Pirates to Blame for Steelers Starting Season on Road

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates and Pittsburgh Steelers share an amicable relationship on the city's North Shore, but it does have its issues at times.

The Steelers have opened at Heinz Field/Acrisure Stadium just once the past 11 seasons and will also head on the road this season, facing the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium on Sept. 7.

Much of the reason for this is the Pirates have played a homestand on the weekend after the first Monday of September in all of those seasons, except one in 2023, when Steelers hosted the San Francisco 49ers.

Acrisure Stadium and PNC Park are less than half-a-mile from each other on the North Shore and both teams share parking lots and space there.

Mike North, who looks over how the NFL makes their schedule, acknowledged on 93.7 The Fan that the Pirates playing at PNC Park during Week 1 of the NFL season, forces the Steelers to play on the road, so that there aren't complications between the two teams on game day.

“It’s definitely impacted by the Pirates schedule," North said. "The interesting thing is, let’s say we go two, three years in a row, where the Pirates have a home game on the opening Sunday, and so we can, or we won’t schedule a Steelers home game that weekend and then the next series, you actually have a window. The Pirates are on the road, the series ends on a Thursday or whatever it is and there is this opportunity to get the Steelers home and we don’t do it? Then you might run into another stretch of two, or three or four years where the Pirates are using their building that weekend."

"Constantly aware of it. Certainly no surprises for [general manager] Omar [Khan] and the guys over at the Steelers when the Pirates have the building, when they’re playing a home game, Sunday, Week 1."

North also said that there is a possibility that both teams could do two games on one day, with one game in the afternoon and another at night.

He also spoke on the Pirates potentially hosting a playoff game and how that might impact the Steelers in the future, but that hasn't been a problem in a decade, since the Pirates haven't made the postseason since 2015.

"Could we? I know you guys have done it before," North said. "I’m pretty sure we’ve an afternoon game for one and a evening game for the other and maybe someday when the Pirates get good again and start making playoff runs in October, we’ll have to figure out a way to do a Steelers game at 1 o’clock in the afternoon and maybe the Pirates host an NLCS Game 2 at 8 o’clock that night. I know you guys could do it, but in the regular season, for them and for us, it’s usually something we try to avoid yeah."