WHERE: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
WHEN: August through December—or January if the Steelers have home-field advantage and make a playoff run.
HOW TO DO IT: The Steelers have a lengthy waiting list for season tickets but they do offer single-game tickets on a limited basis. There are other ways to get tickets too, from friends to those who make a living brokering tickets.
COST FACTOR: $$–$$$$ for regular-season and playoff games.
DIFFICULTY FACTOR: This corresponds to how much you are willing to pay. Tickets are ready available on Internet sites such as StubHub. Street ticket brokers, which is a nice way of saying scalpers, are out early on game days and they find you before you even have to look for them. If it is a big game 
and/or you want good seats you are going to have to pay significant money. Preseason games 
are the easiest tickets to get and it’s not hard to find people who will give them away since the starters play a limited number of snaps. But for those who want to experience a semblance of a game day at Heinz Field the preseason offers the opportunity at a limited cost.
The first of chapter of the Steelers, if you will, did not inspire much hope.
During World War II some NFL franchises, including the Steelers, struggled to field teams and temporarily merged with others, a necessity that offers a stunning juxtaposition to the league today.
The Steagles lasted just one season and the 1943 union between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia had all of the hallmarks of a bad marriage. The two sides couldn’t seem to agree on anything or forge any trust, which is fitting since Pennsylvania’s two biggest cities somehow share a state but see each other as being from different planets. “Men are from Mars, Philadelphians are from Venus” is a slogan most Pittsburghers would embrace and vice versa.
The NFL survived that precarious period and later thrived with the Rooney family playing a role in the league’s ascent. Harnessing the power of television and establishing a commitment to economic parity, the NFL gradually overtook Major League Baseball as the most popular sports enterprise in the United States.
The NFL is now a billion-dollar industry and not even the most extreme cases of players behaving badly has permanently dented its brand. The light shined on concussions and the long-term consequences of playing football at the highest level could emerge as the biggest existential threat to the NFL since World War II. Perhaps of more immediate concern to the NFL is making sure it keeps fans in their seats and stadiums filled to capacity because of TV.
That sounds preposterous but the vehicle that drove the NFL and continues to keep it flush with cash comes with a downside.
Cable packages provide access to all NFL games, making it as enticing as ever to stay home and watch the action from your favorite chair. You can check out other games during commercial breaks and track the players on your fantasy football squads. You don’t have to wait in line for the bathroom and the beer you grab from your refrigerator won’t cost you close to $10.
Sports bars are another option for fans as they offer more of an atmosphere than watching the game at home and at probably half the price of going to the stadium.
The trick for the NFL is to make sure it keeps the grassroots support of fans as it stuffs its pockets with the TV money that that could erode that. The best way for teams to navigate that delicate balance is to make Sundays (or Mondays or Thursdays) an experience and not just a game, and few, if any, cities do this better than Pittsburgh.
The North Side generates a certain electricity when the Steelers are at home and it starts pulsating long before kickoff. A massive Black and Gold party rages for hours before moving inside to Heinz Field. There fans wave Terrible Towels, lose what is left of their voices, and cheer a team that is a civic institution.
Pittsburghers love their football and they especially love their Steelers. TV can’t completely capture this passion and this buzz, as much convenience as it provides. That is why attending a game at Heinz Field and turning it into an experience has to be at the top of a Steelers fan’s bucket list.
From Sweden With Love
Hans “Walle” Walsten has a piece of turf from Three Rivers Stadium and one of his most cherished birthdays came when he turned 30, flew into Pittsburgh and went straight to a Steelers game at Three Rivers.
What sets him apart from most Black and Gold fans: Wallsten is not a part of Steelers Nation. More like Steelers International.
Wallsten lives in Sweden and is among the many Steelers fans who reside outside of the United States. His love of the Steelers started when he began to work for a company based in Pittsburgh more than 30 years ago.
“It’s hard not to get in contact with the great football heritage in Pittsburgh,” Wallsten wrote via email. “At the same time in Sweden there was a TV channel that promoted American football and that is how I learned the game and rules. There are more people than I could imagine that are into NFL in Sweden. You meet them everywhere as long as you speak about football and the bond between Steelers fans becomes very obvious when high fives and comments are shared.”
Wallsten said he has attended 15 Steelers games—he watches the team on the Internet when he is in Sweden—and that the experience never gets old.
“The atmosphere is great, you just have so much fun without fights [like it is in Europe] and then to be at the stadium is so majestic,” Wallsten said. “I do like the old Three Rivers Stadium better than the new one. It was a sad day when I came in to Pittsburgh and drove through the Fort Pitt Tunnel just after they blew up Three Rivers Stadium.”