Steelers’ Shared Stadium With Pitt Comes Under Fire for Bad Turf

As concerns grow about the subpar field conditions at Acrisure Stadium, home of the Steelers and Pitt football, the situation is likely to remain in the national spotlight through the end of the college football season.

The Steelers are one of three NFL teams that play on a natural grass surface and currently share their home stadium with a full-time college tenant (alongside the Buccaneers/South Florida and the Dolphins/Miami). 

The Eagles share Lincoln Financial Field, which has a hybrid natural grass/artificial turf playing surface, with Temple. The Raiders play on a retractable natural grass surface at Allegiant Stadium, which uses artificial turf for UNLV games.

Pittsburgh Problems

After players on both the Steelers and Browns complained publicly about poor field conditions following Sunday’s game in Pittsburgh, a new playing surface is in the process of being installed at Acrisure Stadium. NFL Players Association sources confirmed to Front Office Sports that players from both teams “expressed outrage” to the union almost immediately after the game. That concern has been conveyed to the NFL, according to sources.

There’s a break in the action at the venue this weekend, as the Steelers play at the Bengals on Thursday night, and Pitt plays at Syracuse on Saturday. But then Pitt hosts NC State on Oct. 25, one day before the Steelers host the Packers on Sunday Night Football. If the new field has problems withstanding those back-to-back games, the issue will be on showcase for a national primetime audience on NBC on Oct. 26.

There will be two more instances of back-to-back Pitt and Steelers home games at Acrisure Stadium next month, too, on the weekends of Nov. 15–16 and Nov. 29–30.

Moving Time? 

Retired Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said earlier this week that he doesn’t think Pitt should be sharing a stadium with the NFL franchise. “You can’t have a professional football team—not just the Steelers, but the opponents—play on a surface like that,” he said on his podcast, Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger.

Roethlisberger suggested Pitt build a smaller football stadium in a different part of the city, closer to the school’s campus.