The soon to be 33-year-old stadium needs new bells and whistles.
Happy 292nd birthday to George Washington. George Washington and Pittsburgh have had a long relationship going back to the French and Indian or Seven Years War in 1756. There is a stadium that sits in the shadow of Mount Washington in Pittsburgh that houses the National Football League’s Pittsburgh Steelers’ home field. The stadium opened in 2001 and in this day and age a soon to be 33-year-old stadium is antiquated. The Steelers President Art Rooney II does not anticipate getting a new stadium anytime soon but he does acknowledge that the stadium is getting a little long in the tooth and will need some sort of an update soon.
Rooney told 97.3 The Fan in Pittsburgh. “We are going through a stadium assessment at this point, and really looking at what it’s gonna take to be in this stadium for the next 10, 20 years, whatever it’s gonna be. It’s a process and so we’ve hired some consultants to help us look at it. We like the stadium, it’s a great facility, and with the right kinds of improvements it can continue to be our home for a long time.” There will not be a dome added as part of the renovations when the rebuilding starts. No word on how the stadium renovations will be funded but public money figures to be involved. Those discussions have not yet been started. Rooney might have heard players’ concerns and complaints about the Steelers’ facility. The NFLPA did its first-ever survey of players in 2023 to evaluate teams including facility-related matters. The Pittsburgh stadium ranked poorly in the players evaluation of facilities because of the lack of a childcare facility and a team family room. The team also got a poor grade for its locker room, which players said was not big enough and needed a renovation.
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