As the unexpected ownership issues in Pittsburgh continue to gather steam, one high-profile native son who has been linked in the past to the local baseball and hockey teams says he’s not interested in the NFL franchise.
Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by e-mail that he “would not be interested” in acquiring a portion of the team.
The NFL’s cross-ownership rules would prevent Cuban from becoming majority owner of the Steelers, given his ownership of an NBA team in a city that has an NFL team. But Cuban wouldn’t be precluded from holding a minority interest in the Steelers.
The Post-Gazette also reports that the four brothers of team chairman Dan Rooney are working with Goldman Sachs to find a buyer for their interest in the team. Per the Post-Gazette, the development points to a 90-percent chance that their shares will be sold to the highest bidder.
It appears that Dan Rooney and his son, Art II, are separately looking to line up investors who won’t aspire to acquire the biggest chunk of the team; Dan and Art II are working with Morgan Stanley and PNC Bank to find investors who would buy all or a portion of the four brothers’ shares.
Pittsburgh billionaire Stan Druckenmiller reportedly is interested in acquiring the 16-percent shares held by the four Rooney brothers not named Dan, which would give Druckenmiller 64 percent of the franchise.
From Dan Rooney’s perspective, the ideal solution likely would be for Dan and Art II to buy enough of Dan’s brothers’ interest to have the biggest piece of the team, and to have outside investors buy what Dan and Art II can’t afford.
Unless someone ultimately holds more than 50 percent, the McGinley family suddenly would become the wild card in the ownership structure, since their 20-percent share would represent the swing vote on any matters about which the remaining Rooneys and the newcomers might disagree.
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July 10th, 2008 at 11:36 am
WHO CARES?!?
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Rating: 1.9 / 5 with 10 rating(s)
July 10th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Any NFL fan probably should care. The Rooneys have done a lot of good for the league over the past few decades.
I’m just glad that that attention whore Cuban isn’t interested. It would be painful to watch him looking and acting like a doosh on the sideline. Please stay in Dallas and concentrate on embarassing the Mavs fans. Heinz Field shouldn’t be turned into a circus tent.
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Rating: 3.25 / 5 with 11 rating(s)
July 10th, 2008 at 11:53 am
because its football related…steeler nation is huge…there are a lot of passionate steeler fans out there who have grown to love the rooney ownership…so if you dont care dont comment…ownership matters…dan synder…thats all…im a die hard steeler fan and i enjoy how classy the whole steeler organization has been over the decades…steady coaches and great players…not much drama…not many idiotic players…its a great organization compared to a team like the bungles…plus we have the smartest player in football (voted by other coaches of course)…
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Rating: 4.2 / 5 with 5 rating(s)
July 10th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Maybe Al Michaels would be interested so he can talk about the confluence all day, every day…
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Rating: 1 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
July 10th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Having been born and raised in Cleveland–and a lifelong Browns fan–this just makes me sad. I’ve got all the venom in the world for the Steelers and their fans, but I truly hope that his little mutiny doesn’t result in the Rooneys losing control of the team. These are good, honorable people…a throwback to the purer days of professional football… and I truly believe the NFL will lose something great if Dan and Art II are removed from the equation.
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Rating: 4.45 / 5 with 7 rating(s)
July 10th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Well if Cuban were to act like a doosh on the sidelines he would be a perfect match with the doosh’s in the stands.
Anyway, hopefully Dan and Son will acquire a controlling interest as many of the whining, crybabies desire. Then, the lack of any real business experience combined with a lack of capital and really poor cash flow will become evident on the field! See, there is something in this for everyone. Its a classic win-win situation!
Finally, many years later, in an ironic twist that everyone outside of Pittsburgh saw comming that day the Dan and Son deal was announced, the doosh’s in the stands will beg for any doosh, with money of course, to bail them out of their awful situation.
One can only hope!
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Rating: 1.8 / 5 with 10 rating(s)
July 10th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I wouldn’t want Cuban within 500 miles of the Steelers. Now, Druckenmiller, that’s another story altogether. Strong Pittsburgh ties, and unlimited cash. Soon to buy many championships when the NFL
drops the cap…
Best of all, he’s committed to Pittsburgh, unlike carpetbagger Jerry Jones, who will have that team out in L.A. before it’s all said and done. Leaving TRomo (the moron poster, not the QB) to cry and whine like a little baby. TRomo, you are the TRUE turd.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 5 rating(s)
July 10th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Although it’s highly unlikely new ownership would move the team, just the simple fact that there might be new ownership creates uncertainty and is the kind of thing that can derail a season before it even gets started.
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Rating: 4.65 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
July 10th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Could we start a “Turd Watch” for posters? Because jgd3rd would be at the top… actually the bottom of the toilet.
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Rating: 2.6 / 5 with 5 rating(s)
July 10th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
@jgd3rd
Where did you learn how to spell?
