Venue Detail
Pittsburgh Steelers
Revenues From Sports Venues Pro Facilities Report
February, 2011
Pittsburgh Steelers
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100 Art Rooney Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15212 Phone: 412-432-7800 Fax: 412-432-7878 URL: www.steelers.com
Owner
Rooney family
League
National Football League AFC North
Venue
Heinz Field, 100 Art Rooney Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15212 Owner: City of Pittsburgh Built: 2001 Capacity: 65,050 Permanent concession stands: 32 Concessionaire: Aramark Suite caterer: Aramark
Building sponsors
Entries: Yes
Naming rights
Sold to: H.J. Heinz Price: $57, 000,000 Term: 20 years Expires: 2021
Ticket prices
Season tickets range from $500 to $580 Single tickets range from $50.00 to $58.00
Attendance
2007 average attendance: 62,084 2008 average attendance: 62,890 2009 average attendance: 63,485
Luxury Suites
Quantity: 129 Term: 6 to 10 years Price: $46,000 to $125,000 Seats: 6 to 12 Includes: Tickets to Steelers and University of Pittsburgh games.
Club seats
Quantity: 6,600 Price: $1,530 to $2,006 Includes: Annual PSL required.
Financing
The Steelers' $250 million stadium included $76.5 million from the team. That money came from a ticket surcharge and limited PSL sales. The rest of the money came from state and local sources. No new taxes were required. The team was responsible for cost overruns. Pct. public: 70
Seat licenses
The Pittsburgh Steelers planned to sell seat licenses for a little more than half of the 65,000 seats in their new stadium at prices ranging from $250 to $2,700, but demand was so high, the number increased to 48,000 seats.
Fans can pay for their licenses in three no-interest payments. Season ticket holders got first chance to buy PSLs. Season tickets are extra. The 6,600 club seats sold for $1,450 to $1,950 a year. Club PSLs cost $1,200.
The team hopes the sale will earn $34 million in payments and $3 million in interest. The PSLs will actually belong to the auditorium authority so the team can avoid taxes on the income. If the team did not sell $34 million in licenses by Jan. 31, 1999, the stadium plan became void.
The campaign's speed surpassed the goal in St. Louis where the Rams had seven months to sell PSLs for the TWA Dome.
The state created a financing plan to build new venues for the Steelers and the Pirates. The deal raises the state's debt ceiling by $650 million, funneling $320 million to the stadium projects and the rest to other construction. Of the $320 million, $150 million is earmarked for Pittsburgh and the rest goes to Philadelphia.
The money was not given as a grant. The state made an interest-free loan to each team for up to a third of the cost of a new stadium with the loan to be repaid from new taxes generated by the venue. If the new tax money does not equal at least $2.5 million annually in each of the 30 years of the loan's term, the team must make up the difference. Reconciliation of the monies paid and the amount owed would be done every 10 years. Tax revenue that would apply to the loan would come from concession and ticket sales, player salary taxes and corporate taxes. Teams could deduct surplus money from rent payments and if taxes collected exceed payments, the teams pay nothing. Taxes paid on construction costs before the stadiums opened will also be credited toward the loan repayment.
An additional concession was made to the teams: once the base tax is determined, it will be reduced by 25 percent for the first 10-year period. The base tax is the amount now collected and the number that will be used to compare against new taxes collected. The measurement makes it more likely that taxes will cover the loan costs in the first 10 years with inflation helping the teams in later years.
The legislation also contains a provision that binds any buyer of the teams to the deal.
The Steelers are to pay $250,000 a year in lease payments. The payments will count toward their construction contributions.
In 2006, the Steelers added 700 new seats to Heinz Field. The seats are in the venue’s club section.
In addition to the seats, a new club section will include 20,000 square feet of enclosed space for ticket holders to use to escape the elements. The project, estimated at $4 million, will increase Heinz Field capacity to 65,050. (Facilities, Financial, Football, NFL, Professional Sports)