Heinz Field

About Heinz Field

Heinz Field is a stadium located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the home to the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Pittsburgh Panthers; American football teams in the National Football League (NFL) and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), respectively. The stadium opened in 2001, shortly after the controlled implosion of the teams' previous stadium, Three Rivers Stadium. The stadium is named for locally based H. J. Heinz Company, which bought the naming rights in 2001.

Funded in conjunction with PNC Park, the US$281 million stadium stands along the Allegheny River, on the Northside of Pittsburgh. The stadium was designed with the city of Pittsburgh's history of steel production in mind, which lead to the inclusion of 12,000 tons of steel into the design. Ground for the stadium was broken in June 1999 and the first football game was hosted in September 2001. The stadium's natural grass surface has been criticized throughout its history, but Steelers ownership has kept the grass after lobbying from players and coaches. Attendance for the 65,050-seat stadium has sold out for every Steelers home game, a streak which dates back to 1972. A collection of memorabilia from the Steelers and Panthers of the past can be found in the Coca-Cola Great Hall.

After discussions over the Pittsburgh Pirates building a full-time baseball park, a proposal was made to renovate Three Rivers Stadium into a full-time football facility. Though met with negative reaction from Steelers ownership, the proposal was used as a "fallback position" that would be used if discussions for a new stadium failed. Steelers ownership stated that failing to build a new stadium would hurt the franchise's chances of signing players who might opt to sign with other teams, such as the other five teams in the Steelers division who had all recently built new football-only stadiums. In June 2001, the H. J. Heinz Company purchased the naming rights to the stadium. As per the deal, Heinz will pay the Steelers a total of $57 million through 2021.