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
July 10th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Onion Article today “Mark Cuban Buys Sports.” Thought this worth posting since both this post and this article published were published, today. http://www.theonion.com/content/news/mark_cuban_buys_sports
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
July 10th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
it’s a damn shame that when cuban’s internet bubble burst he had sold all his stock , that way we would of never been subjected to this teen-man priss. he has the maturity of a 13 year old and the skin of a baby. anyone in the media dares to criticize him, he immediately starts blogging, emailing, threatens, intimidates. what a horse’s ass.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
July 10th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
jgd3rd says:
July 10th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
“Well if Cuban were to act like a doosh on the sidelines he would be a perfect match with the doosh’s in the stands.
“Anyway, hopefully Dan and Son will acquire a controlling interest as many of the whining, crybabies desire. Then, the lack of any real business experience combined with a lack of capital and really poor cash flow will become evident on the field! See, there is something in this for everyone. Its a classic win-win situation!
“Finally, many years later, in an ironic twist that everyone outside of Pittsburgh saw comming that day the Dan and Son deal was announced, the doosh’s in the stands will beg for any doosh, with money of course, to bail them out of their awful situation.
“One can only hope!”
OK, so is the NFL not a business? I keep hearing about how the NFL is a business, so if the Rooney family owns an NFL franchise, how can they not have any “real business experience”? And what “poor cash flow” are you talking about? The Pittsburgh Steelers have been a profitable team for many, many years; their stadium is state-of-the-art; they have at least a 10-year waiting list for season tickets; they lead the NFL in merchandise sales since 2000, and they’re routinely among the top 10 teams in the league regarding roster payroll.
Oh, you must be talking about the size of the TV market, right? Well there are 11 NFL teams in markets smaller than Pittsburgh (Baltimore, Carolina, Indianapolis, San Diego, Tennessee, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Jacksonville, Buffalo, New Orleans, Green Bay), and most of them seem to be doing just fine themselves. Nielsen Media Research says so:
http://www.tvjobs.com/cgi-bin/markets/market2.cgi
And if you’re talking about population trends, how ’bout focusing on income trends instead? After all, you seem to be pretty obsessed with cash flow, no? According to the Fourth District Office of the United States Federal Reserve, among the 24 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the country (not to be confused with Nielsen Designated Market Areas), only Houston has experienced a higher “real” per capita income growth rate (gross PCI growth minus regional consumer price index growth) since 2000 than Pittsburgh has. I thought this graph was a pretty nifty illustration of this phenomenon:
http://www.clevelandfed.org/research/Trends/2008/0608/02regact-4.gif
(NOTE: Anchorage, AK and Honolulu, HI are not among the 24 largest MSAs in the country.)
In other words, Pittsburgh is getting markedly richer, and at a rate faster than both the national average, and the average of the top 24 MSAs in the country. I’ll state it in even simpler terms: Pittsburgh is rapidly accumulating wealth regardless of regional population trends.
Our situation is just fine; thank you. Cash flow would not be a problem even if the ownership of the Steelers didn’t change hands. Really, the only reason it’s about to is because of a conflict of interest regarding team ownership and racetrack slots ownership by some family members.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
July 10th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Pittsburgh is a tiny market and the Burgh turds don’t deserve a franchise. Hell, even Terry Bradshaw has disowned them. You Burgh turds better face the fact that the clock is ticking on the franchise being in Pissburgh. The ownership structure is about to be blown up.
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Rating: 2.35 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
July 10th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Poster T Romo needs to “eat sh*t and die”. It would be a merciful ending for such a blatherskite…douche bag!
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July 11th, 2008 at 4:34 am
T Romo says:
July 10th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
“Pittsburgh is a tiny market and the Burgh turds don’t deserve a franchise.”
http://www.tvjobs.com/cgi-bin/markets/market2.cgi
According to Nielsen Media Research, there are 11 TV markets smaller than Pittsburgh’s that have NFL franchises. Most of those franchises are doing quite well too.
“Hell, even Terry Bradshaw has disowned them.”
Yeah, that’s why he was at Heinz Field last November to celebrate the team’s 75th anniversary. You didn’t see him laughing his ass off on the sideline after Hines Ward decked Bart Scott? Moron.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFuFTwLaufE
0:24 to 0:29. Shut up.
“You Burgh turds better face the fact that the clock is ticking on the franchise being in Pissburgh.”
Well since you’re so sure of that, why don’t you do us all a favor and hold your breath until it happens?
“The ownership structure is about to be blown up.”
Yeah, too bad the lease at Heinz Field isn’t about to be blown up. Lasts until the end of the 2030 season, by the way.
So let me get this straight: You would willingly force an expensive legal battle to break the lease at Heinz Field, and then destroy the team’s brand equity and alienate one of the NFL’s largest fan bases, all for the sake of moving the team to a new market that might not necessarily even be bigger than Pittsburgh, and probably won’t support them as well? Wow, you’re dumb! Trust me — you’ll never run a big business.
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July 11th, 2008 at 8:19 am
Poster DBR96A has it right.
Two great posts!
Put D*ckhead T Romo in his place!
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