FanHouse StanleyDruckenmiller

Dan Rooney's chances of keeping control of the Steelers just took a step forward, as the Rooney's brothers turned down Stanley Druckenmiller's offer to buy a majority share of the Steelers.

A lot of Steelers fans will see this as great news. Druckenmiller is out of the picture, which makes it more likely that Rooney's lowball offer will be accepted by the rest of his brothers.

But at the same time, the Post-Gazette story explains why it could end up being bad news. Druckenmiller was an extremely wealthy potential owner who was planning to let Rooney keep running the team. Now if the Rooney brothers still decide to get more money than their brother can offer, there's no guarantee the next potential buyer will be nearly as appealing as Druckenmiller.

But the good news is that the NFL seems to be bending over backward to make sure that Dan Rooney stays as the primary owner. This should have been fixed a couple of years ago, but the NFL keeps allowing extensions that allows the Steelers to violate the league's rules on having stake in a gambling business. It seems like the NFL is going to try to game the system for as long as need to get the result it wants: something Druckenmiller hinted at today.

"Throughout our discussions, I made clear that if the family could resolve these matters internally it should do so and I would gladly remain only a devoted Steelers fan. Based on recent developments, it has become clear that the Rooneys need substantial additional time to assess their options. I do not wish to complicate these efforts, and I also do not want the lingering uncertainty about my possible involvement to become a distraction to my business and my family."

So even though this was supposed to be fixed years ago, it's going to take a good bit longer. Now we just have to figure out if that's good news or bad news.

It's been an article of faith among most Steelers fans that the only good way for this ownership squabble to work out is with Dan Rooney figuring out a way to retain majority ownership.

But Stanley Druckenmiller, or someone close to him, is trying to put out the word that it may not be true.

In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "a source with intimate knowledge of Druckenmiller's situation" tried to lay out the two scenarios. Now for all we know, this is Druckenmiller himself not wanting to be publicly quoted on the ownership news, but whoever it is, they lay out a pretty compelling case for Druckenmiller.

Since Druckenmiller is an extremely wealthy man, he could cut a check for the $160 million the same way that me or you go down to McDonalds and buy a double cheesburger. But for Dan Rooney, coming up with the money to buy out his brothers will mean lots of loans and outside investors. Because of that, there is a legitimate concern that the resulting debt load may impact the Steelers ability to cut the bonus checks that are required to either keep or sign other team's free agents. As the Post-Gazette explains:

They would have to assume enough debt on the financing that it could jeopardize their ability to spend money freely on other matters such as free-agent players and contract extensions, especially in a small-market city where ancillary revenue streams are not always available.

The minute the words "ownership sale" became part of the average Steelers fans conversation, nothing good could happen. Now, it's starting to get ugly.

According to the Post-Gazette, potential new owner Stanley Druckenmiller is not interested in becoming a minority owner--he's either going to become the new majority owner or he'll go home, but there's not a situation where he'll end up helping Dan Rooney retain majority interest in the team.

So what we have is a potential battle between Druckenmiller and Rooney for control of the team. And if you're betting on who will win that battle, put your money on the man with $3.5 billion in the bank.

Now Druckenmiller has said that he's planning to let Rooney continue running the team if his bid is accepted. But he also knows that Rooney will turn 76 next week, so it's not like Rooney will be running the team for too much longer. And Druckenmiller hasn't offered the same guarantee for Rooney's son Art Rooney II.

The shocking news yesterday that the Pittsburgh Steelers could be for sale got even more shocking today when multiple media outlets reported that the billionaire financier Stanley Druckenmiller has already been identified as the likely buyer, with a sale possibly being agreed upon as soon as this week.

First, the bad news for Steelers fans: The beloved Steelers chairman Dan Rooney is frequently referred to as the team's owner, but in reality Rooney owns only 16% of the team. His four brothers each also own 16%, and relatives of the late Jack McGinley own 20%. That means that if some billionaire -- Druckenmiller or anyone else -- comes along and can persuade the McGinleys and two of the Rooneys to sell, that billionaire can become a majority owner.

But the good news for Steelers fans is that in reality, it just doesn't work that way. NFL teams can't be sold without the consent of a three-fourths majority of the other NFL owners, and Rooney is held in such high esteem by his fellow owners that there's no way that anyone can get approval for a sale unless Rooney is OK with it.