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If any Steelers fans out there are fearing that the current ownership turmoil in Pittsburgh could lead to the team leaving the region of the Three Rivers, fear not.
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Steelers signed a 30-year Heinz Field lease in 2001, and it would cost as much as $140 million to break it.
Still, it’s looking more and more like a potentially significant chunk of the team eventually will be sold to someone whose last name doesn’t rhyme with “Looney.”
There’s another twist to keep in mind, however. League rules require 75 percent of the owners to approve any transfer of ownership, other than by inheritance or gift within the immediate family. Given that Dan Rooney and his son, Art Rooney, II, have so much juice in league circles, there’s a chance that at least one-fourth of the other owners would block any move to which Dan and Art II don’t give their blessing.
July 11th, 2008 at 7:58 am
I bet this is going to court if the other Rooneys try to sell and the NFL owners block it due to their friendship with Dan and Art.
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July 11th, 2008 at 8:12 am
The Seattle SuperSonics just paid the city of Seattle $75M to leave. However, I don’t think it’s likely they will move given the support they receive from the area. Unless the new majority owner wants a team somewhere else. Of course, then you need league approval to move…
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
July 11th, 2008 at 8:15 am
I agree with Bondem;
If Dan uses pull with his buddy owners and the league blocks the sale, then I could easily see at the very least a threat of a lawsuit.
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July 11th, 2008 at 8:25 am
Couldn’t the “other” Rooney’s just argue that it’s Collusion if the league owners don’t approve the change of ownership?
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July 11th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Yeah, and who exactly of the old guard is still around to care about where the league came from? Al Davis? His heart is going to reach out to the Rooney’s? The other owners are going to block the sale and have it a distraction to start the season? Might be great for the media grist mills but not for the product on the field.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
July 11th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Enough already, Florio. Just because you care what’s going on in Pittsburgh doesn’t mean that your readers want to see 5 stories a day about it.
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July 11th, 2008 at 8:37 am
Also, considering so many of the other owenrs are relatively new, and have bought their own way into franchises, unlike the Rooneys and Maras, that I think they’d more likely sympathise with a guy who is trying to buying into a franchise. As long as the buyout of the other Rooneys is legit, I can’t see the league trying to stop it, other than by sending Tagliabue to try to pressure them.
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July 11th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Art Modell had s similiar 30-year lease with the City of Cleveland in 1995, yet you’ll notice there was a team in Baltimore in 1996 that bore a striking resemblance.
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July 11th, 2008 at 8:55 am
biiiig money talks,bullshit walks…amen.
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July 11th, 2008 at 9:08 am
That’s quite interesting. Dan does have quite a bit of pull. (wasn’t he just voted most respected in owner on espn?) This could get quite ugly in the months to come.
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
July 11th, 2008 at 10:14 am
The league can block a sale through their anti-trust exemption. I don’t think anything can be done in the courts. My guess Arlen Specter will side with the Rooneys on this one, so no threats of anti-trust hearing here even if Specter believes it is an abuse of the anti-trust exemption.
As for moving the Steelers, that also has to be approved by the league which will never happen. Also, the Steelers’ owners would be crazy to move them since they have a large and fiercely loyal fanbase which would erode immediately if moved. The Steelers aren’t one of the richest teams, but are in the top half of the league in term of revenue and operating income. There is no guarantee that a move will improve it especially to a fickle LA market.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
July 11th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Of COURSE the Steelers aren’t going anywhere — hear that, TRomo dude?
Now tell us about the “L.A. Steelers” you moron.
When I see what the hater fools write here I have to laugh. Because if you think you hate the Steelers now, wait’ll you get a load of them with Mr. Moneybags owning the team. If the Steelers can dominate with tight-fist Rooney, imagine what they’ll do with an owner who’ll spend! Ha ha, welcome to your worst nightmare, haters!
And sorry fire-millen, it’s not Florio’s fault the football world revolves around Steeler Nation, and nobody cares about your team. If anything we need more Steeler coverage.
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July 11th, 2008 at 10:53 am
P.S. Big Ben OWNS FartFaceKilla.
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July 11th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Now here’s what you call a loyal owner:
Investor confirms talks with 5 Rooneys
Friday, July 11, 2008
By Dan Fitzpatrick, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Billionaire hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller acknowledged yesterday that he is interested in purchasing the Steelers and pledged that “any resolution involving me will guarantee the team remains in Pittsburgh.”
“I am more than aware how uniquely important the Steelers are to the city,” he said in a short statement.
