NEW YORK — Kevin McClatchy, the former owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates and now the board chairman at the McClatchy Company newspaper chain, said in an interview with The New York Times that he is gay.

The interview, which appeared online Saturday and will be in Sunday print editions, is the 49-year-old McClatchy’s first public acknowledgement of his sexual orientation.

No athlete in the four major U.S. professional sports leagues — football, baseball, basketball, hockey — has come out while playing. Longtime NBA executive Rick Welts, then with the Phoenix Suns, drew attention last year for announcing he is gay.

McClatchy owned the Pirates from 1996 until 2007.

“You’re not going to solve any problem until you start a dialogue,” he said. “And there’s no dialogue right now.”