NFL
Pittsburgh Steelers Fans Revolt Over Stadiums New Name: ‘It Is HORRIBLE!!!!!’
Tim Crean started writing about sports in 2016 and joined Sportscasting in 2021. He excels with his versatile coverage of the NFL and soccer landscape, as well as his expertise breaking down sports media, which stems from his many years downloading podcasts before they were even cool and countless hours spent listening to Mike & The Mad Dog and The Dan Patrick Show, among other programs. As a longtime self-professed sports junkie who even played DII lacrosse at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, Tim loves reading about all the latest sports news every day and considers it a dream to write about sports professionally. He's a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan from Western New York who mistakenly thought, back in the early '90s, that his team would be in the Super Bowl every year. He started following European soccer — with a Manchester City focus — in the early 2000s after spending far too much time playing FIFA. When he's not enjoying a round of golf or coaching youth soccer and flag football, Tim likes reading the work of Bill Simmons, Tony Kornheiser, Chuck Klosterman, and Tom Wolfe.
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The Pittsburgh Steelers will play in a new place for the 2022 NFL season. The steel and concrete and seats and turf will be the same, but the name has changed. After 21 seasons playing in Heinz Field, the Steelers will kick off their first season in Acrisure Stadium.
And the team’s fans are not happy about it.
Pittsburgh Steelers fans petition the franchise
Since 2001, the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers (as well as the Pittsburgh Panthers college football team) played their home games in Heinz Field.
Prior to 2001, the Steelers played in Three Rivers Stadium.
Changing from the classic Three Rivers name to the name of a corporate sponsor surely irked some Pittsburgh fans, but the H. J. Heinz Company, founded in 1869, is as synonymous with the Steel City as the three rivers.
In 2022, Acrisure, LLC bought the naming rights to the football venue. This move upset one Steeler fan named Daniel Sass so much that he started a petition to stop the move on change.org. On the petition, Sass wrote:
Heinz Field is the only sponsored stadium that the team has ever played in. Previously playing at Three Rivers Stadium, Pitt Stadium, and before that, Forbes Field.
But now the Heinz Field sponsorship is no more. It’s new name was just announced and it is HORRIBLE!!!!
“Acrisure Field”
ANYTHING would have been better than that.
An out-of-state sponsor comes in and inflicts this name change on us that isn’t even easy to pronounce.
PLEASE CHANGE THE NAME (“Three Rivers Stadium” would work)
Petition to stop Heinz Field name change
As of 4 p.m. EST Saturday, July 16, 2022, the petition has around 5,300 signatures, about 2/3 of the way to its initial 7,500 signature goal.
Steelers stadium history
From 1970 to 2000, the Pittsburgh Steelers (along with MLB’s Pittsburgh Pirates) played at Three Rivers Stadium. The multipurpose venue derived its name from its location on the banks of the point where the city’s three rivers — the Allegheny, the Monongahela, and the Ohio River — converge.
That stadium was home to four Super Bowl champion Steelers squads and two World Series-winning Pirates teams. It was also home to the first-ever World Series night game, the famous (infamous?) Immaculate Reception, and the 2011 NHL Winter Classic.
In 2001, the city imploded Three Rivers. The Pirates moved to PNC Park, just east of the old stadium, and the Steelers moved to Heinz Field, just west of their old home.
According to its website, the stadium’s new sponsor Acrisure is “A global fintech leader, Acrisure provides customers with intelligence-driven financial services solutions for insurance, reinsurance, real estate services, cyber services, and asset and wealth management.”
And unlike Heinz, a company with its headquarters in downtown Pittsburgh, Acrisure’s home is in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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