Pittsburgh Steelers, Taxes (Obama) And Selling Sports Teams

[WinOne4TheGipper]

The Wall Street Journal is reporting this morning that the Pittsburgh Steelers might soon be for sale. The word is that the team’s chairman Dan Rooney and his son Art II are trying to buy Dan’s four brothers out.

I’m thinking the Steelers are going to stay in the Rooney family, but there are a couple good reasons why I think it’s a good time to sell and I’ll some it up in one sentence: EVERYTHING IS BIGGER IN TAXES.

In the next three years, I believe that more high profile sports teams will be sold than ever before. Why? Because of the estate tax repeal in 2010 and even sooner than that, the potential of a huge increase in capital gains taxes if Barack Obama becomes our next president.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/25586803

That requires a quick turnaround, and Daniel Rooney apparently doesn’t have that kind of liquidity.  Also, Democrats want to end the repeal of the estate tax, while McCain wants it extended, and that has all of the Rooneys worried about the tax burden their children will face when the current generation of owners move to that Great Gridiron In The Sky.  All of this favors a sale in 2008, before the sale gets hit with huge taxes, and that means the Druckenmiller bid looks very attractive to everyone — except the NFL, Daniel Rooney, and probably all of Pennsylvania.
It may be just one example of how a lot of investors will act in 2008, facing the prospect of higher tax rates on investment profits, but it’s also going to have a great deal of impact in a key battleground state in 2008.  Pittsburgh lives and dies with the Steelers, and the prospect of the Rooneys losing control of their team because of the tax policies of an Obama presidency will put his economic policies on the hotseat.  Obama cannot afford to lose Pennsylvania to John McCain, but the real-world example of his redistributionist policies may give voters in the Keystone State a reason to think twice about Obama.

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/07/10/has-obama-pushed-the-steelers-to-sell/