Thursday, December 18, 2008
By Robert Dvorchak, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/
Associated Press
Steelers owner Dan Rooney walks in the hallway during a break of the NFL owners meeting in Irving, Texas, yesterday.
IRVING, Texas -- The NFL yesterday unanimously approved sweeping changes in the ownership structure of the Steelers, but the team still plans to operate the Rooney way.
"We wouldn't have done it if we thought we wouldn't be able to handle it," said team president Art Rooney II.
"We plan to operate along the same guidelines we have historically. We're not planning to change anything dramatically. We'll pretty much operate as much as possible the way we have. Obviously, we are headed into difficult economic times. We'll do our best."
By a vote of 31-0, the owners approved a proposal that consolidates ownership of the Steelers in the hands of Dan Rooney and Art II, his oldest son, while separating ownership of the family's gambling interests from the football team.
Under the plan, the Steelers will be borrowing about $250 million as Dan and Art II buy out all or part of the shares held by the four younger sons of franchise patriarch Art Rooney. The Rooney family agreement calls for a closing to take place before March 31, 2009.
The debt exceeds NFL limits and required a waiver, and commissioner Roger Goodell gave his blessing to the proposal after an owners meeting at the posh Four Seasons Resort and Club in Irving, a suburb of Dallas.
PNC Bank will handle the loans for the buyout, using the team as collateral, but it was unclear how much will be borrowed and how much will come from three new partners who were also approved yesterday. They are the Paul family of Pittsburgh; James Haslam III of Knoxville, Tenn., and Thomas Tull of Los Angeles.
The Paul family owns Ampco-Pittsburgh, a specialty steel manufacturer headquartered Downtown, and has interests in TV and radio stations, banking, fitness centers and real estate.
Mr. Haslam, 54, is president of Pilot Travel Centers, the nation's largest retail operator of travel centers and truck stops.
Mr. Tull, 38, has a film production company called Legendary Pictures that co-produced and co-financed such films as The Dark Knight, 300, Batman Begins, We Are Marshall and Superman Returns.
The Wall Street firm of Morgan Stanley had been retained by the Rooneys to line up investors, and more may be made public at a later date.
Each of the five Rooney brothers inherited a 16 percent stake in the Steelers when their father, who founded the franchise in 1933 for $2,500, died in 1988. The remaining 20 percent is owned by the McGinley family.
But NFL rules require a controlling interest of at least 30 percent by one entity, in this case, Dan and his son. The plan approved yesterday will bring them to that threshold.
Twin brothers Timothy and Patrick Rooney will each sell their 16 percent ownership in the Steelers while staying in control of Empire City Gaming at Yonkers Raceway and the Palm Beach Kennel Club, one of the most successful greyhound tracks in the country. Art Jr. and John Rooney will sell parts of their stakes in the Steelers. After the sale price was set at $800 million a month ago, a 16 percent share works out to $128 million.
Dan Rooney, who took over daily operations of the Steelers about the time his father was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1964, said he has no concerns about the Steelers staying competitive in today's economic climate and with NFL labor issues looming after the 2010 season.
"I don't at all," he said. "This year, they said we had the toughest schedule in the league, too. Here we are [playoff-bound at 11-3] with a great coach and excellent players. The team has been a big part of Pittsburgh, and that's the way it should stay under our direction. That was my goal, and Art's goal, from the beginning."
The restructuring, which has caused stresses and strains within the family while a fair settlement was being sought, has been simmering in the two years since the Steelers won Super Bowl XL.
But Dan Rooney said the family remains tight knit.
"My brothers, they came along. They saw the benefits of doing it this way. We still talk to each other and only fight as we always did," he said with a chuckle. "Everything's fine."
The NFL raised concerns about the franchise being out of accord with NFL rules on majority control and its prohibitions against gambling even as the commissioner let it be known he wanted the Rooneys to retain control of the Steelers.
The NFL bans owners from being involved in gambling, even those forms sanctioned by government, and the family-owned tracks had expanded to include video game slots and/or poker rooms. The Chief, a storied horse player who kept the franchise going in the Great Depression with his racetrack winnings, bought the Palm Beach Kennel Club in 1970 and purchased the Yonkers harness track in 1971.
The Rooney family could have made more money by accepting the offer of hedge-fund billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller, who attempted to buy a majority stake in the team. But the family preferred this way to keep the franchise under its control.
Dan Rooney thanked Mr. Druckenmiller for his efforts and hoped he would remain a Steelers fan.
The owners meeting yesterday, at which the principals left the marble-floored corridors to be whisked away by their waiting limo drivers, was a far cry from the first one Dan Rooney attended in the 1950s. At that one, he lobbied for the players to receive more than one pair of football shoes per season.
It was Dan who made some of the most important personnel decisions in franchise history, from accepting the resignation of volatile coach Buddy Parker in the mid-1960s to the 1969 hiring of coach Chuck Noll, who won four Super Bowls.
The NFL guideline for interviewing minority candidates for coaching vacancies is known as the Rooney Rule in his honor, and he has guided the league in everything from expansion to labor disputes to the election of new commissioners.
He and the Steelers were both born in 1933, and he stuck firmly to the goal of keeping the team in Pittsburgh for the next 75 years.
"This was a big step," said Art Rooney II. "We still have to get to a closing and finalize everything. We're looking to getting everything wrapped up early next year."
Robert Dvorchak can be reached at bdvorchak@post-gazette.com
First published on December 18, 2008 at 12:00 am
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