#6 WVU vs #1? Pitt - Soccer Brawl on Monday

[Sean Miller Fan]

Usually I would say something like get out to the Pittch to support the team but Dear Lord, after last night, please stay home. The Pitt/Gtown game last night felt more like a mosh pit. Record crowd of over 2000 in an extremely small stadium that only seats 900. I don't know what they're going to do Monday with the Top 10 Hoopies coming in to face what could be a #1 ranked team.

Sit back and enjoy the game on ACCN, the linear channel, with their top soccer production, which is usually Dalen Cuff on the play by play.

 

[WVUinColumbus]

Usually I would say something like get out to the Pittch to support the team but Dear Lord, after last night, please stay home. The Pitt/Gtown game last night felt more like a mosh pit. Record crowd of over 2000 in an extremely small stadium that only seats 900. I don't know what they're going to do Monday with the Top 10 Hoopies coming in to face what could be a #1 ranked team.

Sit back and enjoy the game on ACCN, the linear channel, with their top soccer production, which is usually Dalen Cuff on the play by play.

Sounds fun. Are you 73?

 

[OH Pete]

Usually I would say something like get out to the Pittch to support the team but Dear Lord, after last night, please stay home. The Pitt/Gtown game last night felt more like a mosh pit. Record crowd of over 2000 in an extremely small stadium that only seats 900. I don't know what they're going to do Monday with the Top 10 Hoopies coming in to face what could be a #1 ranked team.

Sit back and enjoy the game on ACCN, the linear channel, with their top soccer production, which is usually Dalen Cuff on the play by play.

“Nobody goes to Pitt soccer games anymore. They’re too crowded”. - YBF aka Yogi Berra Fan.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

“Nobody goes to Pitt soccer games anymore. They’re too crowded”. - YBF aka Yogi Berra Fan.

Not saying that. I love that the games are crowded. However, they have to make some changes there. There's portable bleachers sitting literally 100 feet away at the softball field, just move them. Another change I would make, and call me crazy as this seems outlandish even for me. Create a student section. Give it some cool name like Oakland Zooligans, make a sign, give them shirts, etc.....but only students are allowed in THAT section, which I would say should be 1/3 of the 900 seat bleachers. The rest of the students can stand on the railing. Listen I think the amount of students at the game is fantastic but they have to have a section so the paying customers have somewhere to sit.

 

[Las Panteras]

Not saying that. I love that the games are crowded. However, they have to make some changes there. There's portable bleachers sitting literally 100 feet away at the softball field, just move them. Another change I would make, and call me crazy as this seems outlandish even for me. Create a student section. Give it some cool name like Oakland Zooligans, make a sign, give them shirts, etc.....but only students are allowed in THAT section, which I would say should be 1/3 of the 900 seat bleachers. The rest of the students can stand on the railing. Listen I think the amount of students at the game is fantastic but they have to have a section so the paying customers have somewhere to sit.

I gotta say.....in between most of your incredibly stupid posts you do make a contribution.

The Oakland Zooligans is brilliant.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Not saying that. I love that the games are crowded. However, they have to make some changes there. There's portable bleachers sitting literally 100 feet away at the softball field, just move them. Another change I would make, and call me crazy as this seems outlandish even for me. Create a student section. Give it some cool name like Oakland Zooligans, make a sign, give them shirts, etc.....but only students are allowed in THAT section, which I would say should be 1/3 of the 900 seat bleachers. The rest of the students can stand on the railing. Listen I think the amount of students at the game is fantastic but they have to have a section so the paying customers have somewhere to sit.

Wouldn't the easy way to do it be to put the temporary bleachers where you suggest and then make those seats all student seats?

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Wouldn't the easy way to do it be to put the temporary bleachers where you suggest and then make those seats all student seats?

Yes but the temporary bleachers aren't a long-term solution and won't be needed for every game, especially when the weather gets chilly or for Monday night non-cons. So I would designate one of the permanent sections as the student section. I'd also assign a few rows to the visiting parents. I saw some Georgetown parents standing behind students on the rail. Didn’t think that was right. Pitt has a really good thing going up there but they have to make it more fan friendly.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Pitt has a really good thing going up there but they have to make it more fan friendly.

The place was built to be expandable, so if they think this is sustainable (and I don't know why they wouldn't), at the end of the season add some more seats to what they already have. Even just adding enough to get it up to 1500 would be a good start.

 

[pittchagg]

The obvious solution is to look to expand the current grandstands on both sides, down to roughly each penalty box. That would probably expand the grandstand capacity to ~1,500 or so.

What to do on the other side is a little trickier because the concourse bleeds over with the baseball field, and that’s where the players access the benches.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

The obvious solution is to look to expand the current grandstands on both sides, down to roughly each penalty box. That would probably expand the grandstand capacity to ~1,500 or so.

What to do on the other side is a little trickier because the concourse bleeds over with the baseball field, and that’s where the players access the benches.

