DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Ruskell resignation coming Thursday morning

I reread it......I still think it sounds more like he was put in as part of the partnership group rather than 'given' it, but it's not conclusive.

Also, I searched for other articles on that group...and no real surprise, it just mentions the pieces of the group and gives no more real insight.....guess we'll just leave it as disagreeing on how we think it happened. sorry, thought it was more conclusive than that.

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I reread it......I still think it sounds more like he was put in as part of the partnership group rather than 'given' it, but it's not conclusive.

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I don't believe he was given anything either.. But again, I can't prove it..

either way, I believe it's a dumb business move..

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If you find something more, please post the info...mac

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Have no fear,, I will..

I don't know if he'll respond,, or even if he knows the answer.. But I've sent a question to "Hey Tony" to see if he'll print it and respond... Don't know if he will.

Mac, This is an interesting article about the Steelers ownership situation. One that illustrates very clearly that its extremely unlikely that the deal with Carman Policy went down as has been reported. Given this information, I have serious doubts that Al Lerner was able to GIVE Policy anything.

Again, think about it,, 530 million purchase price.. 10% = 53 million... Whats the tax ramifications of that gift for both Policy and Lerner?

I don't honestly care what has been reported,, I am not buying into the notion that Al gave anything away...

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?id=3485962

And here's an article that directly goes against my thinking..

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/browns/2004-04-07-policy_x.htm

It clearly says that Policy was bought out by Randy Lerner... No amounts were mentioned...

I searched as well...can't find anything definitive....the way the CNNSI article is written I cannot tell if the 'gave Policy' portion refers to actually 'gifting' him the 10% for free....or if he basically allowed Policy to buy into that piece of the pie.

hopefully Mr. Grossi knows and can respond to Daman, whether or not he prints it.

It's a bit perplexing.. No way is it a wise move from a business or financial standpoint.

Certainly Al Lerner had the net worth to be able to accomplish this, but he never struck me as a guy that gives it away in Business..

Philanthropy,, You bet.. 100 million to I think it was University hospital for cancer research and I know he also gave a bunch of money to the Cleveland Clinic. As well as a commitment to the young kids of two folks killed in the 9/11 attacks.. And I'm sure plenty more that we are unaware of.

But this just doesn't make any sense to me.. Giving away a $53 mill chunk of change and having that only being the tip of the iceburg when you then add in the tax issues and then the buy back from Randy,,

Hell, just a guess would put that total at more than 129 million.

53 million initial gift of ownership
23 million tax issue costs (and that's just Lerner, what were the costs to policy)
53 million buy back (and that's if the value of the team didn't increase which I bet it did)
129 million total cost to Al and Randy Lerner over 5 years..

Has there ever been a team exec that made 25.8 million a year? Policy was only making 1.5 Million in SF..... That's one helluva pay increase..

I just don't see it..