Steelers Now
The Pittsburgh Steelers’ trip to Ireland for their Week 4 game against the Minnesota Vikings will be the first regular-season game held in the country, but Steelers president Art Rooney II doesn’t expect it to be the last, and he hopes this will only be the first of many visits from the Black and Gold to the Emerald Isle.
Speaking during the team’s practice at at Carton House in County Kildare on Friday, Rooney said that the Steelers wanted to be the first team to play a regular-season game in Ireland.
“It’s an exciting time for us to be here in Ireland and a trip we were hoping to make for many years now,” he said. “So, it finally happened. I was pinching myself earlier in the week thinking we finally did this. So, we’re excited to be here and looking forward to Sunday. … I would have been upset if we weren’t the first ones to play in Ireland. Let’s put it that way. So, the commissioner cooperated with us and so that’s what makes it very exciting.”
The Steelers were already the first NFL team to play a preseason game in Ireland, facing the Chicago Bears at Croke Park in 1997. Now, they’ll head back to that same venue for a regular season game — and it may not be the last.
“I think there’ll be more games in Dublin, for sure,” Rooney said. “The ticket demand has been unbelievable. So I think we convinced the league this was a good idea, based on that.”
There have been fairly regular college football games played in Ireland, with games at Croke park in 1996 and 2014, Gaelic Grounds in 1991 and Lansdowne Road and its replacement, Aviva Stadium, in 1988, 1989, 2012, 2016 and every year since. Those games have been largely well attended, with over 53,000 seeing Penn State beat UCF in 2014.
But outside of three visits from Notre Dame and the Fighting Irish’s natural connection to Ireland, most of the rest of those contests have been random one-offs. This year, Kansas State played Iowa State.
With the connection between the Rooney family and Ireland, and their international marketing rights, the Steelers have a chance to not just play in Ireland, but actually establish a fanbase there, as well.
Dublin has been overrun by Steelers fans this week, but most of them are transplanted or traveling Pittsburghers.
“It is amazing, although it happens everywhere we go,” Rooney said. “I shouldn’t be amazed at Steelers fans, that’s for sure.”
The real goal of playing in Dublin is to establish a native Steelers fanbase in Ireland, and that will probably take more than one trip.
“I think there will be more games in Dublin,” Rooney said. “Hopefully we’ll be in one of them.”
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Steelers Hope For More Ireland Games in Future
