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Pittsburgh Steelers’ Heinz Field Reportedly Set to Be Renamed ‘Acrisure Stadium’ with New Naming Rights Deal

After 21 seasons, the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers will no longer be named Heinz Field. According to 93.7 The Fan host Andrew Fillipponi, it will be called Acrisure Stadium going forward. Yuck.

For those unaware (probably every NFL fan out there), Acrisure is an insurance broker based out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. They manage funds that come from oil reserves and just accepted nine figures in funding from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

https://twitter.com/acpregler/status/1546476244400848896

Over the past eight years, Acrisure has grown its revenue from $38 million to $3.5 billion. According to Insurance Journal, the company’s value is $23 billion.

A Brief History of Heinz Field

Heinz Field consistently finds itself in the middle of NFL stadium rankings. For 21 years, the 68,400-capacity venue has been known for its rowdy Steelers crowds in a huge sea of mustard-yellow seats. When the stadium first opened in 2001, Heinz purchased the naming rights in a 20-year, $57 million deal. The 57 is significant because Heinz has 57 different products.

The deal did expire after the 2020 campaign, but Pittsburgh owner Art Rooney II and Heinz signed a one-season extension. In February 2022, Rooney spoke with local WPXI TV reporter Jenna Harner and said he was “optimistic” Heinz would re-up.

As a lifelong Steelers fan, this is disappointing news. Heinz is a born-and-bred Pittsburgh company, and its name attached to the city’s most important sports entity just made so much sense. I will miss the ketchup bottles “pouring” red all over the scoreboard when the home team enters the “Heinz Red Zone.”

But that is just the way sports goes sometimes. Ultimately, money talks and bulls— walks. Considering Heinz was paying “only” $3 million or so per year in a deal brokered 21 years ago, the Steelers could certainly do better nowadays.

It is possible that Heinz was not interested in signing a new deal. I mean, that would be a completely understandable thing for any company not to spend millions of dollars on. But for Acrisure – a company no one has heard of and quite frankly is even hard to say – to take over, though, sucks.