{"id":235789,"date":"2026-07-05T02:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T02:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/235789\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T02:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T02:24:10","slug":"beat-writer-explains-why-steelers-wont-leave-pittsburgh-or-build-a-future-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/235789\/","title":{"rendered":"Beat Writer Explains Why Steelers Won’t Leave Pittsburgh Or Build A Future Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sooner than you think, Art Rooney II must decide the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 future stadium plans. The most likely outcome is the team simply renewing its lease and remaining at Acrisure Stadium, but the looming decision<\/a> makes for a new and interesting talking point.<\/p>\n

PPG beat writer Ray Fittipaldo weighed in on the future of where the team will play.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m old enough to remember when the Rooney threatened to move the Washington, PA to build a stadium,\u201d Fittipaldo told 93.7 The Fan\u2019s Austin Bechtold Friday.<\/a> \u201cWe all know that didn\u2019t happen. The Cranberry notion is nice. It might actually even be leveraged for them at some point, but they are not moving outta the city. That\u2019s the one thing I\u2019ve learned about being a beat writer for this team for more than 15 years now. The Steelers are gonna remain in Allegheny County and the city of Pittsburgh.\u201d<\/p>\n

For all its history, Pittsburgh has played its games in the county. First, at Forbes Field. Then for a brief time, the Steelers shared a stadium with Pitt until Three Rivers Stadium was built in 1970.<\/p>\n

The Steelers moved into their current venue in 2001, then known as Heinz Field, and figure to remain there for at least the next 15 years.<\/p>\n

Information about Rooney\u2019s threat to move the team to Washington, PA is hard to come by. It\u2019s referenced in some Reddit corners of the Internet<\/a> before the team settled on staying in Pittsburgh to build Heinz Field. He also referenced Cranberry in following the Pittsburgh Penguins moving its practice facility there. Perhaps Pittsburgh\u2019s own future facility, one much more likely to be built before a full stadium, could travel north, but that matters far less to fans than where the games are played.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear Rooney has no desire to leave the city. Nor build a palace like some recent creations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been to 90 percent of the stadiums in the NFL,\u201d Fittipaldo said. \u201cBelieve me, the Steelers, the Browns, the Bengals, the Ravens, they\u2019re all the same. The only ones who are building these multi-billion dollar stadiums are the ones that wanna attract Super Bowls. SoFi Stadium, it\u2019s awesome. But the Steelers are never gonna build a place like that because they\u2019re not gonna host the Super Bowl. Las Vegas is awesome, but the Steelers aren\u2019t gonna build a facility like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike the Cleveland Browns, Rooney\u2019s on-record saying he doesn\u2019t plan to include a dome<\/a> in any future stadium builds. That alone likely removes Pittsburgh from the possibility of ever hosting a Super Bowl. The guarantee of cold and chance of snow makes it a non-starter for the NFL that wants a lively and bustling week-long event.<\/p>\n

Other obstacles exist, too. Pittsburgh doesn\u2019t have enough hotel rooms to qualify to host such a big event. Instead, the Steelers will aim to again host the draft after 2026\u2019s massive success that set an NFL record.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The only factor that could change is if Art Rooney II isn\u2019t the one making the decision. Should he give up principle ownership of the team and pass it down to someone like Daniel Martin Rooney, the philosophy could change.<\/p>\n

The prospect of a new stadium is interesting. At some point, even if it\u2019s 20 years from now, the Steelers will play elsewhere. That conversation isn\u2019t likely to happen for awhile and Pittsburgh\u2019s upcoming stadium decision will almost certainly be staying put with renovations instead of wholesale changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sooner than you think, Art Rooney II must decide the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 future stadium plans. The most likely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[27473,43214,73,75,74,1833,42811],"class_list":["post-235789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-93-7-the-fan","tag-art-rooney-ii","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-ray-fittipaldo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}