The city, it seems, has banned outdoor advertising in the riverside neighborhood where the Pittsburgh Steelers built a new football stadium last year. The Steelers, however, struck naming-rights and signage deals on both the stadium and a sports museum located inside. The Zoning Board of Appeals okayed the Steelers' plan to put four giant signs on the stadium that say "Heinz Field," after the locally based ketchup maker. But it nixed outdoor signage for the Coca-Cola Great Hall, which was to use the soft-drink maker's familiar red- script logo.
As the zoning board sees it, "Heinz Field" is the very name of the stadium itself. So the Heinz signs outside merely identify the building. By the board's logic, however, the museum is part of the same building, making Coca-Cola's place in the museum signage akin to advertising. "The Great Hall can be adequately identified without the phrase 'Coca-Cola,'" the zoning board de-clared in its November ruling.
The Steelers organization is outraged, however, and has appealed the decision to a state court. Team officials concede that the museum is connected to the stadium, but they argue that it functions as a separate entity. The museum is open on non-game days, for example. "Coca-Cola Great Hall is the name of that portion of the building," says Ron Wahl, communications director for the Steelers. "It's a separate venue."
