Steelers report: Inside slant
 

The Sports Xchange
 
 
Inside slant · Strategy and personnel · Notes, quotes
 

--The Pittsburgh Steelers have held a reputation as brawlers through most of their history, even before they started winning Super Bowls in the 1970s. Only now, it's the five Rooney brothers who are squaring off.

The Rooneys continue to try to find a way to both sell the team and keep it in the family -- depending on which brother you talk to - and there's no end in sight. The five own 16 percent each of the club and there's a willing buyer -- Steelers fan Stanley Druckenmiller. He's worth $3.5 billion and could write a check today for 52 percent of the club. That's precisely what he could get if he convinces four of the five Rooney brothers to sell.

Hall of Famer Dan Rooney, the eldest son, is trying to keep it in the family. But his four brothers see this as the perfect time to get out -- with possibly $100 million apiece after taxes. The NFL has said they must divest themselves of ownership in the Steelers if they continue to own the family's two racetracks and casinos.

Dan Rooney doesn't have the kind of money to buy a majority interest in the team from his brothers, and they were not happy when he low-balled them with an offer. They've since determined through their own investment banker that the team is worth between $800 million and $1.2 billion.

Druckenmiller, who painted his face black and gold a few times at Steelers games, wants majority ownership but is willing to let Dan and his son, Art II, run the club for awhile. Dan is trying to line up investors of his own and also convince some of his brothers not to sell. Dan also could swap his shares presumably in the two racetracks -- Yonkers harness track in New York and the Palm Beach Kennel dog track in Florida -- with his brothers to gain some shares in the Steelers.

It appears the McGinley family, which owns the remaining 20 percent of the team, is not interested in selling their shares at the moment.

Dan's father, Art Rooney Sr., founded the team in 1933, paying the $2,500 admission fee into the NFL. Rooney sold the team briefly in 1940 but then got it back before the 1941 season began in a purchase and swap of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Dan does not want to see his father's legacy end like this and he's counting on at least one of his fourth brothers to side with him. However, even if Dan Rooney is able to pull this one off, it seems like a rocky road ahead for Rooney majority ownership of the Steelers because of inheritance issues and tax laws.

CAMP CALENDAR
Players report to Saint Vincent College in Latrobe the afternoon of July 27 and will have their running test that evening. The first practice will be held July 28. Practices in the afternoon (3 p.m.) are open to the public, as are the two night practices - at 7 p.m. Aug. 1 at Latrobe High School Stadium and at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 5 at Saint Vincent College. No scrimmages are scheduled. The last practice at camp is Aug. 17.

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