FanHouse SteelersOwnershipStruggles

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.