This article appeared in the February 2004 issue of Whirl Magazine.

February 2004

The Player
Forever The Optimist

By Eric Lidji

Tom Rooney is a fixer.

After three decades in the sports and entertainment industry, a career that has taken him around the world and to the front of local headlines, Rooney is the head of his own company — The Rooney Sports and Entertainment Group. He is the sole employee, using the resources of associates when needed. He meets clients, comprehends their predicament, and figures out how to correct it.

"Problems are opportunities dressed in drag," he says.

Right now, one of his clients is the Pittsburgh Steelers Football Club with whom he’s working on a North Shore development project. He is studying the area to decide which venues will complement the two stadiums: "There are a lot of opportunities for night clubs, small boutiques, and comfort-driven places," he reports.

When Rooney speaks, he looks into the air, gathering numbers, ideas, and facts, then wraps up the issue with an optimistic smile, whether the topic be the local trend of dissolving clubs or that the Penguins have been in and out of a troubled state for several years. Rather than spin, it is part of his earnestness.

Rooney (yes, of the Pittsburgh Rooney royalty — the late Art Rooney was his uncle) was born and raised on the North Side. He graduated from Duquesne University with a degree in journalism.

His first job of school was with a small daily newspaper that eventually folded. So he switched focus and started work at the Meadows Racetrack; married his girlfriend, Judee, with whom he just celebrated his 30th anniversary; and had his only child, Josh, who now works for Anheuser Busch.

Soon he found his work becoming higher profile, first serving as a general manager of the Pittsburgh Civic Arena, then working for the Coca-Cola Starlake Amphitheatre. In 1999, he became the president of Team Lemieux when the Penguins’ hockey star went from being a comeback story to a player/owner.

This past summer Rooney left to form his own private company and is working all over the country. Locally, Rooney is involved with the Wheeling Nailers, a minor league hockey team, and sports programs at both Robert Morris University and Point Park University.

On a larger level, though, Rooney is concerned with the image of the city as a whole, both to outsiders and those who live here. He likes to cite the famous quote by former president Bill Clinton adviser James Carville — that Pennsylvania is "Pittsburgh on one side, Philadelphia on the other, and Arkansas in the middle."

While Philadelphia can easily be grouped together with a handful of East Coast cities like New York and Boston, Pittsburgh is better paired with cities like Cleveland and Chicago.

That Pittsburgh is a secondary market is a given, Rooney says, but because of its size, not lack of importance. The city’s image needs to follow that mindset by getting its share of iconic attractions to make people feel that they aren’t missing anything by living here. In a neighborhood-oriented city, though, he feels that there is a proclivity not to stray too far from home.

"It’s the idea that people won’t cross two bridges to get where they are going."

In a city with three rivers, that can be difficult to overcome. Rooney says that Pittsburgh needs a go-to area, "like Northpark in Dallas," without centralizing all the attractions in one place — something city officials were wary of when talks of a hypothetical hockey arena drifted toward a third North Shore sports facility.

All this talk gives Rooney the impression that the city is a palette for opportunity, and while that may be the optimism talking, it never keeps him from looking for the solutions. He is, after all, a fixer.