The four Rooney brothers have agreed to sell their shares in the Pittsburgh Steelers football team to their oldest brother Dan, current chairman of the team. This will give Dan (and his son, Art II, who is team president) an 80% share of the club, which will meet all NFL rules and regulations and keep the team within the Rooney family.
The Steelers began way back in 1933, when Art Rooney Sr. won $2,500 at the Saratoga Race Course in New York. He used his winnings to buy an NFL franchise for the city of Pittsburgh. The team was called the Pittsburgh Pirates, after the local MLB team Art loved as a child. In 1942, the team was renamed the Steelers after the city’s heritage in the steel industry. After decades of losing records, the Steelers finally began to show signs of life in the late 1960s, and later went on to become the “Team of the 1970s” by winning 4 Super Bowls in that decade.
When Art died back in 1988, he left 80% of the team to the each of his 5 sons, so that each one owned 16% of the franchise. This violates an NFL rule which states that one person must own a minimum of 30% of any team. Additionally, some of the Rooney boys owned racetracks and slot machines, which violates NFL rules about team owners having a stake in gambling businesses.
In 2006, the Rooneys greatly expanded their gambling operations, leading the family to begin looking at a restructuring plan. There were concerns that the four sons not currently involved with the team would sell the team to “outsiders” for the highest amount possible, thus giving someone outside the family a 64% interest in the team. Thankfully, the brothers have agreed to sell their stake to Dan and some investors for around $750 million after some of the team’s debts are settled. Dan has not formally announced who his investors are, but it has been made clear that Dan Rooney will own 80% of the team. Read more about it here.
And what about the remaining 20% of the team? Well, as you may know, the NFL almost folded several times during WWII. Things were so bad for both the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers that the two teams merged, forming the short-lived “Steagles” It was during this time that Art Rooney sold a controlling interest in the Steelers to Bert Bell, owner of the Eagles, who in turn sold Rooney an interest in the Eagles. The Bell-led Steelers then moved to Philadelphia and became the Eagles, and the Bell-Rooney owned Eagles moved to Pittsburgh and became the Steelers. On January 11, 1946, Bell was chosen as NFL commissioner, and thus sold his stake in the team. Rooney bought 58% while Barney McGinley bought the remaining 42%. When Barney died, his four children each inherited around 10% of the team. The Rooneys bought back 20% of those shares when two of the McGinley’s died. The remaining 20% remained with Jack McGinley and his sister Rita. Jack, who died in 2006, was also related to the Rooneys by marriage – he was married to Art Sr.’s sister.