Pittsburgh’s Sports and Exhibition Authority, which owns Acrisure Stadium, approved funds for nearly 18,000 new seats as the Steelers continue to swap out seats original to the stadium.

Steelers affiliate PSSI Stadium LLC requested replacements for 58,719 of Acrisure Stadium’s 68,400 seats last year. Nearly all of the seats were original to the stadium, which opened in 2001. The SEA’s facility condition assessment firm found that many of the seats were detaching from the stadium’s concrete, rusting or deteriorating in some other fashion.

The SEA board is considering the replacements in phases, and approved 22,236 seats in the east and west sections of the upper bowl last October for approximately $12.4 million.

The 17,873 seats approved Thursday are located in the lower level on the stadium’s east side and will cost $5.8 million.

Of the seats being replaces, 85% will be yellow while 15% will be gray, and each seat has stainless steel anchors, according to Lucas Kistler, the SEA’s director of facility services.

Workers will repair the stadium’s concrete — also covered in the funds — before installing the new seats, Kistler said.

After removal, the old seats are sold through a contractor. The first phase brought in $110,000 and second is expected to be $127,000. The proceeds are placed in SEA’s capital reserve fund.

The Steelers expect to finish replacing the seats with a third and final phase next year, Kistler said.

In other SEA news:

• The board approved roughly $100,000 across several projects at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, including repairs to the heating system and sidewalks, replacement of light poles, and installation of 20 digital meeting room signs and two elevator wayfinding signs.

• The convention center brought in over $600,000 in May, mostly from the Association for Iron and Steel Technologies’ annual conference and exposition, said General Manager Tim Muldoon.

• Over 20,000 members of the Furry fandom attended last week’s Anthrocon, setting another attendance record for the event, Muldoon said. He reported “no major issues,” although organizers had to cancel their Fursuit Parade on July 5 due to the heat. Anthrocon has taken place annually at the convention center since 2006.