First off, congrats to the Cards, they are well deserved to be in the SB and will definitely give the Steelers a run for their money and vice versa.
Secondly, and the main reason I'm posting, is because I get real tired of hearing from other teams fans that people who live in Pittsburgh basically live in squalor and that the economy here is horrible. This is the biggest misconception of the city and is heavily outdated. This is just a worn out stereotype from the 70's and 80's. The economy here in Pittsburgh is one of the best in the country TBH. This is not a city of strictly blue collared steel workers anymore. The two largest employers in the city are University of Pitt Medical Center and the University of Pitt itself. The city now centers its job market around high technology, such as robotics, health care, nuclear engineering, biomedical technology and finance. It is home to 8 Fortune 500 companies and 7 Fortune 1000 companies. It is far from a "struggling" city.
The housing market is relatively stable despite a national mortgage crisis and instead of a declining job market, Pittsburgh has actually seen a rise in the job market in 2008. There are of course people in the city who have lost work or are affected by a rise in gas prices and the general cost of living, but that is a true statistic for any city in the nation.
You also forget that Steeler fans are not just located in Pittsburgh, there are Steeler fans everywhere, and many of them save up for events such as these. Some of them will not even have to travel far to make a trip to the SB and are just happy to get to the event win or lose. Would you consider it a complete waste of time or money to make the trip to Tampa to see the Cards play even if they lost? I somehow doubt it.