Yea, you can really only do portable bleachers over there. I agree that expanding the current grandstand is an easy solution. Not sure I'd go crazy because if Vidovich leaves/retires, we can very easily be back to being a doormat playing in front of friends and family only. They're putting all this money into volleyball, portable bleachers for softball, which no one will ever sit in again, and soccer they are ignoring to an extent. The sideline wall is still navy blue from when it was built.

 

[thom67]

I gotta say.....in between most of your incredibly stupid posts you do make a contribution.

The Oakland Zooligans is brilliant.

I was at the game and had to stand the entire game because all seats were taken. Many by students who were saving seats for friends.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

I was at the game and had to stand the entire game because all seats were taken. Many by students who were saving seats for friends.

Give them 300 seats and the rest need to stand. If they can't pay a crew a few thousand to move those permanent bleachers, they could very easily put risers over there for students to stand on.

 

[pittchagg]

Yea, you can really only do portable bleachers over there. I agree that expanding the current grandstand is an easy solution. Not sure I'd go crazy because if Vidovich leaves/retires, we can very easily be back to being a doormat playing in front of friends and family only. They're putting all this money into volleyball, portable bleachers for softball, which no one will ever sit in again, and soccer they are ignoring to an extent. The sideline wall is still navy blue from when it was built.

I’m pretty sure that the portable softball bleachers are just left over from when Pitt hosted the ACC softball tournament this spring. They probably could have moved them over though.

I also think there’s probably a way you could do a permanent thing over on the benches side.

 

[zookeeper2000]

Pitt caught lightning in a bottle with Vidovich…

But with the growth of soccer in the US and popularity because of US players playing in top leagues now - why not invest in having a top-notch soccer program?

We wouldn’t be starting from zero (already a legit top-5 program) and wouldn’t take a ton to invest (even NIL). I hope we’re exploring how to take soccer from “another Olympic sport” to a showcase university product.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Pitt caught lightning in a bottle with Vidovich…

But with the growth of soccer in the US and popularity because of US players playing in top leagues now - why not invest in having a top-notch soccer program?

We wouldn’t be starting from zero (already a legit top-5 program) and wouldn’t take a ton to invest (even NIL). I hope we’re exploring how to take soccer from “another Olympic sport” to a showcase university product.

I mean I don't think Pitt can ever make money from soccer so I'm not sure how much you could realistically invest. That said, its amazing that we're spending $300 million on a volleyball arena and they can't pay a crew $5000 to move portable bleachers 300 feet so fans have somewhere to sit.

 

[Pitt79]

Usually I would say something like get out to the Pittch to support the team but Dear Lord, after last night, please stay home. The Pitt/Gtown game last night felt more like a mosh pit. Record crowd of over 2000 in an extremely small stadium that only seats 900. I don't know what they're going to do Monday with the Top 10 Hoopies coming in to face what could be a #1 ranked team.

Sit back and enjoy the game on ACCN, the linear channel, with their top soccer production, which is usually Dalen Cuff on the play by play.

But don't you want to tarp AcriHeinz Field and shove everyone tightly together in the lower bowl, I admit I LIKE IT when 40000 are spread out across the whole 60000 seat stadium, I don't care what people see on TV, I like the comfort of it.

 

[pittchagg]

I wonder if you couldn’t do something on the benches side where you build a bleacher that somehow connects to the baseball bleacher, with a shared concourse underneath. In other words, the structure would look kind of like a triangle, where the soccer bleachers and baseball bleachers both meet each other at the top, accessed by portals and a shared concourse underneath. Don’t know how the space would work, but you could have a lot of fun making a student section over on that side and reserving the current grandstand side for non-students.

 

[HOF Coach]

 

[Fk_Pitt]

View embedded media

Been saying WVU is a soccer school for a while. Looks like the men caught up to the women.
And it’s hard to hate the womens program because they do things the right way.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

I wonder if you couldn’t do something on the benches side where you build a bleacher that somehow connects to the baseball bleacher, with a shared concourse underneath. In other words, the structure would look kind of like a triangle, where the soccer bleachers and baseball bleachers both meet each other at the top, accessed by portals and a shared concourse underneath. Don’t know how the space would work, but you could have a lot of fun making a student section over on that side and reserving the current grandstand side for non-students.

I posted the same thing awhile ago. One structure, with seats along the 3rd base line for baseball, midfield for soccer, and perhaps a concession stand underneath. There has always been talk about expanding the baseball stadium anyway.

 

[OH Pete]

I mean I don't think Pitt can ever make money from soccer so I'm not sure how much you could realistically invest. That said, its amazing that we're spending $300 million on a volleyball arena and they can't pay a crew $5000 to move portable bleachers 300 feet so fans have somewhere to sit.

Maybe not turn a profit, but perhaps they can run a smaller deficit if they market better and have additional capacity.