It is no secret changes are coming for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the rest of the National Football League in the near future. In recent years, we’ve seen drastic changes to the annual draft by being held in select host cities as opposed to the traditional Radio City Music Hall in New York City. With the league’s initiative for a continuous international presence, there are now several NFL games scheduled in other countries. So far, the Steelers have had minimal participation in those international games with their last appearance in London in 2013, but that is set to change after they expressed interest in a game in Ireland.
Sang Tan, AP
Steelers' LeVeon Bell (#26) scores his first NFL touchdown in London, England in 2013.
One of the other biggest changes coming to the league is enhanced stadiums and renovating older venues to modernize them. There have been a slew of organizations who have received the approval for such projects. Those teams include the Cleveland Browns, Buffalo Bills, Tennessee Titans, and the Jacksonville Jaguars. After the incredible architecture fans have seen in newer stadiums such as Sofi Stadium in Inglewood, California, Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, teams are learning that to attract sell-out crowds for every home game, the venue has to welcome that.
The Steelers are in need of their own renovations. The common consensus agrees with that notion and it looks like the Steelers’ front office does as well. But before changes come to Acrisure Stadium, news broke that the Steelers could find themselves making franchise history by playing in a venue where they’ve never played before in America.
Jacksonville Jaguars/jaguars.com
A rendering of the Jacksonville Jaguars' new stadium presented by the team.
As mentioned above, the Jaguars gained approval for a new stadium. The construction on the new stadium is slated to begin in 2025 and will leave the team in effect “homeless” for two seasons while the project is being completed. There have been a variety of different venues to throw their bid into consideration, including Orlando, the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, and even the University of North Florida’s stadium. But now, there is a new name to add to that list. That being Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.
The Steelers Could Play At Daytona International Speedway In 2026
Earlier this month, the speedway’s president, Frank Kelleher, invited the Jaguars’ brass to pitch them his proposal for the idea. The speedway sits roughly 90 miles south from the current Jaguars’ stadium and has the capacity to accommodate an NFL crowd. Kelleher sat down with the Daytona Beach News-Journal to explain his reasoning behind his pitch.
“Daytona International Speedway is a world-renowned sports and entertainment venue and hosts a full schedule of events each year,” he said. “As good neighbors in the Florida sports community, DIS will be speaking with the Jacksonville Jaguars to see if we can assist them with their potential upcoming facility needs around our scheduled events.”
Of course, a lot has to happen for Kelleher to earn the approval, but it sounds like some members of the Jaguars are on board with the idea. The team president, Mark Lamping, is one of those early proponents. Recently, Lamping was featured in a story by Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated to discuss the future of the team’s facilities. Further, Lamping confirmed the speedway was a very much legitimate candidate.
“They have had football down there,” he said. “The University of Tennessee played at Bristol (Motor Speedway. And keep in mind, that facility is probably the closest of those three facilities to Jacksonville. From where I live, its 60 miles down to Daytona. And they’re used to handling crowds of over 100,000. So the traffic and the parking and all of that, they handle in a major way twice a year with their two NASCAR races. So, they’re going to be interesting.”
As Lamping alluded to, in the world of college football, we’ve seen instances like this take place. That being a regular-season game being played in the infield of a professional race track. That happened in what was dubbed the “Battle of Bristol” when Virginia Tech faced off against Tennessee at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee in 2016. Just 55 years prior to that, the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington played a preseason game in that same venue. Although it may sound farfetched to make a speedway a home stadium, the opportunity is certainly there.
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The venue for the Battle of Bristol in 2016 in Bristol, Tennessee.
Therefore, the question remains as to how the Steelers will be impacted by this. While we don’t know yet of the team’s AFC South opponent for the 2025 season yet, the Jaguars are set to host the Steelers as a part of the 2026 season. Seeing as though the Jaguars are seeking asylum for the 2025 and 2026 seasons, this could leave them to host games at the speedway in 2026.
The Steelers have never played a football game inside of a race track in franchise history. Not to mention, this creates the underlying question for future NFL games being played in alternative venues, similar as to playing in European soccer stadiums. Even further, whenever it comes time for the Acrisure Stadium to receive renovations of its own, where could the Steelers call home for that temporary span? But just looking at the near future, watching the Steelers play a regular season game on the infield of an international speedway would definitely be interesting.
Would you travel to Daytona to watch the Steelers play? Where do you think the Steelers could look for a home field during their looming future renovations? Let us know in the comments below!
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