As the Pittsburgh Riverhounds seek to repeat as champions of the United Soccer League Championship, the team is seeking a $7 million state grant as part of its effort to triple seating capacity at Highmark Stadium on Pittsburgh’s South Shore.
Seating for 15,000 people at the facility would meet the requirements for an expanded USL Division One league. It also would place it among the ranks of the 23,000-seat Pavilion at Star Lake in Burgettstown and 20,000-seat PPG Paints Arena in Uptown as an entertainment venue.
Expansion, however, is far from a done deal.
Riverhounds owner Terrance C. “Tuffy” Shallenberger Jr. wants the state’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program to help fund expansion of the 13-year-old 5,500-seat privately owned stadium. The grant application estimates the expansion cost at $75 million, though it could go as high as $175 million, according to the Riverhounds.
The stadium — built for $10.2 million in 2013 — sits across the Monongahela River from Downtown Pittsburgh.
The $7 million grant application submitted through the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority would help pay for the $15 million cost of constructing the first phase of a three-phase project the team wants to complete by April 2028.
That first phase would consist of building a rooftop deck with additional suite seating and upgrading the locker room and event areas. A second phase would expand the corporate space and facilities and the rotundas, adding 1,200 seats. The final phase would add 8,300 seats and a new press box, according to the application.
None of that work has been started.
“As soon as the funding is in place, we will move forward with the drawings and the permits. It’s not if; it is when,” Shallenberger said in an interview with TribLive earlier this year.
Since the 2023 season, the Riverhounds have sold out about three-fourths of their home games, and average attendance has exceeded capacity with fans using standing-room-only space, according to the team. The Riverhounds will draw fans for 17 home games in this coming regular season, which started Saturday and runs into October.
The team won the USL Championship last season.
More fans will be coming to the stadium for six college soccer and lacrosse teams, the Riverhounds-2 preprofessional team and the Pittsburgh Riveters, a women’s team affiliated with the Riverhounds.
The stadium also hosts high school postseason games. Locally, the WPIAL playoffs are held there; at the state level, the PIAA recently said the stadium would serve as the site of the state soccer playoffs under a four-year contract that begins this year and continues through the 2029 soccer playoffs.
Not only will it be a bigger venue for soccer, but the expanded stadium also could host as many as 20 concerts a year, Shallenberger said. It has long been a concert venue, but an expanded stadium could book acts that attract more than the 5,500 or so fans that can fill Highmark Stadium today.
An expanded facility could “put 20,000 to 22,000 people in (with floor seating) for a concert, with a view of the city,” he said. It would fill a gap in concert venues for acts that cannot pack the larger PNC Park and Acrisure Stadium, he said.
The state, however, is not tied to a construction deadline for rendering a decision on the application. A spokeswoman for the Shapiro administration said the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program applications are being reviewed and offered no indication when a decision would be made.
The driving force behind the proposed expansion is a desire to move from the second-tier USL Championship league to the proposed top-level USL Premier that the league plans to launch in 2028. The league wants all teams in the new league to have stadiums of least 15,000 seats, Shallenberger said.
The USL website indicates it is reviewing applications for the league. Shallenberger said the Riverhounds intend to apply to the USL to be considered. According to the USL, the inaugural season may include 14 teams, a combination of soccer clubs from the Championship division and new franchises.
The USL did not respond to a request for a comment.
History of investment
Shallenberger, who acquired the team out of bankruptcy in 2014, exudes confidence when it comes to potential funding from the state’s RACP. The Riverhounds in 2019 sought $8 million in RACP funding for “Highmark Stadium strategy expansion” to purchase the land on which the stadium sits and parking lots, but received only $1 million.
In 2023, the team applied for $10 million for the stadium expansion project but was awarded just $3 million in 2024.
Shallenberger said he is not the first to seek a “dose” of state money for sports facilities in the city. The state allocated $15 million for the now-demolished Three Rivers Stadium, the former home of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pirates; $82 million for PNC Park where the Pirates play; $75 million for what now is Acrisure Stadium, home to the Steelers and University of Pittsburgh football team; and close to $30 million for what now is PPG Paints Arena, home to the Pittsburgh Penguins, according to RACP documents.
