Acrisure’s web site declares: “The way forward for monetary providers is right here.”
And so they’re the way forward for soccer in Pittsburgh, apparently – at the least for the subsequent 15 years.
The Grand Rapids, Michigan, firm – which affords enterprise options by means of “human and synthetic intelligence” – secured naming rights for the venue the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pitt Panthers name residence.
Acrisure Stadium? That doesn’t simply roll off the tongue like Heinz ketchup on a cheeseburger.
This may take some getting used to – and never simply because the location has been often called Heinz Stadium because it opened in 2001.
Let’s be trustworthy: Most Steelers followers had by no means heard of Acrisure till Monday. When the naming rights change was introduced, a collective “Who?” resounded throughout the western Pennsylvania area.
The Heinz-Steelers marriage was a match made in advertising and marketing heaven – a nationwide model and a recognizable nationwide firm, H.J. Heinz, that was based mostly in Pittsburgh, paired with probably the most standard and revered franchises in all of sports activities.
Like Three Rivers Stadium earlier than it, Heinz Stadium simply made sense in Pittsburgh.
We love our “57 Varieties” of black-and-gold-clad followers waving Horrible Towels and singing their hearts out to “Renegade.”
We love listening to Invoice Hillgrove say the Steelers are shifting into “the Heinz Pink Zone.”
Sure, we do embrace our traditions.
Warren Buffet’s world conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway – which additionally owns Coca- Cola, Dairy Queen, American Categorical, a number of airways and numerous different corporations – bought H.J. Heinz (now Kraft Heinz) in 2013.
Then someplace alongside the road, the right marriage fell aside, prompting a outpouring of “it’s nonetheless Heinz Area to me” declarations throughout social media.
And hey, “Yinzer” sports activities followers have been on a pleasant run this summer time.
The younger Pirates are enjoyable to look at and, most nights, fairly darn aggressive.
The not-so-young Penguins resigned free agent gamers Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Bryan Rust and gave newcomer Rickard Rakell a contract extension.
The Steelers are returning to St. Vincent Faculty for preseason camp, with rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett from Pitt within the highlight, and Mike Tomlin going for his sixteenth straight profitable season because the group’s head coach.
And alongside comes Acrisure, a profitable enterprise capital company that represents the newest in monetary expertise – “fintech” – a (Max) stark distinction to Pittsburgh’s gritty picture of heavy trade and blue-collar sports activities followers.
Dick’s Sporting Items wasn’t ? What about U.S. Metal or Alcoa? Iron Metropolis? The Clark Bar?
“Acrisure supplied us with a chance to make sure our stadium continues to be a useful asset for our followers in addition to maintaining with the market worth of NFL stadiums,” Steelers president Artwork Rooney II stated Monday in a press release launched to media.
We all know soccer will nonetheless be nice at that place the place the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers come collectively to kind the Ohio; the place “Imply Joe” Greene and Johnstown’s Jack Ham helped flip a struggling franchise into an NFL powerhouse; the place “Massive Ben” and Hines (not Heinz) Ward revived that Pittsburgh success.
And sometime, Acrisure Stadium might really feel proper – maybe once we’re watching video games with digital actuality headsets that make it really feel as should you’re the one getting run over by Najee Harris.
However for now, we’re nonetheless clinging to the previous for only a bit longer.
Please move the ketchup.
