Talk about black and gold dedication.

Transplanted Pittsburgher Paul Ferguson -- who grew up in Harmar and lives in Charleston, S.C. -- boarded a plane yesterday morning, flew into Pittsburgh, dropped a cool $21,000 and jetted back home with an entry crossed off his life's to-do list.

"This," he said, beaming, "is the realization of a lifelong dream. And, yeah, I found time to have lunch at Primanti's. Wow, what a day for a Pittsburgher."

Mr. Ferguson, 44, was one of two successful bidders who lassoed Steelers personal seat licenses at Heinz Field yesterday at an auction on the 54th floor of the U.S. Steel Tower inside Judge M. Bruce McCullough's United States Bankruptcy Courtroom B.

There were two auctions yesterday involving PSLs, and they raked in a combined $38,500 with the money going to creditors of the former PSL holders who had filed for bankruptcy.

Mr. Ferguson ponied up the $21,000 for four PSLs and now holds the rights to seats 13, 14, 15 and 16 in Section 514, Row Y.

Harmony resident Michael Craig, 28, outbid a handful of others in another auction, paying $17,500 for two seats in Section 114, Row H.

Robert Slone, the bankruptcy court trustee in the two cases, has been working in that capacity since 1979 and can't remember a case involving PSLs before yesterday. The hearings yesterday drew about 10 bidders -- all men -- into Judge McCullough's courtroom.

Steelers spokesman Dave Lockett said the organization had no comment on the situation.

A PSL allows the holder to purchase a season ticket for the specific seat at Heinz Field. The venue sells out all Steelers games, and PSLs, which were first instituted in 2001, are good for the life of Heinz Field.

If a current PSL holder dies and has no one to pass the license to, or if the holder does not renew their season tickets, the owner forfeits it back to the team. The Steelers don't charge any more than they did when Heinz Field was completed in 2001, as the PSL is offered to the next person on the team's season ticket waiting list. The team offers PSLs at prices from $250 to $2,700, plus a $25 per seat transfer fee.

But PSLs fetch far more when the Steelers are not involved in the transaction. And that's before the cost of the actual game ticket. The tickets acquired by Mr. Ferguson are $60 each per game this upcoming season; the two Mr. Craig bought at the auction have a face value of $70 each per contest.

For Mr. Ferguson, the trek from South Carolina was well worth it yesterday. He makes it to a few home Steelers games every year and previously had to scrounge for tickets once he got here.

There will be no more of that.

"There is no question this is an asset that I just acquired," said Mr. Ferguson, who works for Nucor Steel. "These tickets will be willed to my children. Say that I live until the ripe old age of 80 and die walking down Heinz Field's steps. When I will them these PSLs, they will view it as a wonderful asset that I hope they never sell."

Such is life in this age, when Steelers tickets are a valued commodity.

Case in point is Michael Sparrow. There's a little slice of real estate inside Heinz Field -- two adjoining seats bolted into the concrete in Section 110, Row AA.

And, during Steelers game at least, they belong to Mr. Sparrow, a season ticket holder whose family has held season passes since 1972.

Exactly how important are they to this 36-year-old Murrysville resident who grew up on the North Side?

"If I ever get married," Mr. Sparrow said, "I'd create a prenuptial agreement in regard to my Steelers tickets. And no, I'm not kidding."

Max Muhleman, a businessman from Charlotte, N.C., with an engaging Southern drawl, is considered the PSL guru and, for the most part, the inventor of the model. PSLs are most often used as a way to generate cash to help teams pay for their shares of new arenas and stadiums. That revenue could serve as a major windfall for franchises. It was previously reported that the Steelers earned $40 million through the sale of nearly 50,000 PSLs when Heinz Field opened.

Mr. Muhleman was the president of Muhleman Marketing, which was founded in 1972 and eventually bought by sports, entertainment and media heavyweight IMG in 1999.

In 1988, Mr. Muhleman headed a project implementing what he called "the first of these types of situations" when he worked with Charlotte Hornets executives and founded the NBA team's Charter Seat License program, a predecessor of the modern PSL.

Mr. Muhleman worked in the same capacity when, in 1995, Charlotte was awarded an NFL franchise, the Carolina Panthers.

Since then, Mr. Muhleman has worked in various roles on the implementation of PSLs for the Steelers, Rams, Ravens, Browns, Bears, Eagles, Titans and Texans of the NFL. He also has worked on a PSL project for Churchill Downs racetrack in Louisville and the new Wembley Stadium in London.

For Mr. Muhleman, the reasoning behind his brainstorm that became the modern-day PSL was simple.

"In many, many ways, the fans have been left out of the appreciating value of sports while it seems everyone else involved in sports has seen a financial growth," Mr. Muhleman said. "Agreements such as personal seat licenses puts fans, for the first time, into a segment where they can realize the growth, monetarily, of the sport.

"You give the season ticket holder a hat or a jacket or something and that's nice, but who really wants that? Now, give the same guy a deed to their seat, which is what this is, and, golly, you got somethin' there."