Contrary To City Claim, Steelers Sale To Outsider OK In Lease
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Potential Steelers Sale To Outside
Investor OK Under Heinz Field Lease |
Though Allegheny County (PA) Controller Mark Flaherty said that the Steelers' lease for Heinz Field "gives the city and county oversight of team ownership changes -- and could require a buyer outside the Rooney family to pay back more than $200[M] in public stadium subsidies -- that does not seem to be what the lease agreement says in full," according to Timothy McNulty of the PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE. Flaherty in a letter to Steelers' ownership and at a news conference yesterday pointed to a part of the '00 lease agreement "saying changes and transfers in team ownership are acceptable within the Rooney and McGinley families without getting consent" by the Pittsburgh-Allegheny County Sports & Exhibition Authority (SEA). But another part of the lease, which Flaherty did not address, "speaks directly to outside ownership changes -- and says they are acceptable, with no input from the [SEA] either, as long as the sale conforms to NFL rules, and the SEA is notified once a sale is completed." The lease agreement also "says repeatedly the team cannot be moved from Heinz Field for the duration of the 29 1/2 year lease," and if the team is sold, the new owners "also are barred from relocating." Flaherty argued that since the "value of the Steelers franchise has tripled in some estimates since the publicly financed Heinz Field was built," taxpayers "should be involved in sales talks and local government is due some portion of sale proceeds." Flaherty: "I just think that the public deserves a seat at the table in any type of negotiation discussions in what's going to happen to the franchise." Flaherty, when asked if he was "trying to pressure the family away from selling to an outsider," said that he was "only acting as the county's fiscal watchdog" (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 7/17). However, SEA and Regional Asset District (RAD) BOD members "expressed doubt that [Flaherty] could do anything under terms of the lease or bond agreements to stop the sale or retrieve profits from Steelers' shareholders." RAD Exec Dir David Donahoe: "There's nothing in our agreement that I can see that would apply" (Pittsburgh TRIBUNE-REVIEW, 7/17).
PACK IN THE IDEA: NFL Senior VP/PR Greg Aiello, when asked if public ownership of the Steelers was possible, said, "Under our current rules there's no public ownership permitted of a team." No more than "25 people can own an interest in an NFL team, and the controlling owner must have a 30[%] stake." The Packers are publicly owned, but Aiello said the structure is a "historical aberration that's been accepted" (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 7/17).
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