A massive crowd will fill the area between Acrisure Stadium and PNC Park this week to watch the 32 NFL teams race against the clock to draft players.
After the draft leaves town, it may be the stadiums and their home teams that are on the clock: 30-year leases for the Pirates and Steelers are set to expire in 2030 and 2031, respectively, and talks are underway that could result in new long-term agreements, community benefits and major funding for stadium improvements.
If Pittsburgh’s history and those of other major league cities are any indication, forging new agreements may not be simple.
“There’s no doubt that the teams are looking for a lump sum to improve their stadiums,” said state Sen. Wayne Fontana, D-Brookline, who chairs the board of the Sports and Exhibition Authority [SEA], which owns the stadiums.
Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato and Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor have both said recently they are in talks about the stadiums and the impending lease negotiations.
“They are both in need of some upgrades,” O’Connor said in an interview this month. “We understand that.”
O’Connor told Pittsburgh’s Public Source that there should be “some discussion” about the idea of public funding for stadium improvements. “We do generate tax revenue from those buildings … Something like that would be beneficial to everybody.”
A spokesperson for Innamorato declined to answer questions. Innamorato said on a City Cast Pittsburgh podcast in February that she is in “constant conversation and negotiation” around stadium upgrade funding.
The Pirates did not respond to questions about this story. The Steelers issued a brief statement from team affiliate PSSI Stadium, which manages Acrisure.
“We are always talking with our public partners as we look to maintain and improve the facility, and we will continue to do so,” the statement said. “These facilities require constant care and attention to continue to remain competitive with other NFL venues and to continue to attract sporting events, concerts and other major events that have a significant economic impact on the region.”
Fontana said the elected leaders and teams will have to hammer out new lease terms that could differ from the ones signed 25 years ago.
Stadium costs ballooning
- $263 million — cost of Heinz Field, now Acrisure, in late 1990s
- $274 million — cost of PNC Park in late 1990s
- $470 million — estimated cost of planned renovations to the NFL Cincinnati Bengals’ stadium
- $1.2 billion — cost of Major League Baseball’s newest stadium in Arlington, Texas
- $2.1 billion — low-end estimate of cost of new stadium for NFL’s Buffalo Bills
- $5.5 billion — cost of the NFL’s newest stadium, in Los Angeles
Sources: SEA, press reports
Specifically, the current lease requires the SEA to fund some stadium upkeep projects through a fund backed by ticket surcharges. With more expensive stadium technology and general construction price increases, Fontana said that model is near a breaking point.
“How do you ensure there’s enough money … if you’re going to have a lease that requires the SEA to do certain maintenance obligations?” Fontana said. “That’s a question you have to answer before you even negotiate.”
A lump sum for significant stadium upgrades could easily run into the hundreds of millions for each stadium, if other cities are any indication. That money would largely have to come from the state, Fontana said.
The state was the largest single contributor to the construction of Acrisure, PNC and the David L. Lawrence Convention Center which totaled $1.1 billion back in the late 1990s. It provided a third of the funding, with the rest supplied by bonds sold against county sales and hotel tax revenue, a small amount of federal dollars and some money from the Pirates ($61 million) and Steelers ($70 million) themselves.
Stadiums have gotten more expensive since then, far outpacing inflation. The two North Shore facilities were built for a bit more than $250 million apiece. The newest Major League Baseball stadium, in Arlington, Texas, cost $1.2 billion and the newest NFL stadium in Los Angeles cost more than $5 billion. Renovations would cost far less than building from scratch, but the numbers could still make elected officials squirm, with a city and county strapped for cash already and a state legislature that has struggled with passing budgets lately.
Fontana said he doesn’t know how much political appetite exists to divert large sums of taxpayer money to benefit privately owned sports teams, but added that the Steelers and Pirates can point to other states and cities that have done just that.
Ohio set aside $600 million for a new Cleveland Browns stadium last year, and Hamilton County (also in Ohio) agreed to give the Cincinnati Bengals $350 million for stadium renovations. New York State and its Erie County combined to contribute $850 million to the new Buffalo Bills stadium.
“If they had the [political] appetite in Cleveland or Cincinnati or Las Vegas or wherever, then the question is why don’t we have the appetite, because of the economic impact that a team has,” Fontana said.
Charlie Wolfson is the local government reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.
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