PNC Park
PNC Park is a baseball stadium on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the fifth location to serve as the ballpark of Major League Baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates. Opened during the 2001 MLB season, PNC Park sits along the Allegheny River with a view of the Downtown Pittsburgh skyline. Constructed of steel and limestone, it has a natural grass playing surface and can seat 38,747 people for baseball. It was built just to the east of its predecessor, Three Rivers Stadium, which was demolished in 2001.
Plans to build a new stadium for the Pirates originated in 1991 but did not come to fruition for five years. Funded in conjunction with Acrisure Stadium and the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, the park was built for $216 million in 24 months, faster than most modern stadiums. Built in the "retro-classic" style modeled after past venues such as Pittsburgh's Forbes Field, PNC Park also introduced unique features, such as the use of limestone in the building's facade. The park has a riverside concourse, steel truss work, an extensive out-of-town scoreboard, and local eateries. Several tributes to former Pirate Roberto Clemente are incorporated into the ballpark, and the nearby Sixth Street Bridge was renamed in his honor. In addition to the Pirates' regular-season and postseason home games, PNC Park has hosted other events, including the 2006 Major League Baseball All-Star Game and numerous concerts.
PNC Financial Services originally purchased the naming rights in 1998 for $30 million over 20 years, and currently holds the rights through 2031.
Several writers have called PNC Park one of the best baseball stadiums in America, citing its location, views of the Pittsburgh skyline and Allegheny River, timeless design, and clear angles of the field from every seat.
History
Planning and funding
On September 5, 1991, Pittsburgh mayor Sophie Masloff proposed a new 44,000-seat stadium for the Pittsburgh Pirates on the city's North Side. Three Rivers Stadium, the Pirates' and Steelers' home at the time, had been designed for functionality rather than "architecture and aesthetics". As well, its location made it hard to reach from much of the city, with traffic congestion before and after games. Discussions about a new ballpark took place, but were never seriously considered until entrepreneur Kevin McClatchy purchased the team in February 1996. Until McClatchy's purchase, plans about the team remaining in Pittsburgh were uncertain. In 1996, Masloff's successor, Tom Murphy, created the "Forbes Field II Task Force". Made up of 29 political and business leaders, the team studied the challenges of constructing a new ballpark. Their final report, published on June 26, 1996, evaluated 13 possible locations. The "North Side site" was recommended due to its affordable cost, potential to develop the surrounding area, and opportunity to incorporate the city skyline into the stadium's design. The site selected for the ballpark is just upriver from the site of early Pirates home field Exposition Park.After a political debate, public money was used to fund PNC Park. Originally, a sales tax increase was proposed to fund three projects: PNC Park, Heinz Field, and an expansion of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. That proposal was soundly rejected in a 1997 referendum known as the Regional Renaissance Initiative.
The city then developed Plan B, which proved similarly controversial. It was labeled Scam B by opponents who said it would consume too much public money; one member of the Allegheny Regional Asset District board called the use of tax dollars "corporate welfare" while others said the Pirates should contribute more than their pledged $40 million. Still, the board approved Plan B on July 9, 1998; it included $228 million for PNC Park in a total package of $809 million. Shortly thereafter, the Pirates made a deal with Pittsburgh city officials to remain in the city until at least 2031.
There was popular sentiment by fans for the Pirates to name the stadium after former outfielder Roberto Clemente. However, locally based PNC Financial Services purchased the stadium's naming rights in August 1998. Under the agreement, PNC Bank paid the Pirates about $2 million each year through 2020; it also maintains a full-service PNC branch at the stadium. The total cost of PNC Park was $216 million. Shortly after the naming rights deal was announced, the city of Pittsburgh renamed the 6th Street Bridge near the southeast corner of the site of the park the Roberto Clemente Bridge as a compromise to fans who had wanted the park named after Clemente.
