Steelers Now
This past Tuesday marked the 25-year anniversary of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ final game at Three Rivers Stadium, a 24-3 win over the Washington Redskins.
A lot has changed on the North Shore since then. Along with Heinz Field/Acrisure Stadium and PNC Park opening in 2001, the area has seen significant ongoing development.
To say the least, the North Shore has come a long way from what it used to be.
“The North Shore was basically a junkyard on both sides of the bridge. When you got over there, it was like old tanks and jeeps from World War II laying around in a junkyard,” Steelers owner Art Rooney II recently told Jenna Harner of WPXI.
Local leaders broke ground on a $740 million North Shore esplanade project on Dec. 1. It plans to bring housing, entertainment space and a Ferris wheel to an empty 15-acre lot.
In addition to the stadiums, the North Shore also holds Stage AE, several restaurants, bars and businesses.
Rooney is thrilled to see the growth on the North Shore.
“There’s really hardly a day in the year that goes by that there’s not some event taking place at one of the stadiums or Stage AE, and it’s been great to see,” Rooney said.
The Rooney family has been associated with Pittsburgh’s North Side since 1902, when Daniel Rooney (Steelers founder Art Rooney Sr.’s father) opened a saloon there. That’s why the location of Three Rives Stadium meant so much to the family. For decades, it was a Rooney family tradition to walk from their home to the stadium on game days.
“We had such a great run there and so many great memories there. I always remember walking out the door for the last time,” Rooney said of the Steelers winning four Super Bowls in the 1970s while playing at Three Rivers Stadium.
“Seeing Three Rivers being built, just the North Shore changing and becoming a place where the community visited often, it was a dramatic change, and now to see everything that’s happened since Heinz Field and PNC Park went in, they’ve been true catalysts for ongoing development.”
Some of the tailgate traditions in the North Shore parking lots have gone on for decades.
“Of course, our fans love to tailgate and to show up very early for their tailgates,” Rooney said. “That’s really become one of the hallmarks of the North Shore now are the tailgates. There’s some tailgate parties that have been going on when we opened the stadium that are still going on.”
An in-depth look at the evolution of the North Shore from the days of Three Rivers Stadium to today and beyond will air on Sunday at 8:30 a.m. on WPXI.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Art Rooney II Reminisces on North Shore Revival
