrome. Prior to this, he was a prominentProvidence real estate developer.
Laudati was an ardent promoter of sports ventures; in addition to theCycledrome he built Providence'sKinsley Park, home of theProvidence Grays baseball team in the 1930s. He was instrumental in bringingBabe Ruth andLou Gehrig to play an exhibition game at Kinsley Park during their 1927 post-seasonbarnstorming tour.[1]
Laudati established the Steam Roller football team in 1916 withJames Dooley andCharles Coppen. The Steam Roller became a member of the NFL in 1925. In 1928, they became the first team inNew England to win anNFL Championship. According to a Steam Roller cash book, kept by Laudati in 1927, that was donated to thePro Football Hall of Fame byRay Monaco, who also played with theWashington Redskins and theCleveland Rams, after a November 8 game against theNew York Giants, brought a total intake of $9,911.51. Added to a $1,000 loan received from Laudati a day earlier, that gave the team a balance of nearly $11,000, more than enough to cover the game's expenses of $5,840.64. The NFL took 1 percent of the gate receipts from each game and the Cycledrome took 15 percent; players’ salaries ($1,972) and the visiting team's share ($2,475) accounted for most of the other expenses.
However, by 1931 financial issues forced the team to go on a hiatus and fold in 1933. Laudati turned this to his advantage. In 1934 he leveled the Cycledrome and built on the site an E.M. Lowe drive-in movie theater. When it opened in 1937, it was only the second drive-in theater in the nation, the first being inJersey City. Although his name was not used in connection with the Cycledrome in any of the contemporary newspaper accounts, the chief financier and owner of the building was Laudati.
He died in September 1977.