Museum being considered at Heinz Field

[BlitzburghRockCity]

From the PG

The Steelers do not have a Hall of Fame, they do not have a Ring of Honor, they do not erect statues, they officially have retired just one jersey number, and they do not sign players to one-day contracts and let them retire as a "Steeler" if they had played elsewhere.


At least one of those things could change.
The Steelers are considering opening a Hall of Fame or, more aptly, a museum as part of a Heinz Field reconstruction that will add 4,000 to 5,000 seats and improvements in other areas in 2012 or 2013. At the moment, the expansion or reconstruction is estimated to cost around $30 million.


As for the museum, they have one of sorts -- the Great Hall -- on the ground floor inside Heinz Field, but under consideration would be a true museum that would include much more and open year-round and not just for 10 home games to ticket-holders. The possibilities are immense.


A friend, Vic Ketchman, long has said the Steelers needed such a facility. Ketchman covered the Steelers in the 1970s, '80s and '90s for the old Irwin Standard-Observer before he joined the Jacksonville Jaguars to produce their team paper and run their website. He now runs the web for the Green Bay Packers, who have hands down the best (and one of the few) thriving team museums in the NFL.


Few teams have such a rich and deep history as the Steelers and such a fan following. A museum could be a destination in itself with endless possibilities that would be immensely popular and likely draw fans from around the country. They could run package deals for those coming from out of town to visit the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, and the Pittsburgh Sports History Museum in the Strip District.
The Packers' museum is a money-maker, and there is no reason the Steelers could not equal or surpass that, especially since Pittsburgh is more accessible by land and air (and river) than Green Bay. The Steelers could sell retro jerseys and all kinds of memorabilia -- old photos, have autograph sessions with their great players, etc. The ideas are limitless.


A Steelers Hall of Fame would not induct anyone, per se, but be a living museum of sorts. Forget building statues. The Steelers built the only one they need, to franchise founder Art Rooney Sr. Better to have plaques on a wall inside the new museum, starting with all of those Pro Football Hall of Famers. They could rotate a player of the month and feature one player whose career did not land him in the Hall of Fame but is worth featuring on a rotating basis. They could start with Jack Butler and proceed directly to Andy Russell and LC Greenwood -- three players who still could get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame through the veterans committee.


They could even rotate their six Lombardi Trophies in there one at a time.

[BlitzburghRockCity]

This would be an awesome thing to visit, I hope they decide to do it. For the life of I still don't understand why they won't make a ring of honor. I get the whole team atmosphere attitude and the way the Rooney's do things, but it seems only fitting to have something like available for the fans. The Steelers have enough history to fill 10 museums if they wanted too.

[SteelDad]

Me and the fam did a stadium tour a couple of years ago and that was pretty cool, but I must say the addition of actual museum would be extremely awesome.

[BlitzburghRockCity]

Adding 4,000-6000 additional seats at Heinz will make it all the more intimidating to play in too! Imagine 6000 more Terrible Towels waving on a Sunday Afternoon! Wow!

[steelersgal86]

Adding 4,000-6000 additional seats at Heinz will make it all the more intimidating to play in too! Imagine 6000 more Terrible Towels waving on a Sunday Afternoon! Wow!

OMG...that would be awesome...

we do the tours at FanFest and go in the locker room and on the field and everything..but a museum with all the history and everything would be great!!! Would be something nice to take the whole family too and probably affordable

[connecticutsteel]

If any team needs a museum it's the Steelers all the history plus 6000 more terrible towels additional revenue streams means more dollars anything to make more money

[airbrake 1]

the museum would be cool...but if they are going to make those seats they put in for the winter classic permanent i think it's a big mistake...the open end of the stadium was cool as hell ...while it may add some extra noise factor it will probably make it easier for opposing kickers in that end of the field...if they found some way to fill in the open upper level corners somehow perhaps that would be OK but there are always tickets available to nearly every game around cost and our attendance numbers haven't been stellar since the fur coat and wine crowd started taking over heinz field...so i would just leave the capacity where it's at... but we know that isn't going to happen they will try to squeeze every last dollar out of that place even at the expense of empty looking stadiums on TV on game day...because you get a few drops of rain or the temp drops below 40 and some of the lilly livered don't show up

[BlitzburghRockCity]

I would hate to see them close the open end of the stadium too. I would hope that's not part of the plans. Even if the seats aren't filled from what I know they continuously sell out every game, but just not everyone attends when they buy tickets.

[Stlrs4Life]

Would make huge amounts of $$$!