Profit-sharing and attendance are on the rise at the Pittsburgh Steelers’ annual Friday Night Lights practice at Greater Latrobe School District’s Memorial Stadium.
This year’s Aug. 1 event generated a profit of more than $109,000, according to district Athletic Director Tyler Gustafson. Of that amount, $71,000 will be shared among 27 school and community groups that helped with the event.
That’s up from $54,500 that was distributed among 25 supporting organizations involved with last year’s practice.
Part of this year’s proceeds also will go toward “improvements to our athletic facilities that will help benefit the athletic teams for the future,” Gustafson told the school board this month.
According to district business administrator Dan Watson, that will mean additional Hudl cameras for filming athletic sessions at Graham-Sobota Field, on the high school campus, as well as some track-and-field equipment such as weather covers and pad covers.
“This event was the biggest one to date, with over 13,500 people attending,” Gustafson said of this year’s Steelers night practice. TribLive previously reported an overflow crowd of more than 13,600 at the Latrobe stadium.
“There were individuals from 36 states as well as fans from Mexico and Germany, Canada, Poland and Puerto Rico to watch the Steelers practice that night,” Gustafson said.
The attendance figure has steadily climbed since the Memorial Stadium practice drew an estimated 11,000 spectators in 2023 — the first following a three-year hiatus prompted by covid pandemic restrictions.
With the advent of online ticketing, last year’s attendance was placed at about 12,200.
Gustafson said bringing this year’s practice together involved more than 100 hours spent collectively by members of Greater Latrobe’s athletic office and maintenance and custodial staff.
