Dan Rooney, Chairman of the Pittsburgh Steelers since the 1988 death of his father, wants to buy out his siblings shares of the team, according to The Wall Street Journal and the AP via ESPN.com.

Steelers Chairman Dan Rooney, the eldest of the brothers, wants to consolidate his control through a 10-year plan to buy out most of their shares, but a well-funded prospective buyer has emerged after some of Mr. Rooney’s brothers and their children raised questions about his offer.

Stanley Druckenmiller, billionaire chairman of Pittsburgh’s Duquesne Capital Management, has expressed interest in acquiring the Steelers, people briefed on the negotiations said.

However, apparently Dan’s siblings feel his offer is undervalued, and thus they had an independent analysis done to properly value the team.

But some of his brothers and younger third-generation family members have sought an independent analysis by a top Wall Street investment bank to see whether a better deal can be put together. They worry that Dan Rooney’s plan undervalues the team and takes on too much debt.

Working in tight secrecy under the code-name “Project Newcastle,” Goldman Sachs & Co. late last year valued the Steelers operations at $800 million to as much as $1.2 billion, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Apparently Dan Rooney is offering a significant amount less than this for the team.  Everyone involved is interested, and potential buyer Stanley Druckenmiller says he wants to keep Dan Rooney involved.

Mr. Druckenmiller, who has told Rooney family members that he hoped to retain Dan Rooney as a partner if he buys the franchise, also wouldn’t comment for this story.

The Rooney family’s divisions over the future of the Steelers are a classic example of the challenge facing second- and third-generation owners of a family business. Looming estate taxes and diverging interests among the children and grandchildren of the founder raise pressure for a sale, bringing emotional family issues into play.

The Rooney brothers own 80% of the Steelers through Rooney Enterprises LLC; the McGinley family, their cousins, own 20%. Rooney Enterprises also owns the Yonkers Raceway just north of New York City and its profitable casino; the Palm Beach Kennel Club, a faded Florida dog track that now has a poker room; and other holdings, including a horse farm in Maryland.

The Steelers are by far the family’s crown jewel. Art Rooney Sr. — a colorful, cigar-chomping sportsman who kept the team going in its early years through his skill as a horse-race handicapper — bought the club for $2,500 in 1933.

I’m sure Art Rooney, Sr. would want the team to stay in the hands of the Rooneys.  However, it is hard to get five siblings to agree on a matter this large, and it is certainly not fair to pay the far under market value for their shares.  As a Pittsburgh fan, I am certainly rooting that the Rooneys can work this out and keep this 75 year franchise family owned.