Organization and Basis of Presentation	12 Months Ended
Organization and Basis of Presentation	Dec. 31, 2013
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]
Organization and Basis of Presentation	Organization and Basis of Presentation Steel Excel Inc. (“Steel Excel” or the “Company”) currently operates in two reporting segments - Energy and Sports. Through its wholly-owned subsidiary Steel Energy Ltd. ("Steel Energy"), the Company’s Energy business provides drilling and production services to the oil and gas industry. Through its wholly-owned subsidiary Steel Sports Inc., the Company’s Sports business provides event-based sports services and other health-related services. The Company also continues to identify business acquisition opportunities in other unrelated industries. The Company began its Sports and Energy businesses in June 2011 and December 2011, respectively. Prior to that the Company provided enterprise-class external storage products and software to original equipment manufacturers (the "Predecessor Business"). Steel Partners Holdings L.P. (“Steel Partners”), an affiliate, beneficially owned approximately 55.1% of the Company’s outstanding common stock as of December 31, 2013. The consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, and include the accounts of the Company and all of its subsidiaries. The Company consolidates entities in which it owns greater than 50% of the voting equity of an entity or otherwise is able to exert control. All intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated in the consolidated financial statements. Certain prior period amounts have been reclassified to conform to the 2013 presentation. The Company shut down the operations of The Show, LLC (“The Show”), a provider of baseball uniforms to Little League and softball players and coaches, and Ruckus Sports LLC (“Ruckus”), a provider of obstacle course and mass-participation events, in July 2012 and November 2013, respectively. Both The Show and Ruckus were part of the Company’s Sports business. The consolidated financial statements reflect The Show, Ruckus, and any residual activity of the Predecessor Business as discontinued operations in all periods.

The entire disclosure for the organization, consolidation and basis of presentation of financial statements disclosure, and significant accounting policies of the reporting entity. May be provided in more than one note to the financial statements, as long as users are provided with an understanding of (1) the significant judgments and assumptions made by an enterprise in determining whether it must consolidate a VIE and/or disclose information about its involvement with a VIE, (2) the nature of restrictions on a consolidated VIE's assets reported by an enterprise in its statement of financial position, including the carrying amounts of such assets, (3) the nature of, and changes in, the risks associated with an enterprise's involvement with the VIE, and (4) how an enterprise's involvement with the VIE affects the enterprise's financial position, financial performance, and cash flows. Describes procedure if disclosures are provided in more than one note to the financial statements.

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