“My primary objective,” Mr. Druckenmiller said, “is to do what is in the best interests of the Pittsburgh Steeler franchise, the fans, the city of Pittsburgh, the Rooney and McGinley families and the National Football League.”
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Unlike a certain Arkansas carpetbagger who will move a certain Cowboys team to L.A. when the league waves the big “we need a team in L.A.” money.
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July 11th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Robo,
Exactly why would the league never approve a move of the Steeler’s? Considering they let the Colts move to Indy, and the Browns move to Baltimore–both places with very loyal fanbases? The other owners care about making money and they aren’t going to stop one of their ccounterparts from trying to make more. Them moving is all speculation at this point and will probably never happen, but if the new owner wanted to don’t think the league would stop them.
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July 11th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Oh Jimbo, you just don’t get it do you?
Forget for a minute that the Steelers and Pittsburgh are in a league of their own — and there’s no way the NFL is dumb enough not to recognize the value of the very sound of “Pittsburgh Steelers” — let’s examine both the teams you mentioned.
Irsay: money-grubber who never cared about Baltimore.
Art Modell: NY carpetbagger with no original ties to Cleveland, who somehow managed the amazing feat of LOSING money with an NFL franchise!
News flash: NFL rules state that no team can move unless it shows a loss several years running. You think that would ever be the case with the mega popular Steelers? Ha ha ha.
Man I should be writing for this site.
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Rating: 2.35 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
July 11th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
However this shakes out with ownership, the Steelers need to take care of one major problem with their franchise - install better drainage at Heinz 57 Field and go to Field Turf if they are going to allow all those extra games by colleges and high schools at the stadium.
They shot at their own feet a couple of times last year and luckily missed with the condition of that field - for a home game. There is no home field advantage when your own field almost does your team in.
Steelers going to LA? It’ll never happen. The only thing wrong with the fanchise is that gravel and kitty litter field they played 1/2 their games on last year. If the “turf over turf” concept from last season hasn’t taken root yet - they need to get the Field Turf folks on the phone before this season starts.
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July 11th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
“In a league of their own”.
Ahhh, there’s the smug arrogance of a Steeler’s fan that nomrally exudes itself. I’ll give you that the Rooney’s ties make it improbably they’ll ever move, but don’t think that their somehow above the fray. They are no more in a league of their own that the Colts or Browns were when they moved. If any NFL fan learned anything from the Browns moving it was that no team is safe. Believe me, we said the same things for years before the team moved. Pride comes before the fall.
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July 11th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
why can’t anybody get it into their bb sized brains
that anything and everything done in the nfl is based on
money and rate of return.
team history and fan base don’t mean a thing,bottom line
is the god of sports.
if you all think that the other owners are going to stop
someone who has a plan to make them more money,you’re
delusional.
oh he wouldn’t move the team.don’t hold your breath.
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July 11th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
The Pittsburgh Steelers will move only if ALL of the following are true:
- The team suffers several consecutive years of financial losses. (Fat chance this happens.)
- The new owner blows $140M to break the lease at Heinz Field.
- 24 of the 32 teams approve of a move.
If the team ever moves, expect the following fallout:
- The team’s brand equity will be destroyed.
- The team’s nationwide fan base will vaporize immediately.
- The vaporization of said fan base will severely weaken the NFL’s brand equity.
Pathetically, a great many of you seem to be willing to sacrifice all of the above just for the sake of being in a slightly larger TV market, which is why none of you will ever run a big business in your lives. To people who have a modicum of economic sense (like, say, a successful hedge fund manager), there is much more to be lost by relocating the Pittsburgh Steelers than there is to be gained. A Steelers relocation would have the same effect on the NFL that the St. Louis Cardinals relocating would have on Major League Baseball, or the Chicago Bulls relocating would have on the NBA.
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July 11th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Jimbo you’ve got a point, nobody’s arrogant, we’ve all seen teams move. But you miss my point — it’s not about the Rooneys or whomever’s running the team. It’s about the rules. Cleveland left because its owner found a way to lose money with an NFL team. Otherwise they couldn’t have; NFL laws prohibit it.
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July 11th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Was there also not an issue with not having a new stadium in Cleveland?
While the Browns fans are very loyal, they don’t have the national following that the Steelers do. With all due respect to the Browns, you just don’t see the number of fans showing up at away games that you do at Steelers games.
The “Pittsburgh Steelers ” are a huge product. The only 2 teams I think you could compare them to in that regard are the Cowboys and Packers. It would take a short sighted idiot to even WANT to move that team and loose a great portion of that fan base. There is no way the Steelers are going anywhere folks.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)