Steelers make good call
Teams should continue to take responsibility
The casual observer could be forgiven for believing that, in recent years, the Allegheny Regional Asset District funds had become a de facto piggy bank for the city-county Sports & Exhibition Authority and, by extension, Pittsburgh’s sports teams. The franchises seemed to have gotten what they wanted, when they wanted it and without much exception.
That’s what makes it so refreshing to see the Steelers announce it would be building an expansion of the FedEx Great Hall at Heinz Field, a project that will cost as much as $25 million, paid for entirely by the team.
Just two years ago, the Steelers wanted someone else to pay; The team wanted this project (and others) to be financed by a Heinz Field capital reserve fund managed by the SEA.
But when the SEA, which owns Heinz Field, questioned its obligation to pay for the proposed improvements under the terms of the Steelers’ lease, the team’s ownership got testy. Steelers President Art Rooney II said the franchise did not have a “functioning relationship” with the SEA, and claimed the group’s unwillingness to pony up the $25 million for the Great Hall expansion could threaten the venue’s chances for hosting premier events like the Super Bowl.
Fits of pique have been fairly typical when one of the city’s sports teams feels it has not gotten a fair shake. Last year, the Steelers, Pirates and Penguins, frustrated by their perceived (wrongly) lack of appreciation from a city that has gifted them millions of dollars and paid for significant portions of their stadiums, commissioned an economic impact review to prove that they do indeed benefit the city’s economy.
But that shtick didn’t and shouldn’t fool anyone. The teams have been poor civic neighbors, blissfully ignorant or willfully blind to the fact that their routine raiding of RAD funds deprives other, less profitable entities like libraries and parks of money they need.
So it is promising to see the Steelers drop its “woe is us” attitude by paying for the improvements it wanted for Heinz Field without shaking down RAD and, in turn, the taxpayers. Perhaps the team’s actions will serve as an example for the Pirates and the Penguins, too.