Concert History | Three Rivers Stadium — A Concert Displaced Practice and Became a Live TV Outpost

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On Wednesday, 6 September 1989, the Rolling Stones brought the Steel Wheels tour to Three Rivers Stadium, with Living Colour opening. A contemporaneous [Deseret News report](https://www.deseret.com/1989/9/9/18822928/fans-roll-to-the-forefront-at-stones-pittsburgh-gig/) identifies the Wednesday-night Pittsburgh performance and describes a reported crowd of 63,000.

The booking occupied more than showtime. Two days before the concert, the [Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-09-05-sp-1772-story.html) reported that the Steelers could not practice inside Three Rivers until Friday and had moved to a nearby grass field during the week of their home opener. Team business manager Joe Gordon said he could not remember that happening in an opening week since the stadium opened in 1970.

Backstage also became a television outpost. An [Associated Press report preserved by The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/09/07/mtv-awards-go-to-living-colour/ea25fa55-7aee-4df6-ae42-242054563ec9/) says Living Colour accepted three MTV Video Music Awards from backstage at Three Rivers, while Mick Jagger presented an award through the same live satellite remote. The stadium concert therefore temporarily took over both a football team's working calendar and a national awards broadcast: stadium-scale touring operated as a short-lived layer of venue conversion, communications infrastructure, and live television.

**Coordinate method.** Three Rivers Stadium was demolished in 2001. The pin at **40.446701, -80.012943** is the midpoint of the historical-stadium coordinates published by [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1189339) and the USGS-derived [TopoZone historical feature record](https://www.topozone.com/pennsylvania/allegheny-pa/park/three-rivers-stadium-historical/); their points are about 29 metres apart. A **160-metre precision radius** honestly represents the former stadium bowl's footprint, not a present-day entrance or memorial.

**Image.** Aerial view of Three Rivers Stadium in 2000, photographed from a private plane by MaxVeers. This is a later view of the venue, not the 1989 concert. The author released it worldwide into the public domain. [Source and rights record](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ThreeRiversStadium.jpg).