Design and construction
Kansas City-based Populous, which designed many other major league ballparks of the late 20th and early 21st century, designed the ballpark. The design and construction management team consisted of the Dick Corporation and Barton Malow. An effort was made in the design of PNC Park to salute other "classic style" ballparks, such as Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, and Pittsburgh's Forbes Field; the design of the ballpark's archways, steel truss work, and light standards are results of this goal. PNC Park was the first two-deck ballpark to be built in the United States since Milwaukee County Stadium opened in 1953. The park features a 24 by 42 foot Sony JumboTron, which is accompanied by the first-ever LED video boards in an outdoor MLB stadium. PNC Park is the first stadium to feature an out-of-town scoreboard with the score, inning, number of outs, and base runners for every other game being played around the league. The out-of-town scoreboard was disabled for the 2022 season and replaced with advertising. After significant fan outcry, the decision was reversed, and the out-of-town scoreboard was returned in 2023.Ground was broken for PNC Park on April 7, 1999, after a ceremony to christen the newly renamed Roberto Clemente Bridge. As part of original plans to create an enjoyable experience for fans, the bridge is closed to vehicular traffic on game days to allow spectators to park in Pittsburgh's Golden Triangle and walk across the bridge to the stadium. PNC Park was built with Kasota limestone shipped from a Minnesota river valley, to contrast the brick bases of other modern stadiums. The American-made raw steel for the ballpark was fabricated in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, by Wilhelm and Krus. The stadium was constructed over a 24-month span—at the time of construction, three months faster than any other modern major league ballpark—and the Pirates played their first game less than two years after groundbreaking. The quick construction was accomplished with the use of special computers, which relayed building plans to builders 24 hours per day. In addition, all 23 labor unions involved in the construction signed a pact that they would not strike during the building process. As a result of union involvement and attention to safety regulations, the construction manager, the Dick Corporation, received a merit award for its safety practices from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Statues
Statues of Pirates Hall of Famers Honus Wagner, Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, and Bill Mazeroski sit outside of PNC Park.Wagner's statue, unveiled at Forbes Field in 1955, was later moved to a location outside Three Rivers Stadium. Clemente's statue, installed outside Three Rivers Stadium in 1994, is shaped like a baseball diamond; glass "bases" hold dirt from three of the fields Clemente played at. Both were moved to PNC Park after Three Rivers Stadium was demolished.
On October 1, 2000, after the final game at Three Rivers Stadium, Stargell threw out the ceremonial last pitch. He was presented with a model of a statue that was to be erected in his honor outside PNC Park. Stargell's statue was unveiled on April 7, 2001; however, Stargell did not attend due to health problems and died of a stroke two days later. A statue for Mazeroski was added at the right field entrance, at the south end of Mazeroski Way, during the 2010 season. This was the 50th anniversary of the Pirates' 1960 World Series championship, which Mazeroski clinched with a Game 7 walk-off home run at Forbes Field. The statue itself is based on that event.
Opening and reception
The Pirates opened PNC Park with two exhibition games against the New York Mets—the first of which was played on March 31, 2001. The first official baseball game played in PNC Park was between the Cincinnati Reds and the Pirates, on April 9, 2001. The Reds won the game by the final score of 8–2. The first pitch—a ball—was thrown from Pittsburgh's Todd Ritchie to Barry Larkin. In the top of the first inning, Pittsburgh native Sean Casey's two-run home run was the first hit in the park. The first Pirates' batter, Adrian Brown, struck out; however, later in the inning Jason Kendall singled—the first hit by a Pirate in their new stadium.PNC Park had an average attendance of 30,742 people per game throughout its inaugural season, though it would drop about 27% the following season to 22,594 spectators per game. Throughout the 2001 season, businesses in downtown and on the Northside of Pittsburgh showed a 20–25% increase in business on Pirate game days.
Pirates' vice-president Steve Greenberg said, "We said when construction began that we would build the best ballpark in baseball, and we believe we've done that." Major League Baseball executive Paul Beeston said the park was "the best he's seen so far in baseball". Many of the workers who built the park said that it was the nicest that they had seen. Jason Kendall, Pittsburgh's catcher at the opening of the park, called PNC Park "the most beautiful ballpark in the game". Different elements of PNC Park were used in the design of New York's Citi Field.
Upon opening in 2001, PNC Park was praised by fans and media alike. ESPN.com writer Jim Caple ranked PNC Park as the best stadium in Major League Baseball, with a score of 95 out of 100. Caple compared the park to Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, calling the stadium itself "perfect", and citing high ticket prices as the only negative aspect of visiting the park. Jay Ahjua, author of Fields of Dreams: A Guide to Visiting and Enjoying All 30 Major League Ballparks, called PNC Park one of the "top ten places to watch the game". Eric Enders, author of Ballparks Then and Now and co-author of Big League Ballparks: The Complete Illustrated History, said it was "everything a baseball stadium could hope to be" and "an immediate contender for the title of best baseball park ever built". In 2008, Men's Fitness named the park one of "10 big league parks worth seeing this summer". A 2010 unranked list of "America's 7 Best Ballparks" published by ABC News noted that PNC Park "combines the best features of yesterday's ballparks—rhythmic archways, steel trusswork and a natural grass playing field—with the latest in fan and player amenities and comfort". In 2017, a panel of Washington Post sports writers ranked it the 2nd-best stadium in MLB. A 2018 article in Parade dubbed PNC Park "The Jewel of the Allegheny".