Portal:American football/Selected article/September, 2007

Heinz Field is a football stadium located in the North Shore neighborhood, just across the Allegheny River from downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the home stadium facility of the Pittsburgh Steelers NFL franchise and the University of Pittsburgh Panthers college football team. The stadium sits on approximately 12.4 acres (50,000 m²) of land and has a seating capacity of 64,450, including approximately 6,600 club seats and a capacity of approximately 1,500 in 127 suites. It was built with a mixture of private and public funds to replace Three Rivers Stadium. Three Rivers was also the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team; they moved into PNC Park before Three Rivers was demolished. One purpose of building the new facilities was to provide each team with a dedicated building rather than a single shared-use stadium. Heinz Field and PNC Park were built opposite each other across the Three Rivers site, which is now a parking lot serving both stadiums and the site of several office building developments. The stadium sits directly across from "The Point" which is the confluence of the Allegheny and the Monongahela Rivers to form the Ohio River, on whose northern bank the stadium sits.

Heinz Field is primarily a football facility, though it has also hosted soccer games and concerts&mdash;in fact the first event at the venue was a concert by pop band 'N Sync shortly after the stadium opened in August 2001. The Steelers debuted there during the 2001-2002 NFL season. The stadium is a bowl design with an open end facing south. The open end allows views of the Pittsburgh skyline across the Ohio River.

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