Heinz Field's New Look

This past Saturday, I paid my first visit to Heinz Field in 2015 to see the Pitt-Youngstown State football game.  This is my first visit to Heinz Field since the installation of approximately 3,000 new seats in the south end zone of the Stadium.

I have long maintained that, unlike PNC Park, Heinz Field is pretty much a generic football stadium.  Nothing plush or fancy, but a pleasant enough place to watch a football game.  In my mind, the only thing that set Heinz Field apart from every other bowl of a football stadium was the open south end of the stadium.  It was aesthetically pleasing and offered a fairly nice view of the slope leading to the Allegheny River.  That open end was especially nice when you came INTO the stadium for a game at one of the two entrance gates on the south end.  You walked through the turnstile and had a lovely view onto the playing surface of the field.

Here is a look at the new south end of Heinz Field:

So much for the view of the riverfront.  And when you enter the stadium on that south end, instead of that nice view on to the playing surface, you get a nice view of concrete block walls.  Kind of like walking into the unfinished portion of my basement where the water heater, furnace, and boxes of Christmas decorations are.

It should also be noted that those new end zone seats are the gray colored ones and have been designated as "Club Seats" by the Steelers, similar to the club seats on the east and west sides of Heinz Field, and a new "Stadium Club" resides behind those new seats.  If the past is any guide, this little trick enables the Steelers to charge more for these seats, and sets a higher price for the requisite seats licenses to said seats.  To be fair, I do not know that last statement to be a fact, but if they follow the same guidelines that were in place when Heinz Field opened, and I was a season ticket holder at the time, so I know whereof I speak, that would be the case with these new seats. If someone tells me I am wrong, I will gladly print that.  I would also argue that those new seats, especially the ones in the lower level of the end zone, may well be the worst place from which to watch a game, but that's just me.

However, it has been noted that the Steelers sold all of those new seats in less time than it took you to read this post, so what the hell?  Business is business.