Those facilities are owned by Pittsburgh’s Sports and Exhibition Authority. The SEA has not been formally approached by the Riverhounds to participate in the stadium expansion project, said Connor Reiche, an SEA spokesman.
The Riverhounds also will seek any real estate tax breaks that might be available to the project, Shallenberger said.
The state aid is contingent upon the recipient investing its own money. Shallenberger has pledged to make an $18 million investment to secure the $7 million grant.
The team is using the value of the Highmark Stadium property as part of its private investment, which is permitted under RACP rules. Shallenberger paid Station Square Gaming LLC $10 million in 2019 for the stadium land; his company acquired the stadium when he took ownership of the team in 2014.
Shallenberger declined to say how much money he would invest in the project for the privately owned stadium.
“It will be a significant portion,” he said.
Political support but no promises
State and local officials have offered verbal support for the stadium expansion project, but no promise of a source of funding that could make the dream a reality.
There is no guarantee that more RACP grants will be forthcoming beyond the $3 million already committed, said state Sen. Wayne Fontana, D-Brookline, who said he supports the stadium project.
The Riverhounds’ applications for state aid face competition from companies and organizations statewide. Fontana’s 42nd Senatorial District alone had $250 million worth of requests for state funding for the 2025 round of RACP funding. The district covers the South Side, parts of Pittsburgh and stretches from Neville Island to Mt. Lebanon and Allegheny River communities just outside the city.
Even when projects are approved for funding, requests often are only partially fulfilled and may take years to get fully funded, said Fontana, who is chairman of the Sports & Exhibition Authority.
It would be politically expedient for Gov. Josh Shapiro — who is running for reelection in 2026 — to support the project, said Alison Dagnes, a political science professor at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania.
“For Shapiro, it’s just a win-win,” Dagnes said. “Not only is he pro-development, not only is he pro-Pittsburgh, he also is an Eagles fan. In the election year where he’s running statewide, he’s able to say, ‘I’m an Eagles fan, but I’m still going to put money into Pittsburgh sports because I know Pennsylvania has the strongest sports teams.’ ”
It’s not just good optics, Dagnes said. Expanding an entertainment venue can also bring new jobs, infrastructure improvements and increased economic activity.
That is an angle Shallenberger is touting.
He said his representatives have talked with Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor and with Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato. O’Connor said he was aware of the proposed stadium expansion and generally was supportive — but he didn’t know how much funding the project needed or where the Riverhounds were looking to get it.
“They’re successful, and we want to build on that,” the mayor said.
The county executive has been briefed and is excited about the potential for the project, but at this time there are no county-allocated funds for it, said Abigail Gardner, a county spokeswoman.
“Everybody’s on board with this facility,” Shallenberger said. “I haven’t run into a politician yet that’s not in favor of it, because it makes sense.”
One organization not on board with taxpayer funding for the stadium is the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy, a conservative think tank based in Castle Shannon. That opposition to the Riverhounds’ request for money is the same stance it took on other stadium projects in Pittsburgh.
The benefits in the Riverhounds’ economic impact study estimates are mostly a “substitution effect,” said Allegheny Institute President Frank Gamrat.
“Probably 90% of those attending the games are local,” Gamrat said. “Soccer is not the splash that the Pirates and Steelers are” in terms of attracting out-of-town fans. As a result, he said, most of the money spent would mean less money for other local venues.
“The main beneficiaries of the stadium need to pay for the stadium. It’s not the taxpayers’ responsibilities to line (the owners’) pockets,” Gamrat said.
At the Commonwealth Foundation for Policy Alternatives of Pennsylvania, a Harrisburg-based conservative public policy think tank, chief policy officer Nathan Benfield also is skeptical.
The announcements of awards often are made in the spring and fall, giving politicians the opportunity to talk about the economic development benefits of the project for their legislative district, timed before the spring primary or November election, Benfield said.
The process of the state government picking winners and losers with taxpayers’ dollars is a process that is influenced by lobbyists seeking to get the money for their clients, Benfield said.
“It’s absolutely subject to politics,” Benfield said of the award selection process. “It can be manipulated.”
Julia Burdelski and Joe Napsha are TribLive staff writers. Julia can be reached at jburdelski@triblive.com, Joe at jnapsha@triblive.com.