By The anticipation is over.
A gigantic Heinz ketchup bottle that was removed from Acrisure Stadium last year has been installed in its new home, outside the Senator John Heinz History Center in the Strip District.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Kraft Heinz to bring the Heinz Field ketchup bottle to the Smithsonian’s home in Pittsburgh,” said Andy Masich, president and CEO of the Heinz History Center. “The bottle is an important piece of Pittsburgh history that will surely become a landmark attraction here in the Strip District.” The 7,000-pound, 35-foot tall bottle was installed Thursday morning on the History Center’s southwest corner at 12th and Smallman streets — near previously installed goalposts from Three Rivers Stadium.
The ketchup bottle was one of two that flanked each side of the scoreboard at Acrisure Stadium, then named Heinz Field, for two decades. The bottles would tilt as if pouring every time the Steelers advanced inside the opponent’s 20-yard line, a part of the field known as the “red zone.” The bottles were removed last year when Kraft Heinz lost the naming rights to the North Shore stadium to Acrisure, a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based fintech company. Since then, one of the bottles has been refurbished and returned to the stadium, where it is displayed outside of Gate C, which is dedicated to Heinz as part of a five-year sponsorship deal. The second bottle is now the History Center’s largest artifact, officials said.
Visitors are encouraged to take selfies with the bottle. In a release Thursday, Heinz History Center officials said that “ketchup fans who post their photo with the bottle on social media and tag the History Center will be automatically entered for a chance to win an exclusive Heinz merchandise basket” and a membership to the History Center.
The bottle is the second to be collected by the history center. A large HEINZ sign topped by a pouring ketchup bottle sits atop one side of the center’s building, serving as a beacon and a reminder of the company’s ties to the city where it got its start more than a century ago.
Photos by Tim Robbibaro/For the Post-Gazette
