PITT ON WAY BACK TO BEING A FOOTBALL SCHOOL

[FIVE4PITT]

Pitt Stadium needed repairs over the years and the University of Pittsburgh did nothing about it. I’ve been to Ohio State, Tennessee and Norte Dame to name a few stadiums they are also old but they still have tradition. These stadiums had money spent on them to repair and update them. Penn State has an old stadium. Again, it has been the administration at Pitt that has hurt the football program and the demise of Pitt Stadium. I loved going to games there and it being on campus. It was a great stadium to watch a game. Pitt stadium had the college atmosphere. The last few games at Heinz Filed have been fun. Pitt has to win consistent to have fans now and in the future. The location doesn’t help with that it’s winning. H2P!

 

[TFBaum]

Pitt Stadium needed repairs over the years and the University of Pittsburgh did nothing about it. I’ve been to Ohio State, Tennessee and Norte Dame to name a few stadiums they are also old but they still have tradition. These stadiums had money spent on them to repair and update them. Penn State has an old stadium. Again, it has been the administration at Pitt that has hurt the football program and the demise of Pitt Stadium. I loved going to games there and it being on campus. It was a great stadium to watch a game. Pitt stadium had the college atmosphere. The last few games at Heinz Filed have been fun. Pitt has to win consistent to have fans now and in the future. The location doesn’t help with that it’s winning. H2P!

I loved Pitt stadium and some of my best memories were going there with my dad. But what I remember was it also had toilet that made concentrate camps look modern. The press box was a high school press box. I think the last row in the end zone VA side was over 100 yards from the field. I would love if Pitt built a stadium of 40,000 that mirrored the same 40,000 site lines as Heinz so that big games moved to Heinz had those season ticket holder had no alternations in their seats. I actually believe that if done right the stadium could host more then just football.

 

[joeydavid]

The attempt was made to elevate the basketball program at the expense of football. To wit, they tore down the football stadium for a basketball arena.

Granted, neither Rocket Man nor anyone else was up to the task of raising the funds needed for a new Pitt Stadium.

This is funny. You just disproved your original statement in the same post.

 

[upj87]

With our recent success in football and our self-destruction of our men's basketball program we can look forward to football being the king pin in the ACC. . Basketball will never be better than a middle of the pack performer in the ACC. It took PN 3 years to learn to be a head coach and it finally is paying dividends. Stability is the key. When spoke to PN he indicated to me that he wants to be here long term and his wife and family are happy being settled here because of family in in nearby Youngstown..The 20 million dollar donation earmarked for football will be a big help as our Panther Club donations are very low compared to other ACC schools. Fan base is low so Heather has some headwinds to deal with. I believe she will be able to handle it. When spoke with her I told her winning cures everything and football is our best chance. Hopefully if we have success this time we don't self destruct which is the Pitt way over the years.

With our recent success in football..uh, an 8-2 record in inarguably the worst division of the worst conference in college football over a two month span with wins over no ranked teams with a loss to a lousy mac school does not seem to indicate a "return" to anything at this juncture.....not exactly talking '75-'83 here...



Basketball will never be better than a middle of the pack performer in the ACC... why not?

 

[Pittbull68]

They don’t have the money for Victory Heights. Donations have been underwhelming. Pitt could do a lot of things if they had more supportive boosters.

My understanding is they obtained some if not all by an issue of bonds.That money at least jump started the project,Heather Gallager and the Board of trustees thinking outside the box got this going.

 

[Pittbull68]

I think past administration had a focus on basketball success and didn't provide enough funds for football. So maybe people were jealous by the focus and funds on basketball instead of football, which makes the money to fund the other programs. Just my guess

Perfect analysis.Mark Nordenberg and Jerry corcoran were the ones who initiated this with the approval of the Board of Trustees. Steve Pedererson merely executed the plan although he let on that he was solely in charge.It was MN who was able to convince the Peterson Family to donate the money for the naming. Fortunately MN had the skill in fund raising to increase our endowment from 500 million to 2 billion improving our ranking as a world class institution. .

 

[Slick Manager of Champs]

Pitt Stadium needed repairs over the years and the University of Pittsburgh did nothing about it. I’ve been to Ohio State, Tennessee and Norte Dame to name a few stadiums they are also old but they still have tradition. These stadiums had money spent on them to repair and update them. Penn State has an old stadium. Again, it has been the administration at Pitt that has hurt the football program and the demise of Pitt Stadium. I loved going to games there and it being on campus. It was a great stadium to watch a game. Pitt stadium had the college atmosphere. The last few games at Heinz Filed have been fun. Pitt has to win consistent to have fans now and in the future. The location doesn’t help with that it’s winning. H2P!

Beaver Stadium (and also UCF) are both high school stadiums on steroids. But they get the job done. Yes Pitt stadium needed major repairs, probably along the lines of what Stanford did. Totally gut it, remove the track & reconfigure. Plus add some modern touches like suites/club boxes. That's what should have happened. But Pederson & company made the decision as to what would be more cost effective rather what would be better for the program. And moving to Heinz made more sen$e.

Although I really think Pederson believed they could fill Heinz. But not sure how he didn't have the foresight to realize how all those empty seats would impact recruiting, especially since I believe he started as a recruiting coordinator or something like that at Nebraska.

 

[CaptainMurphy]

I don't think we need to rehash this but Pitt Stadium was falling apart. Building a new basketball arena made more sense especially since at the same time a brand new football stadium was being built 10 minutes away from campus.

I would love a dedicated football stadium, but I don't see how it can happen at this point. I would be open to something near Oakland if it was used for a combination Pitt stadium and MLS but that isn't happening, and the logistics would be a nightmare. I'd also have a hard time justifying going to any games if they built a stadium anywhere on the upper hill/oakland as the logistics of getting in and out are a nightmare without a complete overhaul of mass transit and street level traffic.

In hindsight, the correct place to build a new basketball venue would have been the Syria Mosque site. Granted, Pitt didn't own the land back then. And it wouldn't have been as big (maybe only 10K). I also think it would have been pretty cool to have concerts on that site again.

That being said, I think they did a pretty good job with the Pete. Just would prefer to still be watching football at a new stadium there.