Steelers Making More Upgrades to Acrisure Stadium

The Pittsburgh Steelers remain hard at work improving the conditions at Acrisure Stadium.

The view of Acrisure Stadium from the North Shore. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Upgrades at Acrisure Stadium have continued as the Pittsburgh Steelers get ready for the 2026 season.

According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's Adam Babetski, the Pittsburgh Sports and Exhibition Authority has officially approved funding for around 18,000 new seats at Acrisure Stadium.

"Steelers affiliate PSSI Stadium LLC requested replacements for 58,719 of Acrisure Stadium’s 68,400 seats last year," Babetski wrote. "Nearly all of the seats were original to the stadium, which opened in 2001. The SEA’s facility condition assessment firm found that many of the seats were detaching from the stadium’s concrete, rusting or deteriorating in some other fashion."

Babetski added that the Sports and Exhibition Authority board is considering replacing the seats in phases. 22,236 seats in the east and west sections of the upper bowl were approved last October for around $12.4 million.

The seats approved in this most recent phase are all in the lower level on the east end of Acrisure Stadium and will cost $5.8 million.

Furthermore, 85 percent of the new seats will be yellow with the other 15 percent being gray.

The stadium's concrete will also be repaired before the new seating is put in, and per Babetski, the Sports and Exhibition Authority director of facility services, Lucas Kistler, stated that the Steelers expect that the seat replacements will be completed with a third and final phase in 2027.

Wednesday, April 22, 2026; New seats in Acrisure Stadium's upper bowl are continuing to be installed. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

New Seats Come with New Playing Surface

Recently, Precision Turf revealed that they completed the installation of a new playing surface at Acrisure Stadium comprised of Tahoma 31 Bluegrass.

Pittsburgh had previously used Kentucky bluegrass. The field conditions at Acrisure Stadium drew was a major source of contention throughout the 2025 campaign, and it came to a head when Miles Killebrew suffered a season-ending ACL injury against the Cleveland Browns in Week 6.

The likes of Cam Heyward and Aaron Rodgers, among others, voiced their complaints about the field, and Mike Tomlin also directly addressed the issues with the surface.

“I thought it was poor yesterday,” Tomlin said. “I’m not concerned going forward. It’s my understanding that that turf is going to be swapped out, but I certainly acknowledge it was a concern yesterday.”

After the old playing surface received the worst grade in the NFLPA's 2026 report cards, perhaps now all of those concerns will be put behind the Steelers for good.

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