Rooneys Are Considering Selling Part of the Steelers

July 8, 2008

Ever since Art Rooney used $2,500 to pay the N.F.L.’s entrance fee for his franchise in Pittsburgh in 1933, the Rooney clan has been among the league’s grand old families. Along with the Maras in New York, the Rooneys have been behind a single team for the entirety of their existence.

But a statement released Monday cast doubt on how much longer that will be true.

The Steelers announced that the family had spent the past two years examining a restructuring of the ownership. A statement on the team’s Web site said that part of the franchise could be sold, and part could be consolidated under the control of Dan Rooney, the team’s chairman; and his son Art Rooney II, the team president. Dan Rooney is the oldest son of Art Rooney Sr., who died in 1988.

The move would help the Rooney family, which owns racetracks in New York and Florida, fall into line with the N.F.L.’s policy prohibiting the joint ownership of a team and certain gambling operations.

On its Web site Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the franchise had been “secretly shopped to potential buyers.” The article did not name those prospective buyers.

The Steelers’ statement did not explicitly mention the possibility that outside interests could acquire part of the team.

“I have spent my entire life devoted to the Pittsburgh Steelers and the National Football League,” Dan Rooney said in the statement. “I will do everything possible to work out a solution to ensure my father’s legacy of keeping the Steelers in the Rooney family and in Pittsburgh for at least another 75 years.”

The Rooney family has led the franchise through five Super Bowl championship seasons, from the team’s dynasty years of the 1970s through a victory in Super Bowl XL in February 2006.

A similar concern was raised in baseball in 2006, when Robert Nutting, the chairman of the Pittsburgh Pirates, bought Seven Springs Mountain Resort in western Pennsylvania.

A casino with 500 slot machines was planned for the resort, but Nutting abandoned the project because Major League Baseball forbids club owners to own or operate casinos.

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