PITTSBURGH – A controversial proposal for a new football stadium. A no-man’s-land along the water. A city’s budget crunch. A mayor criticized for seeking public money to further the private interests of wealthy individuals.

The Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t have it easy when they began their stadium bid six years ago.

As the sports world fixes its gaze on the scrappy Philadelphia Eagles’ effort to pull off a Super Bowl upset this Sunday, the Jets – and the Bloomberg administration – might be training their eyes on the experiences of another National Football League club from the Keystone State. The case of Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field offers the Jets striking parallels, from portents on the stadium’s legislative battle to a model for the building itself. And yes, the stadium happened to be the site last month of the 2004 Jets’ heartbreaking final game, when windswept field-goal attempts failed and the team from New Jersey lost to the hometown Steelers.

The parallels concerning the fight to build the stadium are not lost on the Jets president, Jay Cross. At that playoff game three weekends ago, standing near the luxury boxes in a green striped mohair sweater and a matching cap bearing a vintage “J,” Mr. Cross said: “People pooh-pooh all the things we’d like to do. But they should come out and see places like Pittsburgh. It’s all happening here.”

Like the proposed Jets stadium, Heinz Field has an abundance of luxury-box seats – more than 8,000 – and even a sharp rectangular design similar to the Jets’ model. But the actual structure is only part of the story. The narrative of Pittsburgh’s proposal also offers the Jets both hope and caution as the team readies for its own February showdown: a visit by the evaluation commission of the International Olympic Committee and a key Assembly vote concerning the $300 million in state money that the Jets hope to make use of.

Consider:

* Both cities’ stadium plans split costs almost evenly between public and private funds. In Pittsburgh it was $120 million in public money and $130 million in private money. In New York, the scale’s higher, but with a similar ratio: $600 million in public funds,$800 million in private.

* Both bids were, or are, part of a larger economic push. In Pittsburgh, it was a statewide initiative that resulted in four new stadiums at Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. In New York, it’s the 2012 Olympics and a huge redevelopment plan for the far West Side.

* Both projects have aesthetic doubters. When Heinz Field opened, a Steelers representative, Ron Wahl, conceded: “We never said it would be a beautiful stadium.” In New York, Mayor Bloomberg recently responded to a question about finding the new stadium design attractive by saying only, “We’ve got to build for the future.”

* Both have had fans worried about things like tailgating. In Pittsburgh, the stadium is trickily wedged between downtown and the convergence of the Allegheny, Ohio, and Monongahela rivers. In New York, it would be trickily wedged between Midtown and the Hudson River.

* Both areas lay fallow prior to stadium plans. Pittsburgh’s North Side and New York’s Far West Side stir passionate arguments about whether a stadium is a suitable anchor for development of an urban area.

All of which leads to the question: Do the parallels favor the Jets?

The Pittsburgh proposal ultimately succeeded, of course, which should hearten Mr. Cross, Mr. Bloomberg, and their colleagues. But it didn’t come easily. The city had to revert to its so-called Plan B after voters rejected a new tax to finance the stadium. Mayor Tom Murphy was nearly voted out of office after a scandal involving minority contracts. And the city is now strapped for cash, in part because of the stadium.

In a way, though, Mr. Cross and the Jets are lucky to be late. The team can learn from Pittsburgh’s mistakes, as its recent outreach to minority groups suggests it has. And the Jets have neatly plucked from such places as Pittsburgh the idea of using luxury boxes to keep ticket prices down. Asked at the playoff game about the Jets’ promise not to raise ticket prices the first season in Manhattan, Mr. Cross repeated the phrase “corporate hospitality” several times as he gestured to the nearby boxes.

The Jets are also able to use Heinz Field to head off the tailgating question. “Everyone was worried about that same thing here,” Mr. Cross said at the playoff game. “But it isn’t a problem. People find places to tailgate in the stadium.” A particularly popular area is in the stands behind the end zone, where barbecue is sold. He continued: “They take ferries from across the river. They do a lot of things.”

Still, some experts say the team isn’t looking hard enough at Pittsburgh’s mistakes. The Jets have argued that a stadium will be a catalyst for renewing the surrounding area. Heinz Field and the Pirates’ nearby PNC Park, though, have by many estimates done little for the neighborhood.

“It’s very simple. In places where there’s a commitment for private money to go along with the public money, renewal works,” one student of the issue, Mark Rosentraub, said.

Mr. Rosentraub, author of “Major League Losers,” a book about new parks and urban renewal, said there has been that sort of private commitment to invest in neighborhood renewal in many cities, but there was none in Pittsburgh. “And I haven’t seen anything from the Jets to suggest that they’re doing it differently,” he said. Mr. Rosentraub, who is a dean at Cleveland State University, said Jets management has emphasized the coattail effects of jobs but more rarely talked about private development money for the Far West Side.

In the press-box dining room at Heinz Field, two large black-and-white photos hanging side by side offer encouragement to the Jets. They form a neat before-and-after: One is picture of a vacant lot, the other is of a glittering ballpark. Together, they serve as a triumphal reminder of how a fractious stadium battle can be won.

As the Jets went on to lose in that very park, though, there were reasons to doubt. “It doesn’t always hurt if you don’t go far in the playoffs. But it can,” Rick Eckstein, co-author of the book “Public Dollars, Private Stadiums,” said, citing the way the San Diego Padres rode a 1998 National League pennant run to a new downtown park.

On the day of the Steelers-Jets playoff game, Mr. Cross was in downplay formation about the relationship between winning and new buildings. “It won’t matter to legislators,” he said during the game. “It won’t really matter to the bid.” He has some history on his side: The Steelers posted a 7-9 record the year before they won approval.