A fan scattered ashes of a family member at Heinz Field during the Steelers’ 27-19 win over the Denver Broncos on Sunday, a team spokesman said.
“Heinz Field management does not permit or condone such actions,” Steelers spokesman Burt Lauten said in a statement.
Pennsylvania does not have a state law controlling where one can scatter ashes, according to the Funeral Consumer Alliance of Pennsylvania, but it is suggested that those wishing to scatter ashes on private land other than their own seek permission.
“While we respect those fans who may be interested in honoring a family member by spreading their family’s ashes inside the stadium, Heinz Field cannot accommodate those requests due to state and local regulations,” Lauten said.
Though cremation renders ashes harmless, according to the FCAPA, they can still harm greenery, according to a Washington Post report on the practice.
Grass such as that on football fields can die from “the salt burn of the tissue because there’s so much calcium, calcium phosphate that you’re putting on that leaf tissue,” Scott McElroy, an Auburn professor of crop, soil and environmental sciences, told the newspaper.
“It’ll burn the plant, any plant,” McElroy said. The Post noted that it would be “akin to putting excessive fertilizer on the ground.”
Lauten said management has responded to fans asking throughout the years that “this type of action is not permissible.”
The team did not say in its statement what it did with the ashes found Sunday or whether they would take action against the fan who spread them.
