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Steelers chief to be in Baltimore for opener Not envious of the Ravens, Rooney says Thursday, September 03, 1998 By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Sunday afternoon in Baltimore, Steelers President Dan Rooney will watch his team play in a sold-out, state-of-the-art football stadium -- the kind he hopes will be ready in Pittsburgh three years from now.
Sunday's will be the first regular-season National Football League game in the new $220 million Ravens Stadium.
"We're planning a full weekend celebration, all day Friday, all day Saturday and Saturday evening, and all day Sunday," Ravens spokeswoman Stefani Paul said yesterday.
But Rooney said he wasn't not envious of Baltimore and the other teams in the Central Division of the American Football Conference, who have already moved into new sports palaces or will in the next two years.
"I'm happy for the other teams," he said yesterday. "We're rooting for their (stadium) construction. We're just not rooting for how they play on the field."
Plans are moving ahead for the new Steelers stadium, he said. By the end of September, he expects to pick the lead architectural firm that will design the new facility. In the past week, he has interviewed five national firms for the job, including HOK of Kansas City, generally considered the leader in stadium design.
HOK even designed a stadium in Dublin, Ireland, where the Steelers played a preseason game in 1997. But as to his choice for the new stadium designer, Rooney said, "It might be HOK or it might not."
Because of the specialized nature of this sports architectural work, none of the firms under consideration is from Pittsburgh, but Rooney said he expected some local firm eventually to get a piece of the stadium project.
"I'm very pleased with the way the (stadium) development has taken place in Pittsburgh," he said. "I look on it as positive. We are getting support from political officials and the business community. I'm not envious at all of other cities."
All of the other teams in the Steelers' division -- the Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Oilers, Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens, and next year, Cleveland Browns -- either have new stadiums or will have them before the proposed new Steelers playing field opens in August 2001.
Rooney said he'd be in Baltimore early Sunday -- before the game with the Ravens -- and would tour the new stadium with its designer, HOK.
"I don't know a whole lot about it," he said. "I understand they have the biggest scoreboards ever."
Ravens owner Art Modell provided $25 million toward the cost of his new stadium, which has 69,354 seats, including 7,900 club seats (plusher than regular seats, and with waiter service) plus 108 luxury suites for corporations.
Modell's private contribution is less than a third of the $76.5 million Rooney has agreed to provide for his new 65,000-seat facility. The rest of the money for the Ravens stadium came from the Maryland taxpayers, the Ravens' Paul said.
She said the stadium's name was expected to change in a few weeks or months after Modell sells the naming rights for an estimated $3 million or more per year.
The Jacksonville Jaguars have played in their new facility -- the former Gator Bowl, now called ALLTEL Stadium -- for the last three years. Stadiums in Cleveland and Nashville, Tenn., are under construction and are to open in August.
Cincinnati's new $280 million facility, to be called Paul Brown Stadium (after the team founder), is also under construction and due to open on the banks of the Ohio River in August 2000, said team spokesman Jack Brennan.
As for the Steelers, while signs look largely positive for construction of their new stadium, there are still some major hurdles to clear before it becomes a reality.
The Steelers still must reach an agreement with the Carnegie Science Center on the exact North Shore location for the football stadium. Then, land acquisition and site preparation must be completed by spring. Science center officials don't want the new football stadium to block their plans for expansion along the North Shore.
Rooney said he needed to get that dispute settled quickly because the stadium couldn't be designed until the exact site was known.
The Regional Asset District has agreed to provide county sales tax funds as the local share of the stadium funding, but the Steelers are still waiting for Gov. Ridge and the state Legislature to figure out where the state's $75 million share of the cost will come from.
Ridge still wants to sell the state liquor stores as the way to provide the state's share, but the Legislature seems unwilling to go along with that idea.
The state's capital fund may be tapped for the stadium funds, but that also requires approval by the Legislature. Given the unpopularity among many state residents of giving public funds for stadiums, the Legislature isn't expected to act before the November election, and may not act until spring.
The Rooneys are hoping the new stadium will be under construction by next spring or summer, so that it can open by August 2001.
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