Someone is paying for Three Rivers Stadium website to keep living on web

It's funny and scary to think how much has changed in the world since the late 1990s, and sometimes the best snapshots of this are old, crusty websites that somehow continue to roam on like dinosaurs that time forgot.

Believe it or not, you can still go to the old Three Rivers Stadium website. Yes, the stadium itself was demolished more than 14 years ago, back in February 2001 (when Ben Roethlisberger was finishing up his senior year at Findlay High School), but the website refuses to go away.

So many funny things going on with this webpage. Where to begin ...

OK, first, why is it up and living? Because someone, we assume, is paying for it to live. Yes, according to domain records, the site was created on June 27, 1998 and the domain name and hosting account were last renewed on May 21, 2013 for five more years. Who did it? Who knows? Maybe the guy who originally designed and hosted it was a huge Pittsburgh Steelers fan, or they are really proud of their 1998-era HTML work.

That brings us to the site itself. Minutes of mind-bending fun.

What's more hilarious? The nav bar on the left has a few gems, including:

“spe^cial events” and “sports ^excitement”

Yes, the the stadium was used for an amazing array of exiciting events back then, including The Billy Graham Crusade; "Porkstock", a celebration of Porky Chedwick's 50th anniversary in radio; specialty auto shows; The Coors Light Three Rivers Rib and Music Festival; and — get this — the world premiere of Angels in the Outfield, which was viewed by 38,000 fans on the weekend of the 1994 Baseball All-Star Game.

Getting chills right now thinking about that. A simpler time.

What about at the bottom of the page? In case you're worried that your browser might not support this space-age technology, rest assured: "This site has been optimized for Netscape 3.0 or above and Internet Explorer 4.0 and above."

Phew.

Oh, and if you're feeling sentimental and want to drive by the old site and show your kids where you used to watch Willie Stargell and Louis Lipps play, they very thoughtfully included directions. Pages and pages of directions. Back then — pre-GPS devices in every phone and car — we had to use our Netscape and our (dot matrix?) printer to print up directions (assuming you couldn't find, um, downtown Pittsburgh) and stick them on the passenger seat of the car. Might have had to change the ink cartridge on this one; they offer directions from, well, every direction.

Sadly, when you visit the "contact us" page, this haunting note is ours to read:

But out there, someone is keeping this old-timer alive, someone with an active mail account. Identify yourself! (Seriously, if anyone out there knows who is running this thing, drop us a line.)

At the bottom of said page, we're treated to a cheery "Thanks for a great 30 years!" and we can only assume that was meant to commemorate the stadium's 30 active years, not the planned 30 years of the site's life, which would hit in 2028.

If you're a fan of these kinds of sites, there are hours of time-sucking fun here, not that we'd know or anything. And heck, if you're just a nostalgia person, bookmark 3riversstadium.com and come back as you please. It doesn't appear to be going anywhere.

(h/t Reddit)

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm