I have no doubt in my mind. If Pitt had the land and had the money, the city would eventually allow them to build it. Heck, they could agree to let that become the main field for the City League. Think that would be a benefit to those kids?
"Victory Heights" announcement on Tuesday
- Thread starter Chris Peak
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I have no doubt in my mind. If Pitt had the land and had the money, the city would eventually allow them to build it. Heck, they could agree to let that become the main field for the City League. Think that would be a benefit to those kids?
not much of a “Big Picture” guy, are you?
Here's the funny thing:
If Lyke and Gallagher got up there yesterday and announced they were putting $300 million toward the development of a new football stadium. Not one person on this board would have been crying that that money should have been spent on a new volleyball arena and workout facility. NOT ONE and you know it. Most of you guys just go with the flow with no ability to think independently or critically.
You are insane if you believe the city of Pittsburgh would prevent Pitt from building a football stadium on land they own. It would be difficult but it'd get done.
Well there's the problem right there. You don't understand the difference between independent thinking and just plain old stupid.
SMF, here’s where I disagree. I think the financial and land commitment to Victory Heights is unrelated to any financial and land commitments to a potential on-campus stadium.
If Pitt really wanted to they could fund both projects, meaning the money going towards Victory Heights is not at the cost of a football stadium. Also, it’s not like they could’ve used the space they’re building on for a football stadium, so the opportunity costs of the facility project is unrelated to a stadium.
This is what I am hoping because you cant spend $300 million on olympic sports and completely ignore our horrific stadium situation.
There is only one way your scenario works. The stadium would have to go on campus
On.....campus.
Not on the fringe.....not on newly acquired land by razing and taking houses. On campus.
You obviously have no understanding of city politics. You could a a few zeroes to the 300 mill figure and it still doesnt happen anywhere but on campus.
The only place an OCS can go is the exact spot it once stood.
Horrific? Please. The atmosphere at Heinz sucks because the team sucks. When the team is good the stadium is fine.
To me the biggest issue is the largest part of this plan (in terms of land) is being dedicated to women’s lacrosse, a program that doesn’t start competition until next season. How long will it take Pitt to be competitive in the very talented ACC? Not to mention fielding women’s lacrosse is costing an already financially challenged athletics department way more in scholarship money each year.
And yet, we bought housing projects from the city and built 3 athletic fields. Cant believe they let us do that.
So now you are equating a 40,000 behemoth to Pitt baseball with its fan base of 150.
Your homework assignment is to read my prior posts which corrected you every step of the way.
A stadium....unless built in the old site will never happen.
Sorry to break your heart, but the truth can be painful.
Cheers.
I still think you’re right that the only place is can go is probably where it once stood. However, instead of making a Carrier Dome-like facility, they should consider something along the lines of the Saitama Super Arena in Tokyo.
With sliding seat technology, they can turn a basketball arena into a soccer stadium with ease.
I still don’t think they would tear down the Pete, but this would be the best solution if they felt it was necessary. This way you truly get two facilities in one.
It’s really obvious who here cares about the University of Pittsburgh and who cares about Pitt football.
I still think you’re right that the only place is can go is probably where it once stood. However, instead of making a Carrier Dome-like facility, they should consider something along the lines of the Saitama Super Arena in Tokyo.
With sliding seat technology, they can turn a basketball arena into a soccer stadium with ease.
I still don’t think they would tear down the Pete, but this would be the best solution if they felt it was necessary. This way you truly get two facilities in one.
That will never happen but it's a gorgeous facility that looks a hell of a lot better than the carrier some.
The stadium isn't fine but it's far from horrific. I'd say mediocre.
I have no problem with other, high density use at the top of the hill. It's not a great location for a stadium anyways unless you plan on demolishing a hell of a lot (probably including the VA). A new stadium will come someday but why not make sure everything else is given the best chance to succeed. They aren't mutually exclusive.
I’ll repeat
Pitt has been unsuccessful in getting bigelow Blvd closed for decades - a single street for 3 blocks
but you have no doubt they will approve razing blocks of housing and supporting ingress and egress?
1. Pitt doesnt own Bigelow Blvd.
2. I didnt say has to raze blocks of housing.
3. Pitt would own the land they would be building the stadium on.
If the team goes 12-0 the next 2 seasons, there will be 45K-50K people there for games vs teams who do not bring in a ton of fans. That would still he a terrible atmosphere.
Do you remember how long that took and how big a struggle it was to do that?
Obviously not.
Also, well see how "easy" it is to get these hundreds of millions of dollars as smf says. They are debt financing this project and Gallagher stated during the press conference if the majority is not made up through donations taking on the debt could hurt Pitts athletic future financially.
It literally took more than five years of fighting with the city for Pitt to purchase Robinson Court, and it took them paying double what anyone else was bidding in order to do it. It was worth the money, though, and I don't think we'd be in the ACC if we hadn't done it.
