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For those too young to remember Three Rivers Stadium, Heinz Field represents the only home the Pittsburgh Steelers have ever known.
The stadium, which was built in 2001, isn’t going anywhere. But the Heinz name is. Pittsburgh radio host Andrew Fillipponi broke the news of the change late Sunday night.
Breaking: Heinz Field is no more. The ketchup giant will not extend its naming rights deal for 2022. Sources say a new name for the stadium could be announced this week.
— Andrew Fillipponi (@ThePoniExpress) July 11, 2022
Heinz has been the only sponsor of the stadium in its 21-year history and the company is Pittsburgh-based. Despite the great ketchup shortage of 2021, Steelers fans seemed to love the partnership.
Now all that is changing. Fillipponi again had the scoop on Sunday morning when he reported that the stadium will now be called Acrisure Stadium.
Breaking: The ketchup bottles are coming down. Heinz Field will be renamed Acrisure Stadium. After the Michigan-based insurance brokerage firm. An official announcement could come as soon as Tuesday.
— Andrew Fillipponi (@ThePoniExpress) July 11, 2022
What exactly is Acrisure? Good question!
The company’s website says the following:
“A global fintech leader, Acrisure provides customers with intelligence-driven financial services solutions for insurance, reinsurance, real estate services, cyber services and asset and wealth management.”
Got it? Me neither!
A similar move happened just last year when the Los Angeles Lakers renamed Staples Center to Crypto.com Arena. Fans, of course, continued to call the building Staples Center. Acrisure can be, erm, Acri-sure that it will have to deal with some of the same issues as fans adjust to the new name,
Early returns aren’t overly encouraging for the Michigan-based insurance company.
https://twitter.com/oaklandzoo22/status/1546475061544194054?s=20&t=N7XxZKH_xV2UoO7M-zPGKg
Just rename it Three Rivers Stadium at Acrisure Field? Then we won’t have to go through the renaming process every 10 to 20 years. 🙂
— Kyle Younger (@KyleYounger) July 11, 2022
https://twitter.com/Buffalogal/status/1546489444282368000?s=20&t=N7XxZKH_xV2UoO7M-zPGKg
There’s no word yet on if the Steelers will be removing the iconic giant ketchup bottles from the stadium formerly known as Heinz Field. If they do however, I’m just a phone call away.
As for the new deal, whatever Acrisure is paying to still have the stadium called Heinz or Three Rivers is probably far too much.