Inside The Panthers

Report: Name Change Coming to Pitt Football's Home Heinz Field

The home of the Pitt Panthers is going to change its name before the coming football season.

Stephen Thompson

Report: Name Change Coming to Pitt Football's Home Heinz Field
Report: Name Change Coming to Pitt Football's Home Heinz Field /
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PITTSBURGH -- Heinz has become nearly synonymous with the city of Pittsburgh over the decades. Once the namesake of a simple foodstuffs and packing business founded in western Pennsylvania, it now identifies one of the city's most iconic structures - a 68,400-seat football stadium on the North Shore. But Heinz Feild, home of the Pitt Panthers and Pittsburgh Steelers, is set to be renamed before the coming football season. 

Andrew Filipponi of 93.7 The Fan Tweeted on Sunday night that the Heinz Corporation would not renew its naming rights deal, which expires this year. It leaves the rights open to a likely lucrative bidding war between organizations eager for the publicity that attaching their name to a stadium would garner. 

The business of naming rights for football stadiums has only become more and more lucrative as time goes on and a new round of venues are built. The original naming rights deal for Heinz Field, completed in 2002, was worth $57 million dollars. Compare that to the $400 million that the online bank and personal finance site SoFi paid to slap their name on the newly built SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, California. 

A big payday could be headed the Rooney family's way soon. 

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Stephen Thompson
STEPHEN THOMPSON

Stephen Thompson graduated with a bachelor's degree in communications and political science from Pitt in April 2022 after spending four years as a sports writer and editor at The Pitt News, the University of Pittsburgh's independent, student-run newspaper.  He primarily worked the Pitt men's basketball beat, and filled in on coverage of football, volleyball, softball, gymnastics and lacrosse, in addition to other sports as needed. His work at The Pitt News has won awards from the Pennsylvania News Media Association and Associated College Press.  During the spring and summer of 2021, Stephen interned for Pittsburgh Sports Now, covering baseball in western Pennsylvania. Hailing from Washington D.C., family ties have cultivated a love of Boston's professional teams and Pitt athletics, and a fascination with sports in general.  You can reach Stephen by email at stephenethompson00@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter. Read his latest work:

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