The AFC Champion Pittsburgh Steelers, fresh off their 24-19 victory over the New York Jets on Sunday night, will practice at TCU’s campus to prepare for Super Bowl XLV.
T. Ross Bailey, associate athletics director for operations, said he expected the team to be using TCU athletic facilities until Feb. 4, the Friday before the Super Bowl.
The team will use the Sam Baugh Indoor Practice Facility, the Walsh Athletic Complex and the Meyer-Martin Athletic Complex, Bailey said. Besides these facilities, he said the Athletics Department was unsure what other facilities the Steelers would use.
“We’ve pretty well given them run of the place as we can work it out,” he said. “We can’t give them the training room, our sports medicine facility all day. We’ve still got our athletes to take care of.”
He said the public will not be allowed to go to the practices and that even athletics staff members will not be at practices unless specifically asked. He said there will be tight security around the facilities, most likely from the Fort Worth Police Department and a secondary crowd control company.
“[The Steelers head trainer] and I will come to some kind of agreement on what [the Steelers] need, what they don’t need and how much privacy they need,” Bailey said.
He said he expected some people with NFL operations and league staff to arrive on campus Tuesday. He said he wasn’t sure when the team would arrive on campus but guessed it would be the beginning of next week.
Bailey said, however, he did not think most people would even realize the team was on campus. He added that there would probably not be anything sent out to students about the Steelers being on campus.
“Once [the Steelers] get on site, they’ll probably control any correspondence of that type going out,” Bailey said.
There will potentially be a press conference at the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum on Wednesday, Feb. 2, and Thursday, Feb. 3, Bailey said, and there could be some bus traffic. He said he did not expect much other disruption on campus, though.
He said he hoped people would not come to campus to see the team or practices but acknowledged that some might try.
Bailey also said he did not expect problems with media because only one reporter is allowed at practice per day, and an open media event is scheduled for Tuesday at Cowboys Stadium.
He said the Athletics Department did not have many hard answers and much was still vague, but he said the department may get more information by Wednesday.