When the news became official Monday that the Steelers' North Shore home was being renamed to Acrisure Stadium, it sent shockwaves through the local fan base.
There's PPG Paints Arena, PNC Park, Highmark Stadium and, of course, the previously-named Heinz Field. They're all locally-based companies with their names and logos plastered on the outside of their respective buildings.
For so many fans, the change to a Michigan-based fintech company seemed sacrilegious somehow.
However, as Art Rooney II and Acrisure CEO Greg Williams introduced Acrisure Stadium in a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Williams revealed a side of him that brings the news a little closer to home.
"This is a bit of a 'pinch me' moment for me," Williams said. "I'm a lifetime Steelers fan where my wife and I have been married for 40 years and in the 70s because we couldn't get tickets in Pittsburgh, we'd go to away games. We've been to Cincinnati. We've been as far away as San Diego to watch games because there was no such thing as StubHub back in those days. All of that to say, the Steelers have been something we've been close to for basically our lifetime."
Williams, when asked about his favorite moment as a fan of the black and gold, was able to easily rattle off the final score and opponent of Super Bowl IX, a 16-6 victory against the Vikings; Pittsburgh's first Super Bowl title.
"I was born in 1961, so you think about the 70s and the age I was at that time," Williams explained. "It was not hard to fall in love with the winning that the Steelers did. But it was also the brand of football -- the toughness, the grit, the good defense. I'm probably one of the rare football fans that likes watching defense more than I like watching offense."
Of course, as with any naming rights deal in today's market, money absolutely played a factor. As did Steelers shareholder Thomas Tull, whose Tulco LLC is a significant minority owner of Acrisure, as Rooney said he was "the catalyst" is getting this deal done.
"We’re certainly pleased with where we are," Rooney said. "All I can say is it brings us into a more competitive range with other stadiums around the country. That really was the goal, to be in a more competitive situation with our peers."
The naming rights deal with the Acrisure is worth $150 million over 15 years, an agreement that more than triples the 20-year, $57-million that was signed with Heinz when the stadium opened in 2001.
The Steelers did explore options with Heinz and "a number" of local companies over the past several years. Negotiations with Heinz spanned the past several months, and Rooney said the Steelers "never closed the door" on any potential deal with a local company.
"We just were looking to try to make the best deal we could make," Rooney said. "We're really pleased that this turned out the way it did. To have somebody like Greg as the CEO of the company and a true Steeler fan, it couldn't have worked out better as far as I'm concerned."
As for Heinz, the long-time partner of Pittsburgh's football franchise, Rooney left the door open for that partnership to stay alive.
"Let me start by saying we appreciate the 20-year long partnership that we've had with Heinz and we are optimistic and hopeful that we'll continue to have a sponsorship relationship with them," Rooney said. "We're having those discussions. Who knows, the ketchup bottles could be part of that. We'll see."
