Looks like the ownership issues surrounding the Steelers and Rooney family are nearing a completion. And I called it back in July.
Take it away, NYT:
…at least two of the [Rooney] brothers have recently tilted toward selling to Dan Rooney.
Rooney and his son Art II met with the league’s finance committee last week to update it on their offer for the team, which includes outside investors who have not been publicly identified. Each of the five brothers owns 16 percent of the team, and N.F.L. rules mandate that one person own at least 30 percent.
Last month, the four younger brothers rejected a bid from the hedge fund billionaire and Steelers fan Stanley Druckenmiller, who had offered an all-cash deal to buy out their shares of the team. That decision followed a meeting of all five brothers with Commissioner Roger Goodell, after which Goodell made clear that the owners of the other 31 N.F.L. teams would do everything possible to ensure that Dan Rooney retained control of the team — an indication that the owners, who must approve the sale, would reject any other suitor.
…
“Dan Rooney made it extremely clear that he was not going to be involved in the gambling business moving forward if he was successful in being able to complete this transaction,” Goodell said. He added, “That is important to our ownership because it is one of the rules that they are not in compliance with.”
Before the season, I had this to say about the struggles:
It seems that Dan is just trying to buy his brothers’ shares in the team. Said brothers have more of an interest in other Rooney family investments, mostly gambling. This would rectify several ownership confusions.
First, it would separate the team from any gambling enterprises, something Dan is really trying for. That’s what a classy, proactive owner does, solves discrepancies before someone else brings up the issue and creates a non-story controversy of the Steelers being linked to gambling.
Also, this would allow Dan to adhere to NFL rules, which apparently the Rooneys were not doing to the fullest extent. Each of the 5 brothers owns 16% of the team. NFL rules state that the majority owner needs at least a 30% share. No one questioned the Rooney’s since 5 shares of 16% all came from the same family.
I see this going down one of two ways:
1. Dan buys out his brothers’ shares, keeping the team on his side of the family while selling his stakes in the other business ventures (gambling) to his brothers.
or
2. Dan buys out his brothers’ shares, and sells a minority stake in the team to an unrelated buyer, most likely Stanley Druckenmiller, the billionaire head of Duquesne Capital Management.
And if Rooney sells the team outright, you can call me any insult in the book.
Test my foresight again, assholes. I can’t believe some people actually believed the Steelers would be in hands that didn’t belong to Dan Rooney and his kin. The Stanley Druckenmiller fiasco was a hot topic at the time, so it only made my worst-case scenario beliefs.
So, phew…you don’t get to insult me and my predictions.
The Steelers seem to be remaining with Dan Rooney and his family, and we can go back to only worrying about the team and who we play each week.
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