When Acrisure Stadium (Heinz Field at the time) opened back in 2001, it featured about 65,000 seats painted the same bright yellow as the sea of Terrible Towels waving above it. This was a move to represent the Steel City’s teams: the Pittsburgh Steelers, Pirates (MLB), and Penguins (NHL), all of whom wore gold as part of their jerseys. But that’s all changing this year, with Steelers owner and president Art Rooney II making a shift that could bring the stadium even closer to the city.

At the NFL’s annual meeting in Phoenix, Art Rooney II confirmed that Acrisure Stadium will be replacing the yellow seats with a black-and-yellow combination, interrupting the “sea of gold” that has defined the stadium since opening day.

“As we were making changes to the seating, the sea of gold sometimes gets overwhelming,” Rooney said. “So, we did add a little black and gold in there this time around.”

Last October, the Sports & Exhibition Authority of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County approved $6.2 million for the first round of the renovation project. The complete overhaul is scheduled to be completed by 2028, with Hussey Seating Company replacing almost 59,000 seats at Acrisure. The total cost of the entire project is estimated to be $17.8 million.

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The logic behind the new color scheme does hold. All-yellow seats read poorly on television, with the sparse sections looking emptier than they actually are. Darker shaded seats can absorb that gap and give the appearance of larger attendance in the low-stakes games. With this move, Art Rooney II seems to have taken inspiration from Miami and Cleveland.

Hard Rock Stadium in Miami had opted to switch to teal seats instead of orange way back in 2014. Across sports, Progressive Field in Cleveland made the same calculation, ditching hunter green seats for navy blue in 2023. Pittsburgh followed the same playbook, and seeing that its NFL, MLB, and NHL teams all wear black and gold, it happens to align with the brand as well.

This was an easy call at Acrisure. But the harder question was the playing surface. Acrisure’s turf received an F-minus grade heading into the 2026 season. To tackle this, Art Rooney II confirmed that they are switching to a playing surface called ‘Tahoma 31 Bermudagrass.’

“The fields actually will be planted at a sod farm,” Rooney said about the new turf. “So, we won’t get the new field until sometime in August. But as we’ve talked about, it’ll be a new surface, a new kind of grass mixture. And look forward to seeing how it works.”

But away from all of this, one decision this offseason carries more weight for Rooney II than seat color or stadium turf. It involves a policy that carries his family’s last name.

The Rooney Rule under fire

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sent a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in late March with a strict demand: the league must abolish the Rooney Rule for the teams based in Florida. Uthmeier set a deadline of May 1 for Goodell & Co. to address the issue or face civil rights enforcement action. He argues that the rule “violates Florida law by requiring race-based considerations in hiring.”

The Rooney Rule was adopted in 2003, named after Dan Rooney, Art Rooney II’s father, who chaired the league’s Workplace Diversity Committee. It originally required teams to interview at least one minority candidate for head coaching vacancies. Since then, it has been amended to include two minority interviews for head coach, general manager, or coordinator openings, along with a mandatory diverse interview for the quarterback coach position.

In the face of Uthmeier’s challenge, Rooney II didn’t appear to defend the rule publicly at first.

“There’s no question that the environment has changed in recent years,” Rooney said. “We do have an obligation to make sure that our policies comply with the laws, whatever the law is, and whatever the changes in law might be.”

But when asked about it at the league’s meeting, Rooney II had notably shifted his stance to note the rule is safe.

“We had a little discussion about the Rooney Rule,” Rooney said. “There were some questions about it. There was no action taken, just a statement from the Florida Attorney General. So, probably have some conversations with the attorney general down there just to make sure he understands what exactly we do. It’s not a hiring rule. So, I think we’re comfortable with where we are.”

The Rooney Rule mandates that teams must conduct minority interviews, but there is no directive to actually make the hires. Rooney II believes this should counter the “race-based considerations in hiring” that Uthmeier cites, as whether a person moves past the interview to get hired depends on scheme fit and individual resume. Roger Goodell, meanwhile, was more direct in his answer.

“Well, the one thing that doesn’t change is our values,” Goodell said at his league meeting presser. “We believe that diversity has been a benefit to the National Football League. We are well aware of the laws, where the laws are changing or evolving. We think the Rooney Rule is consistent with those. We certainly will engage with the Florida [Attorney General] or anybody else, as we have in the past, to talk about the policies and what they are.”

No court has struck down the Rooney Rule; it has just slid under scrutiny. Whether the dialogue with AG Uthmeier leads to a tweak in the language or it gets scrapped entirely remains to be seen. For now, the future front office landscape of the Miami Dolphins, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the Jacksonville Jaguars (the three Florida-based teams) hinges on Roger Goodell’s May 1st deadline.