The real villain in the re-naming of the Steelers’ stadium isn’t the Steelers.
It isn’t Acrisure, the Michigan-based insurance brokerage which now owns naming rights to the stadium for the next 15 years at the rate of $10 million per.
The real villain is Kraft Heinz.
First Kraft Heinz ditched Pittsburgh. Kraft Heinz doesn’t even make ketchup in Pittsburgh anymore. It has a modicum of employees at its local corporate offices.
Now Kraft Heinz ditched the Steelers.
Kraft Heinz paid $57 million to get naming rights for the past 20 years. That’s cheap.
Now Kraft Heinz wouldn’t step up and pay what’s appropriate.
Kraft Heinz is worth $47 billion. Acrisure is worth $23 billion.
If Acrisure can afford it, Kraft Heinz can.
The Steelers didn’t let down some local mom-and-pop. It's not like when it used to be plain old Heinz with the plant on the North Side. The Steelers got let down by a $47 billion mega-corporation.
Pittsburgh should blame Kraft Heinz, not the Steelers.
We should all switch to Hunt’s ketchup.