While the Rooney family are still firmly in control of the Pittsburgh Steelers, one minority investor is looking to take a bigger bite of the franchise. According to a Bloomberg report shared by Yahoo! Finance’s Giles Turner and Gillian Tan, Steelers’ minority owner Thomas Tull is looking to buy a bigger stake in the franchise.
From the report:
“(Bloomberg) — Billionaire Thomas Tull is vying against rival bidders as he seeks to increase his ownership in the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers by acquiring a small stake from sports investors Josh Harris and David Blitzer, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Harris and Blitzer bought a stake of less than 5% in the team in 2020, Bloomberg News has reported. They’re exploring a sale after a group led by Harris won the auction for another team in the league, the Washington Commanders, earlier this year. NFL rules mandate that a majority owner can’t hold an interest in another franchise.”
As the report indicates, new Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris must sell his Steelers’ shares per NFL rules. And it sounds like Tull is trying to buy that percentage, somewhere just south of five percent. Selling them to a current minority owner would be the quickest and most seamless way to unwind Harris’ controlling interest in Pittsburgh, though the report acknowledges Tull isn’t the only bidder. Pittsburgh has several minority owners of the team, including former WR John Stallworth. Here is a link to the team’s list of minority owners, per the team’s 2022 media guide.
Tull, who first bought shares in the Steelers in 2009, has become a recognizable name around the city. He’s heavily involved in the film industry and most recently, helped introduce Acrisure CEO Greg Williams to Steelers’ Team President Art Rooney II.
Here’s what Rooney said last July when the Steelers/Acrisure partnership was announced, the company taking over naming rights from Kraft/Heinz to become Acrisure Stadium.
“I want to acknowledge Thomas Tull, who was the catalyst in bringing us together. Thomas has been a shareholder of the Steelers for 13 years now, and he’s also a shareholder in Acrisure. So, Thomas, thanks for making this happen.”
Though it’s unclear when a deal will get done, it’s likely to occur sooner than later. Harris and his group had been the frontrunner for months to buy the Commanders and the deal was officially approved in July. Over that time, he’s likely begun to develop his exit plan from his Steelers’ shares and the NFL is likely all for speeding up the deal and eliminating any potential conflict of interest.
