Pittsburgh Steelers Owner Art Rooney II 'Hopeful' For Fans In Stands For 2021 Season
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Steelers owner Art Rooney II sat down for an interview with KDKA's Bob Pompeani.
He talked about the upcoming season, the Steelers' recent playoff struggles and the Rooney Rule.
Pompeani: One thing that is always a topic of conversation is crowds at games. We've seen other places have crowds at games. But with you guys, originally, you had some and they were taken away. Were you disappointed by that and what happens moving forward?
Rooney: We were disappointed we couldn't have more fans into the building. We thought we had a good plan to have them. But going forward, look, we are hopeful, we're keeping our fingers crossed that the vaccines roll out. We are hopeful that we are going back to training camp at St. Vincent and having fans in the stands next season.
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Pompeani: With playoff wins, there haven't been all that many on them in recent years. How concerning is that to you?
Rooney: We need to be better in the postseason. I think we can be. I like where we are. We have a core group on the defense coming back that I think will be able to give us a good foundation there. We'll have some changes on the offensive side of the ball that we will have to work through now this offseason.
Pompeani: Are you convinced the (Rooney Rule) has lived up to what it is supposed to do or do you think there is a lot of work to do?
Rooney: We spent a lot of time over the last year looking at our diversity hiring situation and trying to figure out how we improve opportunities for our minority coaches, as well as minorities in other parts of the business. There is more work to be done there. It is a multi-year process, we know that. We'll just stay after it.