It might not constitute the flashiest of renovations at Acrisure Stadium. It doesn’t involve giant ketchup bottles, a bigger scoreboard, or cushier seats.
But for thousands of fans in the upper deck, it could offer a better experience and maybe some relief.
The Steelers are planning to spend about $1.4 million to upgrade 12 restrooms at their North Shore home, the latest phase of an ongoing effort to improve such facilities.
Board members with the Sports and Exhibition Authority, the Acrisure Stadium owner, reviewed the upgrades earlier this month. In the latest round, the biggest improvements will be made to four men’s restrooms on the upper level — two on the stadium’s east side and two on the west.
At those locations, urinals with dividers will replace troughs — a longtime men’s room staple in many stadiums that’s not for the shy of heart or bladder, given the lack of privacy.
In all, the Steelers, through affiliate PSSI Stadium Corp., plan to replace the troughs with about 95 urinals and dividers in the two restrooms. In addition, those facilities will receive a new floor coating as part of their regular maintenance.
Eight women’s restrooms on the upper east, west and north sides of the stadiums also will receive the new floor coating.
A Steelers spokesman confirmed that the improvements will be taking place over the next couple of months. The team is covering the entire cost. The upper deck restrooms are not the first to receive attention. Other stadium restrooms have received upgrades in the past.
But the latest troughs to be replaced could very well be the last ones still in use at the 22-year-old venue.
Over the years, the troughs — prized for their efficiency if not their privacy — have been a subject of debate locally and nationally, with some seeing them as a medieval way of answering nature’s call.
After the stadium, then named Heinz Field, opened in 2001, one letter writer to the Post-Gazette complained that having troughs in the men’s rooms instead of urinals was “a stupid cost-saving measure.”
Years later, on Twitter, another person fumed that the troughs made the stadium “a borderline dump.”
A 2019 ESPN report found that teams were paying more attention to restrooms as a way of improving the fan experience, with many venues removing the communal troughs where men, at least during busy times, stand crowded shoulder to shoulder.
A British environmental products company even argued that the troughs are really no more efficient than urinals in moving things along and that they are much less hygienic and harder to clean.
Not everyone has an aversion to the setup. In 2013, as part of a $300 million renovation of the iconic Wrigley Field, the Chicago Cubs asked fans what features they considered untouchable.
The outfield ivy, hand-operated scoreboard and brick backstops topped the list, along with one other must-keep — the urinal troughs.
Mark Belko: mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.
First Published: February 21, 2023, 11:00 a.m.
Updated: February 21, 2023, 11:20 a.m.
