And I'm sure the city of Pittsburgh will just rollover and let PITT have it, right?
The city has never been a friend to PITT.
Romanticizing Pitt Stadium Attendance
- Thread starter UPitt '89
- Start date
The city has never been a friend to PITT.
Pitt had it's chance to update or rebuild Pitt Stadium when the team was a national power. They also had their chance to acquire the space in Oakland over a period of 20 years since Pitt Stadium was torn down, at a cheaper price then it would be now. They didn't because they are content being a mediocre football program. The end.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Foodies. Who frigging cares about Primanti's and McDonalds? The atmosphere is totally non-intimidating, they expect to win and folks are nice to them.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Do you think a smaller but still cold and generic stadium with even greater limitations with parking and more expense for the school will help?
Plus coming to Pittsburgh and being in the city is a big draw for visiting fans. It's the whole package.
The arteries leading in and out of Oakland (Forbes, Fifth, Bates, Centre, Allies) aren't appreciably wider than the old days. Which is why I make my argument for the T extension. Driving into Oakland for a basketball game is tricky enough between 5 and 6 on a weeknight.
Maybe having a non-Nitter as mayor of Pittsburgh will help advance this pipe dream by a few baby steps.
Yes, the J Dennis O'Connor arithmetic counted everything in a quarter mile radius of the stadium, including occupied hospital beds. shadows and migrating birds.
Peduto was probably the most Pitt/UPMC friendly mayor we've had, which is pretty sad. Gainey went to Morgan State I think and campaigned on making UPMC "pay their fair share". I wouldn't hold much hope there.
No, we're stuck with being Rooney's tenants. Pitt decided that a weak commitment to FB is OK.
No $$$ to extend the "T". The tunnel to the Northside cost $600 million, and required NO purchase of property to speak of. Pgh isn't even a top 50 city these days...it was #8 when I arrived here. Blame me, not the great leaders here.
idk, if Apple takes up office space in the old PAA as rumored, plus the tech corridor on the upper ends of Forbes/Fifth with "luxury apts", the demand for a T extension into Oakland may be really strong. Would definitely change the dynamic of Heinz. Ends the reliance on the god-awful school busses to get students there. Plus they could hang out after the game at the bars and easily get back to campus. Would like to see millions spent on that and excellent coaches rather than a new on-campus stadium.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Putting your FB program in professional facilities for practices and games is a weak commitment to football?
Its asinine that they could never get funding for the Spine line in the last 25 years and left the oakland area to rot away. Had that put this in long ago think how different this side of Pittsburgh would be . Can't believe our Dem mayor and governor cant get funding, Why isnt this part of the Covid stimulus? San Fran is getting tons of infrastructure help from it.
If Pitt could simply be the most winning team in the entire country for a 5 year stretch, we could average about 10% more fans (back when the metro area had nearly 100,000 more people than it does now.)
WOW WHAT FANS
They did update it and improved the weight room and the rest rooms/concessions....there was only so much you could do without basically rebuilding it.
Oakland might be the hottest real estate area located between Philadelphia and Chicago right now. That might be a slight exaggeration, but not by much. It’s the opposite of rotting away.
You'd really need a game-changer on that scale to create the demand for the service. Well, we can dream.
I follow a FB page devoted to ballparks, and every now and again someone much younger than I am questions why/how multipurpose stadia came to be, and why Forbes was razed in the first place. The Pitt Stadium situation is a variation on the same theme.
Pro sports took their cues from publicly-funded stadiums in Milwaukee, Minnesota and the first of the saucers, Atlanta. (The Dodgers and Giants paid for their stadiums but got huge concessions on the real estate.). The push in Pittsburgh was to put a shared stadium in the Golden Triangle and open up that space in Oakland for Pitt. Nobody who had any clout, politically or financially, wanted to keep Forbes Field. Poorly maintained, it had become a dilapidated rat trap. Nobody waxed for it until after the first season or three of traffic jams on the North Side.
