Heinz Field
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Heinz Field is a football stadium located just across the Ohio River from downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the home stadium facility of the Pittsburgh Steelers NFL franchise and the University of Pittsburgh Panthers college football team. The stadium sits on approximately 12.4 acres (50,000 m²) of land and has a capacity of 65,050. It was built with a mixture of private and public funds to replace Three Rivers Stadium. Three Rivers was also the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team; they moved into PNC Park when Three Rivers was demolished. One purpose of building the new facilities was to provide each team with a dedicated building rather than a single shared-use stadium. Heinz Field and PNC Park were built opposite each other across the Three Rivers site, which is now a parking lot serving both stadiums.
Heinz Field is primarily a football facility, though it has also hosted soccer games and concerts—in fact the first event at the venue was a concert by pop band N Sync shortly after the stadium opened in August 2001. The Steelers debuted there during the 2001-2002 NFL season. The stadium is a bowl design with an open end facing south. The open end allows views of the Pittsburgh skyline across the Ohio River.
The stadium's naming rights were acquired by the H. J. Heinz Company, and thus it is affectionately called "The Big Ketchup Bottle" by ESPN announcer Chris Berman and "The Mustard Palace" (a nod to its yellow seats) by many Pittsburgh-area sportscasters.[[Citing sources citation needed]] The rights were acquired for $57 million, partially in a nod to the "57 varieties" claimed on its ketchup bottles. The main scoreboard at the south end of the stadium is flanked by neon red Heinz ketchup bottles, which rotate and appear to pour out ketchup when the Steelers enter the red zone during games.
Unlike Three Rivers, the playing surface at Heinz Field is natural grass. The field features underground heating to help the grass survive Pittsburgh's winter climate. As a result, the field is known for its difficult kicking surface; no kicker has made a field goal of more than 49 yards since the stadium opened. The longest field goal in the history of the stadium is 49 yards, and was kicked numerous times. Matt Stover of the Baltimore Ravens kicked the "official" longest field goal at Heinz, as his 49-yarder kicked on Monday Night Football on Halloween Night, 2005, was a mere fraction of a yard shy of 50 yards distance.
Heinz Field has hosted the AFC Championship Game twice, on January 27, 2002 and January 23, 2005, with the Steelers losing to the New England Patriots in each game.
External links
- [Steelers Fever - Heinz Field]
- [Official Heinz Field website]
- [Pittsburgh Steelers NFL website]
- [Heinz Field fact sheet]
- [Aerial Views of Heinz Field, StadiumFind.com]
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