Who is he? Well, Stanley is a multi-billionaire investor originally from the Pittsburgh area who is interested in buying the team.
Dan Rooney is shaking in his boots.
But really, what has Dan Rooney done in recent years?
Did he re-sign Alan Faneca? Vomit. Hey, Dan, it's okay...the success of our running game (which features a rookie RB and a Pro-Bowl RB coming off a broken leg) and our passing game (featuring a much richer Roethlisberger) now hinges on a totally unproven Offensive line of Willie Colon, Kendall Simmons, Justin Hartwig, Chris Kemoeatu, and Marvel Smith (maybe) with the highest-paid backup in the league of Max Starks sitting on the bench.
Did he raise ticket prices this past summer after signing Roethlisberger to a huge contract? Yes.
Did he raise ticket prices after the Steelers went 8-8 and failed to make the playoffs? Yes.
In the past two seasons, nosebleed seats that used to run $55 have gone up to $62. Other tickets increased by much more (lower bowl seats by about $15, club seats by about $25). What does this mean? If you're a season ticket holder, you're now paying $70 more per ticket to sit in your same seats. If you have a pair of seats, that's $140 a year. Not to mention gas prices and parking and...
Honestly, I wouldn't mind seeing some things change. Although Druck wouldn't be able to paint his face anymore if he was the owner, he's a season ticket holder, he's sat in the seats with the fans. Druck said he'd keep the team in Pittsburgh, so there's really nothing to worry about.
Hey, the fans of Green Bay own a share of that team, and I haven't seen any front office decisions that seem "questionable" as Smizik would have us think.
If Aaron Rodgers leads that team to the playoffs, which he is perfectly capable of doing, the Packers might look like geniuses for-well...we'll see how the Favre saga turns out. MJD delivers some solid smack-talk over on Yahoo! That one's definitely worth reading.
Smizik says the fans would be losers if the Rooney's don't control the team. How does he know? Have we ever experienced the Rooney's not being the owners? To paraphrase Lewis Black: "How do we know there aren't other [owners] that just give stuff away?"
Hey, Druck is a multi-billionaire, he's not really going to be concerned about the profit line. Rather, he's going to be concerned with winning. Yes, football is a business, but it's also a game. People like Smizik are on the side where a team that goes 8-8 can charge it's fans more to see their mediocrity. If I'm going to pay more to see the Steelers, I want them to be competitive.
The Steelers have, over the past few years, ranked well in ESPN's annual Fan Satisfaction Ratings. 2007 (9th), 2006 (3rd).
From what it seems to me, the Pittsburgh media establishment is trying to paint Druck as the bad guy. Smizik says it would be bad to let a fan run the team because he couldn't make hard business decisions. I guess Druckenmiller didn't come by his 3.5 billion net worth by making hard business decisions.
I guess that also means Smizik things was a good business decision:
Steely McDouche ready to be booed off the field.
The last word on this one goes to Talking NFL:
Bottom line: The Rooney's made the "business decision" to create a mascot.
Fans hate the mascot.
Fans > Rooneys
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