PNC Park fetes its 25th year and effect on local business ahead of Pirates opener

By Sono Motoyama / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

As the Pirates return to PNC Park for the first home game of the season Friday, the team will also be celebrating its 25th season at the ballpark.

At a media open house Wednesday before the team’s homecoming, Pirates president Travis Williams, Allegheny Conference on Community Development CEO Stefani Pashman and former Allegheny County Chief Executive Rich Fitzgerald talked up the positive effects the ballpark has had on local business, as well as recent and continuing plans for improvement — including upgrading the main concourse, improving concessions, renovating suites and expanding the store.

“Our fans come for baseball, but they stay in our hotels, eat in our restaurants and they shop at our stores,” Williams said, noting that the park draws more visitors than any other sports or entertainment venue in Western Pennsylvania.

As the speakers stood in the middle of the field, Pashman noted that, from its conception, the ballpark “was intentionally integrated, as you see, into the city skyline, into the riverfront, ensuring it complemented existing assets and drove development. The vision then was to remake the North Shore.”

The park created, she said, a “solid foundation” and “model of public-private partnership” as a new phase of North Shore development focuses on Allegheny Landing and the “Pop District” anchored by The Andy Warhol Museum.

Ahead of a weekend’s worth of matchups against the New York Yankees, a tour of the ballpark focused on new team merchandise and food items from Aramark, the park’s food service provider.

Kids merch includes new vintage-style jerseys and hoodies and Build-A-Bear parrots, as well as magnetized mini-parrots that can ride on your shoulder. Topps trading cards will nod to the anniversary year of the park.

Upcoming promotions include, on April 19, a Paul Skenes Bobblehead for the first 20,000 fans, during a face-off with the Cleveland Guardians. This year’s Hawaiian shirt sees its outing on Aug. 9, during a game against the Cincinnati Reds, when the first 20,000 fans will get one free.

Gabor Kovats, Aramark senior executive chef at PNC Park, presented 11 new menu items (seven available in concessions, four in the suites), heavily inspired by local traditions.

”Rebranded” Cannonballs ($15) — breaded, fried balls of egg noodles, kielbasa, bacon, sauteed cabbage, cheddar and herb crema — were “turned into a complete tribute to Pittsburgh using basic Pittsburgh ingredients, and we put our twist on things,” Kovats said.

Chipped ham, a Pittsburgh classic, gets two treatments: a chipped ham empanada ($14) for the concession stands and a chipped ham eggroll for the suites, both served with Isaly’s barbecue sauce.

Other concession items: a kielbasa cheesesteak, a chili crunch smashburger and a hot honey chicken croissant. Other new suite-level snacks: a kielbasa croissant roll, a stacked toasted Italian sandwich and a club loaf (turkey, Swiss cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, pickles, banana pepper aioli, tomato-basil bread).

And for something sweet, “We have the classic Pittsburgh dessert,” Kovats said. “It's a burnt almond torte, but we made it even less healthy.” Fried and drizzled with raspberry sauce, “it’s a lot of sugar,” the chef cautioned. The cake ($14) seemed to be an all-around favorite for attendees.

For those with health concerns, however, there is a vegan option: Beyond Chicken Tenders ($16), served with honey-mustard and vegan ranch sauces.

“Our ultimate goal is providing winning baseball and putting a winning team on the field. It's going to be a fun weekend,” Pirates president Williams said. “We hopefully send a lot of Yankee fans home sad after having spent a lot of money in our region.”