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Billionaire A.G. Pennypacker Stanley Druckenmiller is interested in buying a chunk of the Pittsburgh Steelers. But he doesn’t want only a minority piece of the team.
He wants the majority share.
To get there, Druckenmiller needs to buy each of the 16-percent pieces owned by the four Rooney brothers not named Dan.
Per the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Druckenmiller hopes to have control of the team or none of it. If Druckenmiller acquires control, he’d want to keep Dan Rooney and Art Rooney, II, at the helm.
The Post-Gazette reports that Druckenmiller has had multiple conversations with Dan Rooney about this prospect, and that Dan Rooney hopes to avoid such an outcome.
Instead, Dan Rooney hopes to be able to line up funding to keep controlling interest in the team. The problem, however, is that Dan Rooney owns only 16 percent of the team. He’d need to acquire a sizeable chunk of the 48-percent stake that currently is up for grabs in order to make it happen.
July 16th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Druckenmiller must buy & sells men like himself everyday…
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July 16th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Rooney has 16%, there’s 64% between brothers, 20% to the other family.
Means Rooney must buy 2 brothers out completely to get majority share.
Or, Druckenmiller must buy 3 brothers out to get majority share.
Ergo, Druckenmiller doesn’t have to buy out all 4 brothers to get majority share. Just to clear that up.
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July 16th, 2008 at 10:18 am
Can we please get some more Brett Favre trade rumors? Who cares who owns the Steelers.
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July 16th, 2008 at 10:21 am
There are 3 issues which need to be addressed; each can be met with a different amount of shares changing hands. The smallest deal would address the 30% share the NFL says a principle owner must have. That would be Dan buying an additional 14% from his brothers in some combination.
The second issue is to address the gambling ownership issues. This would mean 3 of the 4 brothers not named Dan (4bnnd) would have to sell their shares, the 48% you cite.
The third issue is to address the estate taxes anticipated when the brothers die, as they will. The 4bnnd would have to sell a majority of their shares to pay the various taxes but the heirs should still be able to be “owners” at some level. That would max out at 64%. The brother named Dan will also pass at some point. Art II (can someone explain to me why a family has both an “Art Jr.” and an “Art II” and they are different men?) will either have the cash to pay the taxes or will look to sell some of his shares as well at that time.
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July 16th, 2008 at 10:38 am
If the other Rooney brothers are travelling North at a rate of 50 kilometers per hour, and Druckenmiller’s interest in purchase is represented by the square root of X, what percentage of shares will be required to give Dan Rooney a headache?
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July 16th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Just so everyone knows, a majority share is over 50%.
Just like the person elected for president must get over 50% of the electoral college votes, so would Dan Rooney or Druckenmiller need to purchase over 50% of the stake in the team.
48% WOULD NOT WORK
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July 16th, 2008 at 10:58 am
my money is on Varnsen and Vandelay briging in an all out bidding war
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July 16th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Hey fire_millen, sorry it’s another Steeler article, maybe we should have another Favre story instead. You know, so you’d be happy.
Let’s just get Druck in, so the Steelers have more cash than Citibank.
Let the soon-to-be-post-revenue-sharing era begin — owned by the Steelers! Let’s watch that carpetbagger Jerry Jones get all huffy, and move the Cowboys to L.A.! Yee ha!
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July 16th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Maybe Cal Varnson can make a run at the steelers causing a bidding war between he and Mr. Pennypacker
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July 16th, 2008 at 11:59 am
and you want to be my latex salesman!
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July 16th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
To be fair, Dan is only interested in (all he can realistically expect) having majority control of the team. To achieve this, he only needs to buy one full share, or parts of the shares from his brothers. The McGinleys own 20% of the team, and the McGinleys are a branch of the Rooney family. They will always vote with Dan on the board. Therefore, to establish majority control, Dan only needs 31%, which both satisfies the NFL ownership rule, and leaves him with majority control, although not majority ownership.
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July 16th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Hmmmm… Who are these guys…The Ravens own 100% of the Steelers
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July 16th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
paper_bag, you are wrong, principal owner must have at least 30%, not 50%. 48% would make either man majority owner.
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July 16th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
“If Druckenmiller acquires control, he’d want to keep Dan Rooney and Art Rooney, II, at the helm.”
Translation: He won’t axe them as soon as the ink dries. He’ll wait 2 maybe 3 days to give them the opportunity to resign.
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July 16th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
so 5 brothers own 16 percent each, while the SISTER and her husband get 20 percent.
and 2 brothers are named Art.
And Dan runs the team.
if Dan and an Art own 32, and the sister votes with them, they total 52 percent.
if all this is true, why bother with a story? let the 48 sell, they’re minority owners.
Let me know where I went wrong.
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July 16th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
The way I see it, the bottom line, Dan Rooney DOES NOT HAVE THE MONEY to buy out his brothers. So the Billionaire comes in and buys the four brothers shares to own 64 percent of the Steelers. Handshake deal, or not….that is controlling interest and a lot of money to change hands. No sane person would put out that much money and not want CONTROL.
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July 16th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
The “Sister” is the sister of Art Sr, the founder. Her family owns the 20%. I think there is one with 10% and 5 with 2% each. One Art is the uncle, not brother, of the other Art. One is brother to Dan, one is son to Dan. Dan runs the team. The Art with 16% is the brother who was fired from the team by Dan years ago. The Art who is president of the team has no ownership.
It isn’t about who votes, league rules say one person must have at least 30%. No one has more than 16%.
Other than that, you are on the money.
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July 16th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Art Sr(old guy with the cigars) bought the team way back when. He had 5 sons(Dan, Art Jr, Pat, Tim, John) who all own 16%. Dan is the active owner and wants a majority. Tim, Pat and John want to get paid for their shares now to avoid an estate tax if their kids were to inherit the team. Art Jr is waiting to hear how much his other bros get before he decides. Dan has a son Art II(Grandson of Art Sr, nephew of Art Jr) who does not own any percent of the team at this point, but he is 2nd in command to Dan in the organization. The other 20% is locked up in the McGinley’s(10% with Rita, 2% with each of her kids) and they aren’t selling. Bottom line is between 48-64% of the team is available for Druckenmiller to bid on. Dan’s bid for shares will be limited by the cap the league puts on the amount of debt an owner can accumulate so he has to find a way to get the majority of shares without getting too deep into debt
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July 16th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
@ colinito
No, you are wrong. The league mandates that each team must have at least one owner/entity with a 30% share. This means nothing in terms of majority ownership. One still needs 51% to have majority ownership (hence the term). The Steelers, as they are, came way before this rule came into place, so they were grandfathered in.
Now that the ownership is being reorganized, the team now has to abide by the 30% rule.
@ theoctagon
Exactly. And the league can also supplement Dan’s offer, or grant relief from the debt limit if they deem fit. I think the league stands to benefit from keeping the influential Rooney family in the ownership circle.
Bottom line, this is all going to hinge on how much over asking price Druckenmiller is willing to go on Art Jr.’s share, and how pissed off Art Jr. is at Dan, as well as how much he want to respect his father’s dying wishes.
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