INSIDE THE NFL
So Long, Three Rivers?
Rooney's hard reality
by Peter King
Posted: Wed September 24, 1997
The Steelers' Dan Rooney is as pragmatic an owner as you'll find
in sports, and that's why he can cut ties with 27-year-old Three
Rivers Stadium. None of the multipurpose stadiums built in the
1970s has had more history made in it than Three Rivers, but
last Friday, when Rooney announced plans for a new $185 million
riverfront home, he said financial factors left him no option.
The Steelers make $5,000 per year on each of the 105 luxury
boxes at Three Rivers; they would make about $75,000 on each of
the 125 boxes in the new place, which Rooney hopes to name after
his dad, Steelers founder Art Rooney. With the Pirates planning
to build their own facility, Three Rivers would be razed.
"I've had a couple of people say to me, 'How can you bear to
have Three Rivers come down?'" Rooney says. "It's a good
question. I'm tremendously nostalgic about the place. Roberto
Clemente's 3,000th hit came here. So did the most famous play in
football history, the Immaculate Reception. We've won four Super
Bowls since we started playing here. The Pirates have won two
World Series. It's had a lot of magic. But if we renovate, it'll
cost $120 million, and the architects say in 10 years we'll need
more renovations or a new stadium."
Rooney's plan is contingent on approval of a half-percent
sales-tax increase, and the Steelers will face huge opposition
when the measure is put before the voters in November. Hours
after the proposal was floated, it was denounced at a rally
across the Allegheny River in downtown Pittsburgh. "I won't
tolerate the rape of taxpayers' wallets," state representative
David Levdansky said. That cry has been heard in a lot of NFL
cities. The league, however, is on a seven-referendum winning
streak, with San Francisco and Seattle being the latest
franchises to win votes to build stadiums.
Issue date: September 29, 1997
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