I sure do. It was hard. I didnt say it would be easy. The easy part would be coming up with the money. They also made a compromise to allow City League teams to use it, which to the best of my knowledge has never happened once.
Agai . Well see how easy it is going to be to get the money via victory heights.
They arent going to raise anywhere close to $300 million for that. I said it would be easy to get football stadium money, not volleyball.
I would also add that it took years to acquire a government subsidized property.
The scenario of acquiring privately held properties would prove to be more difficult, more time consuming, and given the non-essential use of a proposed stadium, highly unlikely.
It doesn't really matter if Pitt has 1 billion dollars in hand and ready to bulldoze.
Yea....they could buy buildings, but much like the U and Coral Gables, building a stadium will never happen. This is precisely what SMF fails to recognize.
There really is only one solution if Pitt ever was serious about a stadium. It would have to go right where the stadium once sat.
It is the only solution that would have a punchers chance of passing.
The purchase of Robinson Court was also a little easier because it was only one major piece of property that they needed to buy - putting aside the collection of smaller parcels along Brackenridge Street that they assembled around that time.
This is my opinion, but I'd much rather have the Petersen Events Center than a football stadium on that site - and I don't buy that a basketball/football venue would be a success. If that means no on-campus stadium, then so be it. But I totally recognize that I might be in the minority on that one.
To bad the poorly run City of Pittsburgh cant get out of its own way and allow progress.
The bigger the Univeristy of Pittsburgh get the better it is for Pittsburgh, the bigger the medical centers get the better it is for Pittsburgh, the bigger business gets the better it is for Pittsburgh.
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!
Instead they're interested in maintaining / developing section 8 housing on high value real estate.
Move the section 8 housing to where it makes sense ( lower value/use real estate) and develop the high value property into money making, job and tax producing entities. Other cities are doing this with success.
Jobs = income=taxes
Income=spending
Spending=more tax revenues
Visitors = revenues= taxes
Wake you sleepy, fat, dumb, and "happy" fools who run the city.
The bigger the Univeristy of Pittsburgh get the better it is for Pittsburgh, the bigger the medical centers get the better it is for Pittsburgh, the bigger business gets the better it is for Pittsburgh.
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!
Instead they're interested in maintaining / developing section 8 housing on high value real estate.
Move the section 8 housing to where it makes sense ( lower value/use real estate) and develop the high value property into money making, job and tax producing entities. Other cities are doing this with success.
Jobs = income=taxes
Income=spending
Spending=more tax revenues
Visitors = revenues= taxes
Wake you sleepy, fat, dumb, and "happy" fools who run the city.
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The city has absolutely been a very good friend to UPMC. I don't think that can be argued. Hell, Peduto sided with UPMC over the unions - and even accused the union of "holding blind people hostage" - when the new hospital in Uptown was being discussed.
Housing advocates, too, would immensely disagree with everything else that you said. Peduto consistently sides with developers over affordable housing advocates all the time - that's not saying he's wrong for doing so, but to suggest that the current administration hasn't been a very, very, very good friend to private developers, eds/meds, and the foundations over less-monied interests isn't at all supported by the facts.
You are not alone. Most of my drinking buddies are in the same camp.
With regard to football, I will repeat myself again. It's not Heinz Field....its an empty Heinz Field.
I also think tarps are coming. Not just at Pitt, but at every venue at America that doesn't sellout. At the moment, tarps are stigmatized, but that too will change once schools recoup advertising dollars from these tarps.
I'm getting off topic here.....but the Pete certainly works for BB. I get involved in the stadium discussion merely to expose the idiocy of certain posters.......
Has the City been a good friend to the University of Pittsburgh?
Pitt is one of the best things going on in the city.
The University should present the city the financials showing the impact to the city if the Unversity wasn't there. Lets just say for analytical purposes the University moved to the suburbs 30 miles outside the city.
How would that impact jobs, housing, retail sales, general business, and tax revenues for the city.
It's a moot discussion because the University of Pittsburgh benefits from being located in the middle of the city of Pittsburgh, and the city of Pittsburgh benefits from having Pitt (and CMU) being located inside city limits. Pitt's urban campus and location is literally their #1 recruiting pitch to both prospective students and in faculty recruiting.
The atmosphere is bad because the team plays no meaningful games. As we’ve seen countless times, the atmosphere is good when the games matter.
Moreover, it’s a bad investment. Live game attendance is on the decline. I suspect it will continue across all sports with few exceptions. Pitt will never be an exception.
True, it is kind of scary that the two most UPMC/Pitt friendly local politicians (Fitzgerald & Peduto) are both hard core nitters. Those two were both extremely friendly towards UPMC when all the hysteria was created by glory hound Shapiro and gossip columnist Karen Kane of the PG in the public smear campaign they waged.
I do think they could both do a little more for Pitt especially the Bigelow issue. But overall they aren't that bad, especially on the UPMC side of things.
