There have been no official announcements as of yet, but things are trending in the right direction for fans to return to Heinz Field at full capacity in 2021.
At least that's the hope for Steelers president Art Rooney II.
In a Steelers Nation Unite phone call with fans Thursday, Rooney said the expectation is that Heinz Field will not only have fans in the seats in 2021 when the team opens its season, but for a full stadium.
"I am kind of optimistic about it," said Rooney. "It's still early, it's only March, so we'll see how things go. I am optimistic we will have fans. Frankly I am optimistic we will have a full stadium by this fall. Hopefully everybody is out there getting the vaccine and is going to be able to get in crowds and things like that again. Hopefully we are going to be back to pretty close to normal by the fall. Let's all say our prayers and keep our fingers crossed. But I am optimistic about it at this point."
The Steelers were limited by Pennsylvania to allow just a handful of fans at their games from October on last season. They finished the season with an average attendance of just 3,969 fans per game, which ranked 15th in the league. There were 13 teams that were not permitted to have fans in attendance at home games in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Steelers also are planning a return to Saint Vincent College for training camp in 2021. The team was not permitted to hold training camp at the college -- where it has been for more than 50 years -- in 2020 because of a league mandate not permitting teams to leave their practice facilities for training camp.
Because of that, the Steelers held training camp last year at Heinz Field.
"That is the plan," Rooney said of a return to Saint Vincent College.
"We are hoping things get back to normal this fall. Obviously training camp happens a little earlier than that. It's something we are planning for now, but we will see how things go. We need this virus to turn the corner. We still want to make sure that fans are safe when they come to Saint Vincent. We may have to look at if we have to limit the number of fans. We'll be looking at all of those issues. Right now our goal and our plan is to have training camp at Saint Vincent this summer."
In other news:
• Rooney said the team is committed to making its running game better in 2021. The Steelers finished dead last in the league in rushing in 2020 at 84.4 yards per game. That was the lowest rushing total the team has posted per game since the 1970 NFL merger.
"We’ve got to be a lot better in running. We don't want to see the Pittsburgh Steelers last in the league in rushing ever again," Rooney said. "We’ll be looking for ways to improve in the draft. It’s something we’ve gotta fix."
• Rooney said the Steelers remain committed to working out a long-term contract extension with linebacker T.J. Watt, even if that doesn't happen this year. Watt is slated to earn $10.089 million this season under the fifth-year option of his rookie contract.
"TJ has another year on his contract," Rooney said. "We look at him as a key player in our future. I can assure you we're going to do everything we can to keep him on the roster."
• Rooney said he has high hopes for 39-year-old Ben Roethlisberger this season after the quarterback returned on a one-year deal that reduced his salary cap hit from $41.25 million to just $25.9 million.
"We wanted Ben back and the key to it was being able to restructure his contract that allowed us to keep Ben and sign other players," Rooney said. "Ben cooperated with that and was willing to make changes in his contract. That allowed us to keep him on the team this year.
"I thought Ben had a very good year last year for somebody coming off arm surgery. I think hopefully he'll have an even better year this year with another year under his belt in terms of recovery from that arm surgery."
Roethlisberger led the Steelers to a 12-4 record last season, but threw four interceptions -- along with four touchdown passes -- in a first-round playoff loss to the Browns.