Steelers 'keeping fingers crossed' that fans can attend games at Heinz Field this season

Art Rooney II would like to see fans trickle through the turnstiles at Heinz Field this season. He just can’t make any promises on when that might happen.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Pittsburgh Steelers already announced fans won’t be permitted to attend the home opener Sept. 20 against the Denver Broncos and the Sept. 27 home game against the Houston Texans.

The third home game is scheduled for Oct. 11 against the Philadelphia Eagles.

“We don’t have any indication,” Rooney said Wednesday in an interview with the Tribune-Review. “The door has been left open for us to stay in contact with the governor’s office and the department of health. We plan to do that. We are remaining hopeful and optimistic that we can have some fans in the building.

“We’re definitely keeping our fingers crossed.”

The Steelers already have lost two home games of revenue with the cancellation of the entire NFL preseason. The decision to play in an empty venue against Denver and Houston ensures 40% of the team’s home schedule will be conducted without revenue generated by fans in attendance.

“We will be missing not having our fans, no question,” Rooney said. “Everybody in the league this year is going to be taking a hit based on the situation.”

As a concession to the pandemic, the Steelers gave season-ticket holders an extra month to make payments, extending the deadline to June 1. Once the pandemic continued deeper into summer, the Steelers gave ticket holders the chance to opt out of retaining their seats for 2020 but with the option to keep them in ’21.

Rooney didn’t provide a specific total on the number of ticket holders who opted out or whether it was greater than he anticipated.

“I can’t say I had any firm expectations there,” he said. “Under the circumstances, I was pleased with the initial response we had going into June. We had the same kind of response as other years in terms of renewals.

“Now that we’re into this thing and we’ve had the opt-outs, I can’t say it’s something that I didn’t expect. I think it has gone about as well as we can expect. We are hopeful we can welcome at least some of them back into the building at some point this season.”

When the Steelers open their schedule against the New York Giants on Sept. 14 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., no fans will be in attendance, either.

Although NFL teams have not practiced in a bubble-like environment during training camp, Rooney said the Steelers will be faced with similar conditions when they travel for the first time.

“It’s somewhat like being in a bubble for road games — once we get on that plane,” he said. “We’re not going to be having people going out to dinner in New York once we get there. It’s going to be different just like everything else.

“Our people are prepared, and we’ll be ready to deal with it. It will be different this year, no two ways about it.”

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