PITTSBURGH — When the Steelers take on the Ravens every year at Acrisure Statium, fans of both teams know it’s going to be a big event, both on and off the field.
But it’s the other big events — the big tailgates that have been happening in many of the parking lots outside of Acrisure Stadium on the North Shore that have gotten so big — they’re no longer allowed.
“We do this because we love tailgating. We love the experience. We live for Steelers tailgates. We’ve done it our whole lives,” said Alicia Black, organizer of the North Shore Originals Tailgate in Gold Lot 1. “It’s kind of a blow. It’s a big blow.”
That’s how the organizers of several large tailgates on the North Shore on Steelers game days are feeling after finding out this week that ALCO Parking Corporation — the company that owns many of the lots around Acrisure Stadium and PNC Park — is cracking down on big tailgates.
“Tailgating across the North Shore is a game day experience for the culture. People look forward to that,” said Kevin Adams of The Terrible Tailgate. “So if ALCO wants to put their foot down and say, ‘no more large gathering tailgates,’ that’s going to hurt a lot of peoples’ experience on game day. "
Adams has run The Terrible Tailgate since 2015 after he won season tickets.
He wanted friends to be able to experience Steelers game day.
It started off small. Then he started getting former Steelers players to join in on the fun.
“We’ve had Joey Porter, it started with Arthur Moats, [and] from there it’s been Antonio Brown, Le’Veon Bell, Kordell Stewart, Ike Taylor,” Adams recalled.
This weekend — Jon Kolb, Donnie Shell, and Rocky Bleier are scheduled to attend.
“To lose that experience doesn’t just hurt what I’ve built, it hurts the fans who are now going to lose out on that experience of having the ability to come meet these players and come tailgate with them is something which nobody else on the North Shore is doing,” Adams told Channel 11′s Andrew Havranek.
The president of ALCO said there’s always been a rule against these large tailgates for all games and concerts on the North Shore, saying it’s a safety problem.
“It always has been but it never really reached the level it seems to have reached this year,” Merril Stabile said. “There’s 117 spaces in the lot and they invited 400-500 of their friends to join them. This is going to cause quite a bit of congestion.”
Former Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown posted on X, formerly Twitter, saying he heard the tailgates were forced out because of his voter registration event for President-elect Donald Trump before the election.
ALCO denies that.
“No role whatsoever. Tell Antonio he’s wrong,” Stabile said. “There is no politics behind this. This is about crowd control, safety, and trying to be fair to everyone.”
ALCO said if you’re coming to a lot and your family and friends want to tailgate, that is still allowed. They just aren’t allowing any U-Haul or box trucks in their lots on game days.
Adams said NOVA Place is giving their tailgate access to half of their lot on Federal Street starting this weekend.
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