Pirates Announce Replacement Plan for Bucco Bricks

Pirates president Travis Williams presented the plan to the Pittsburgh Sports Exhibition Authority (SEA), with renowned architect and urban planner Janet Marie-Smith and her colleagues at Canopy Team working with the Pirates on the new plan.

The SEA approved this plan and the City of Pittsburgh's Arts Commission will review it later in July.

This new plan features 60 bronze plaques on the facade of PNC Park along West General Robinson Street and Mazeroski Way. Each bronze plaque measures five feet in height by six feet in length, including nearly 170 messages on each.

The messages on the new plaques is the same as the original Bucco Bricks, using the same rectangular and square format and font size, keeping the same original messages as well.

The Pirates also announced that fans will be able to locate their messages the same way they did with the Bucco Bricks and that they plan on having the installation finalized by Opening Day 2026.

"We know how important these messages and memories are to our fans," Williams said in the press release. "This plan accomplishes the stated goal of improving upon the permanence of the display while maintaining the essence of the original program. We believe we have developed a solution for these messages that will stand the test of time, and the passion and dedication of our fans will remain a permanent fixture of PNC Park."

The Pirates see this change as one which will keep the plaques up for much longer, as they won't be on the ground and deteriorate over years, requiring replacing and also potentially becoming a hazard for people walking over them.

They also mentioned that fans will have an easier time finding their messages compared to before and that the wear and tear made it more difficult for fans locating their Bucco Bricks.

The Pirates started the "Bucco Bricks" program in 1999, which allowed fans of the team the opportunity to buy personalized bricks that would go on the main terrace of PNC Park, which they built in 2001 in place of Three Rivers Stadium.

Fans bought approximately 10,000 bricks, many of which they used to honor their family members and friends, as well as themselves.

The bricks sat near the home plate gate where the Honus Wagner statue sits and also near the Willie Stargell Statue near the left field gate. They cost around $75 (4x8 bricks) and $150 (8x8bricks), which costs around $143.97 and $287.93 if purchase in 2025, according to usinflationcalculator.com.

The Pirates announced plans for removing the Bucco Bricks over the 2024-25 winter, due to the deterioration of the commemorative bricks, for the third time.

Pirates fans came to PNC Park on Opening Day on April 4 and were surprised that their bricks were gone and paved over with cement.

Chris Hoffman of KDKA TV News discovered that the bricks ended up in a recycling landfill outside of Pittsburgh for destruction, which infuriated Pirates fans.

Pirates owner Bob Nutting sent out an apology and team president Travis Williams put out a statement for fans that bought a Bucco Brick to get "a complimentary commemorative replica of their brick"

The SEA eventually released a report on May 15 on an investigation of the Bucco Bricks that they found that they provided extensive prior work, making sure they salvaged the bricks, but that the Pirates discarded them on their own accord.