The Steeler Nation is nervous.

When the Wall Street Journal reported early this week that a change in the team's ownership structure was in the works, Steeler fans in Western Pennsylvania and around the world began to worry.

Changes to the team's ownership is being driven by NFLrules that prohibit team owners from having ties to gambling and also a league mandate that the dominant team owner have at least 30 percent control. Longer term, there are also family-ownership issues and estate tax considerations, that in many cases can force the sale of family-owned businesses when owners face paying massive tax bills equal to half their share of the company's value.

The Steelers have been valued by Wall Street analysts with Goldman Sachs &Co. at about $1 billion.

Steeler ownership is now dominated by the Rooney family, with the five Rooney brothers, sons of legendary team founder Art Rooney Sr., each owning 16 percent of the team — for 80 percent. Another branch of the family, the McGinley family, owns the remaining 20 percent.

Since Rooney Enterprises LLC also owns interests in a horse racing track in New York and a dog racing track in Florida, with poker tables, league rules are forcing a rearrangement of Steeler ownership.

The brothers who are not active in the football operation don't want to be forced to sell their interests the highly profitable racing and gambling operations that they manage, and valuation disputes related to the various operations can introduce additional tensions as each owner seeks to get fair value, or maximize their buyout price, in any transaction. As with any big-dollar business deal, there are bound to be tensions and divergent interests.

The Steelers, also face challenges that other family businesses face when trying to move ownership and control to successive generations. As ownership becomes diluted through expanded family branches and different generations, those owners with no involvement in the football operation and not living in Pittsburgh will be more interested in maximizing their buyout price than in keeping the team under family control — and in Pittsburgh.

Current negotiations must deal with NFL rules, but will also have to address estate planning issues. Because at some point, estate taxes will put pressure on family members to seek top dollar for their stakes in the organization. If not now, then some years down the road.

So far, at least, there is encouragement in the public statements from all parties, including several Rooneys and NFL officials expressing a desire is to keep the team in Pittsburgh.

Losing the team is unthinkable to most Steeler fans. But similar sentiments were probably held by football fans in Los Angeles, Baltimore and Cleveland prior to those cities losing their teams.

Still, the 75-year connection between Pittsburgh, the Steelers and the Rooney family is so deep-rooted that it must be assumed that every effort will be made to rework the ownership structure in a way that keeps the team here. But it will be a complicated deal and lots of money is involved — so anything can happen.

One possible solution being talked about is a partial or total sale by the Rooney brothers not involved in the football operations to Pittsburgh-based billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller, who is head of Duquesne Capital. Druckenmiller, who had worked with famed hedge fund legend George Soros, has said his preference would be for Dan Rooney, and his son Art II, to continue to run the team and for the team to remain in Pittsburgh. By all accounts, Druckenmiller is an avid Steeler fan and has great fondness for Pittsburgh after living here for 30 years, despite now spending most of his time in New York.

Those are reassuring sentiments from Druckenmiller. But billion-dollar business deals don't always work out as hoped.

Until a final deal is worked out, fans of the Steelers everywhere will be holding their breath. No doubt, most hope that all members of the Rooney family remember the dying wish of founder Art Rooney Sr., known as "The Chief," that the team be always run by the Rooney family — and remain in Pittsburgh.