Pittsburgh Steelers Heinz Field. (Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports)
The Pittsburgh Steelers may not play in Heinz Field anymore after a name change was announced but fans aren’t giving up the name easily.
It’s the end of an era in Pittsburgh for more than one reason. At the same time the Steelers are adjusting to life without Ben Roethlisberger, they’ll have to get used to another huge change: The name of Heinz Field.
On Sunday night, Andrew Fillipponi reported that Heinz will not renew its naming rights for the stadium in 2022.
That means within the week, Heinz Field could have a new name.
Steelers fans don’t plan to call Heinz Field by its new name
On Twitter, some fans jokingly and half-jokingly suggested names for the stadium in the post-Heinz world.
Others flat out laughed at the idea of calling it anything else.
Why isn’t Heinz renewing the naming deal? The money is probably going to be too big.
According to Pro Football Talk, Heinz paid $57 million for its original 20-year deal, which they extended by one year for 2021. By comparison, SoFi is paying $400 million for their current 20-year naming rights deal in Los Angeles.
Whoever gets the new naming rights deal in Pittsburgh is going to have to shell out a whole lot of money for it. Knowing that fans are pretty set on the whole Heinz thing is a definite downside. Then again, this is the way of the modern sports world. Names for stadiums come and go.