"If you try and get too cute with that brand, you can really screw it up," David Carter, executive director of the Sports Business Institute at the University of Southern California, said in a telephone interview. "You cannot hope to succeed running that business if you go out of the way to strip the personality and tradition."
Druckenmiller, 55, chairman of New York-based Duquesne Capital Management LLC, is negotiating to buy a controlling stake in the team from the Rooney family, which founded the franchise in 1933 and has owned it since. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. valued the Steelers at $800 million to $1.2 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on July 9.
The Steelers built their reputation about 30 years ago by winning four National Football League championships from 1975- 1980. The team was built around its so-called Steel Curtain defense, which featured future Hall of Famers including "Mean" Joe Greene, Jack Lambert and Jack Ham. Fans waved yellow rags -- nicknamed "Terrible Towels" -- to encourage the team at Three Rivers Stadium.
Loyal Steelers fans
Even though it won only one championship since then, in 2006, the franchise still has the most loyal local fans in the U.S. and is the most popular team in its own market, according to a study by Turnkey Sports & Entertainment, a Haddonfield, New Jersey, marketing firm.
At the same time, the Steelers' revenue of $198 million in 2007 was 13th in the 32-team league, according to Forbes magazine.
"The prospective owner in Pittsburgh has as much of a challenge as an opportunity," said Haynes Hendrickson, senior vice president at Turnkey. "There's definitely room for growth there. But don't try to remake what has already been made, and made well."
Fans identify the team as "blue-collar," "hard- working," "diverse," and "strong," according to the Turnkey study.
Druckenmiller, who founded his firm in Pittsburgh and is a Steelers fan, would run the finances of the franchise and let current Chairman Dan Rooney make day-to-day decisions, people familiar with his plan said. They requested anonymity because negotiations are private.
Economic hurdles
A new owner would face hurdles to increasing revenue, said John Moag, chairman of Baltimore-based Moag & Co., which negotiates franchise sales for professional sports teams. Pittsburgh is a small NFL market and can't support the same prices for luxury seating that brings money to teams in Dallas or New York.
Such stadium amenities are a key revenue source in football because, unlike television broadcast rights, the income isn't shared with other teams. Pittsburgh's new stadium, Heinz Field, opened in 2001 and cost about $350 million, about a third the price of stadiums under construction in New York and Dallas.
"If he could move Wall Street to Pittsburgh, revive the steel industry or bring back the Carnegies and the Mellons, that might help," Moag said in an e-mail.
Television money
Gordon Saint-Denis, managing director for media, entertainment and sports at the finance company CIT Group, said any NFL team is still a good buy because the league's television contract averages more than $3.5 billion annually, according to Fitch Ratings, and stadiums operate at more than 90 percent capacity.
"You have to look at it long-term," Saint-Denis said in a telephone interview. "The NFL is extremely well-positioned. And as far as assets within the NFL, I think it stacks up."
Robert Tillis, chief executive officer at investment banking firm Inner Circle Sports LLC in New York, said someone like Druckenmiller could figure out ways for the team to make more money.
"The new owner will have lots of ideas around merchandising, concessions, ticket pricing and the fan experience," he said in an e-mail. "Especially for a team that has been owned by a single family for over 70 years."
National interest
Hendrickson said the best areas for revenue growth lie outside of Pittsburgh. The challenge for a new owner is not to upset the team's greatest asset -- its uniquely dedicated fans, he said.
"You want to make sure you're consistent, especially in a market like that," he said. "The biggest message he has to communicate is this is a seamless transition. This is the same team."
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