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Since the Pittsburgh Steelers opened their new stadium in 2001, it’s been named Heinz Field, after the Pittsburgh-based condiments conglomerate
KHC,
But the field’s two giant 35-foot ketchup bottles will soon be coming down.
That’s because the NFL team has reportedly decided to change the name of its football venue from Heinz Field to Acrisure Stadium. The stadium naming rights deal with Heinz has expired, according to a report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
According to its website, Acrisure is a “global fintech leader” that “provides customers with intelligence-driven financial services solutions for insurance, reinsurance, real estate services, cyber services and asset and wealth management.”
Acrisure does have a connection to the Steelers franchise. According to the Post-Gazette report, Acrisure purchased AI company Tulco LLC a few years ago, which is run by Thomas Tull, a minority owner of the Steelers.
It hasn’t yet been reported how much money Acrisure will pay for the naming rights, but according to ProFootballTalk, Heinz paid $57 million in total for the now-expired 20-year stadium naming rights deal with the Steelers.
The new naming rights deal comes after several new naming rights agreements for sports and entertainment venues in the U.S. recently, particularly ones with financial or crypto roots. The Los Angeles Lakers renamed their stadium the Crypto.com Arena as part of a 20-year, $700 million deal. That is the largest-ever sports naming rights deal in the world. And the NBA’s Miami Heat renamed their stadium FTX Arena in a 19-year deal worth $135 million.
Representatives for the the Steelers, Kraft Heinz and Acrisure did not immediately respond to MarketWatch’s request for comment on this story.
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One of the most famous aspects of Heinz Field among fans was the giant ketchup bottles above the jumbotron. The two huge ketchup bottles measuring 35-feet long, 9-feet wide, and 6-feet deep and weighing several tons sit atop the scoreboard, and they pour out (digital) ketchup whenever the home team is in the red zone.
