Steelers to conduct training camp at Heinz Field in 2020

The Pittsburgh Steelers will get more mileage out of Heinz Field this year than the customary 10 football games they play at their home facility each season.

Steelers spokesman Burt Lauten announced Monday that the team will conduct training camp at their North Side home base this summer.

“The Steelers are making plans to hold their 2020 Training Camp at Heinz Field,” Lauten wrote on Twitter.

Lauten said in a text that further information would be provided “when we have more details.”

It has not yet been decided if fans will be permitted to attend.

The Steelers have conducted training camp at Saint Vincent in Unity Township every summer since 1966, but were forced to switch locations this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell informed all 32 teams last week that training camps would take place this year at on-site facilities. The Steelers were one of 10 teams that took their players to a remote location for training camp.

For the Steelers, the options boiled down to Heinz Field and UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, the team’s training facility on the South Side since 2000.

The South Side complex, which the Steelers share with the Pitt football program, has ample practice space in the form of three grass outdoor fields and a turf indoor facility. The drawback is the Steelers have just one locker room on site, and in previous years after they broke training camp, they needed to install temporary lockers in the middle of the room to accommodate all 90 players on the roster.

The locker room space at the Rooney Complex isn’t large enough to satisfy the social distancing measures that Goodell outlined to teams in a memo Monday. Before players can return to team facilities – coaches were permitted to return June 5 – protocols must be in place for players to maintain six feet of social distancing. That would require teams to use every other locker or erect additional lockers.

No such spacing issues exist for players dressing at Heinz Field. The Steelers’ gameday home since 2001 has four locker rooms. The Steelers is the biggest at 6,000 square feet, followed by Pitt’s 4,600-square foot locker room and two visiting locker rooms that each measure 2,600 square feet. That is more than enough room for the Steelers to use as a training camp dressing facility.

The drawback to Heinz Field, of course, is the singular grass playing surface. One solution could be for the Steelers to transport some players to UPMC Rooney Sports Complex for work on the outdoor fields.

The Steelers bused players from the North Side to the South Side during the 1999-2000 seasons to combat the unfriendly turf playing surface at Three Rivers Stadium.

Among the other social distancing measures the NFL and its players association have agreed upon, strength and conditioning workouts are limited to 15 players. Training staffs must stagger appointments with players.

Teams are encouraged to continue conducting meetings on a virtual basis when possible.