Same with Pitt Stadium. Maybe there were a few more voices hoping to preserve and update it, but Pitt, like the Pirate and Steelers, could not afford to say no. In fact, they wanted the new digs.
Of the major stadia and arenas in Pittsburgh, Heinz Field is by far my least favorite. The upper deck is too high, moving from one side to the other is a maze, the ketchup bottles suck, the end zone markings look ridiculous and we all know who the prime tenant is.. The one thing HF has going for it is its location -- accessible from all points of the 412.
Pro sports took their cues from publicly-funded stadiums in Milwaukee, Minnesota and the first of the saucers, Atlanta. (The Dodgers and Giants paid for their stadiums but got huge concessions on the real estate.). The push in Pittsburgh was to put a shared stadium in the Golden Triangle and open up that space in Oakland for Pitt. Nobody who had any clout, politically or financially, wanted to keep Forbes Field. Poorly maintained, it had become a dilapidated rat trap. Nobody waxed for it until after the first season or three of traffic jams on the North Side.
Same with Pitt Stadium. Maybe there were a few more voices hoping to preserve and update it, but Pitt, like the Pirate and Steelers, could not afford to say no. In fact, they wanted the new digs.
Of the major stadia and arenas in Pittsburgh, Heinz Field is by far my least favorite. The upper deck is too high, moving from one side to the other is a maze, the ketchup bottles suck, the end zone markings look ridiculous and we all know who the prime tenant is.. The one thing HF has going for it is its location -- accessible from all points of the 412.
Actually, UPMC put the southside complex together, and Pitt was an equal renter. The Steelers had a mud lot near 3RS as a practice field. The Rooney's and their lackey Mayor Smurphy negotiated the deal with Nordy & the BOT. Pitt let the stadium go downhill (It was 70+ years old) and had high maintenance costs, no club facilities/boxes/press rooms or amenities. We got a longterm lease at a low cost, UPMC gets rent, and space to build a needed arena was made available. The plan to build the Pete on the OC lot, connected to a remodeled stadium by elevators was too expensive....would have been terrific. But 6-7 gamedays didn't merit that expenditure. I hated it, but it was the reasonable solution to replacing 2 outdated facilities that housed our 2 revenue sports.
Not anymore....we are a SMALL city in a SMALL region. Downtown offices are now dinosaurs. We used to have the biggest central business district commuters than our "peers" , like St. Louis/Cinci/Milwaukee, etc. That's being gutted. Things will disappear, along with the revenue.
You may recall the non-binding referendum on gov't funding of the 2 stadiums?? 67% against it. Ignored by the Rooneys.
"Meds & Eds" is a great idea, but when your Economic Development Director has only experience with subsidized housing, your problems get multiplied.
They never revealed it, but there were rumors that re-doing the Stadium was about a hundred large, which did nothing for the arena.
What's happened to college football attendance since 1970? I'll save you the trouble, it's up over 50%.
There are a lot of reasons you can't compare 1970 to today.
The university will eventually have to find a place to build a stadium. They kicked the can down the road, but the problem isn't going away.
First of all, I call bullsh*t as it relates top 50 cities, your self -loathing not withstanding. Yep
buy South Oakland and have at it.....love these discussions.
Well in population, which is what he is referring to, the actual City of Pittsburgh was 66th in the latest Census estimates.
Now there are reason that the City itself ranks so low compared to other places, but that doesn't change the actual numbers.
Ah, a summer ritual. Like the swallows coming back to Capistrano......
Love the annual On Campus Stadium Threads!
Love the annual On Campus Stadium Threads!
You are correct. It was the most reasonable solution considering our alligator armed fan base.
Not a chance because it's funding the entire athletic department. 65% of AD revenue and 4x the profits of mens BB. They'll rip the Pete down and build a stadium there before they cancel football.
When it becomes a big enough issue they'll address it. They aren't poor. University operations were $100+ million in the green for FY20. They wouldn't be spending $300m on the hill if they were.
When the Pete was full, it generated more profit than football. Football is much costlier to run.
