Heather dug a hole she could not fill

[OmarMarino]

Why Pitt chose to move on from Heather Lyke — and the daunting challenge facing its next AD

When the University of Pittsburgh relieved Heather Lyke of her duties as athletic director Sept. 9, the move surprised many in Pitt’s athletic community...

www.post-gazette.com

Literally

 

[Pitt666]

And yet it could be one of the greatest Pitt athletic seasons ever. Football could make the playoffs, high expectations for basketball, and Olympic sports serious contenders for volleyball, men’s soccer, and maybe women’s soccer.

 

[ratking17]

Seems like victory heights and not having a plan to pay for it along with not having a plan for revenue distribution is what did her in

 

[Las Panteras]

It stings to say this, but SMF was right about this albatross (Victory Heights)

 

[Las Panteras]

Seems like victory heights and not having a plan to pay for it along with not having a plan for revenue distribution is what did her in

Agree

It seems to suggest Gabel is serious about athletics?

 

[Pitt2009]

It stings to say this, but SMF was right about this albatross (Victory Heights)

Agreed, and I’ll say this as a poster who appreciates SMF, but he throws everything at the wall to see what sticks.

 

[Las Panteras]

Trust me, I am no financial whiz. My wife reminds me 24/7

But I think, even a dope like me would want to secure significant commitments / pledges before proposing a 240 Mill project.

I am wondering if HL was able to secure say 75 mill....she may still be here.

But if I am the chancellor, and only 12 of 240 mill is in the bag, I too would want her kneecapped.

 

[Las Panteras]

Speaking of donations,

We are in the midst of a possible historic season, we are the talk of college football. There has to be donors who have cobwebs on their checkbooks that would be willing to donate

And, because its hard to break with the past, no matter how inept it has been, we currently don't have an AD in place.

PS: dont embarrass yourselves and call me out for not donating. After reading Paco's post about directing funds i now have made a handsome investment in a "to remain anonymous "non revenue sport .

And I now have thrown in with Alliance 412. Firing HL tells me Gabel means business. So I am on board.....

 

[ThePanthers]

Seems like victory heights and not having a plan to pay for it along with not having a plan for revenue distribution is what did her in

The problem is, no matter who fills her role, they are going to be fd as the Pitt fanbase has a very pro sports mentality. Having to go above and beyond to finance new construction, investments, and paying the players outside of buying already cheap tix for a game is not in their dna.

And it’s for all of the 19 varsity athletics. Yes football and basketball should have the most focus, but it shouldn’t be a zero sum game.

Good luck to whoever comes next. You are going to have the toughest ad job in major college athletics.

 

[303vND]

In the IT world we call projects like Victory Heights a CIO killer. Spending millions on an ERP to manage back office functions.

 

[ThePanthers]

In the IT world we call projects like Victory Heights a CIO killer. Spending millions on an ERP to manage back office functions.

Should also put to rest there ever being an on campus stadium. Those are far more expensive and I don’t see there being a much larger uptick for donating to that.

 

[ThePanthers]

Agree

It seems to suggest Gabel is serious about athletics?

She’s serious about balancing the budget. If the next ad can’t raise funds expect less spending imo.

IMO lyke and Gallagher put out significant investments in all sports including football and basketball with the hope that winning would drive support and funding. While winning has increased in most of our athletics, the support hasn’t. I mean look at the crowd yesterday at the football game.

So going forward, while I feel Pitt is still going to be serious, it won’t be an open wallet.

 

[Las Panteras]

Should also put to rest there ever being an on campus stadium. Those are far more expensive and I don’t see there being a much larger uptick for donating to that.

It seems to me that AD' s around the country at some rather quiet level, are kinda jealous of Pitt, Miami, etc.

I would imagine the costs of operating and maintaining an OCS simply tower over paying a lease.

 

[pittchagg]

She’s serious about balancing the budget. If the next ad can’t raise funds expect less spending imo.

IMO lyke and Gallagher put out significant investments in all sports including football and basketball with the hope that winning would drive support and funding. While winning has increased in most of our athletics, the support hasn’t. I mean look at the crowd yesterday at the football game.

So going forward, while I feel Pitt is still going to be serious, it won’t be an open wallet.

I agree with this. And I also think that it will be a net negative for Pitt on the field and on the court.

We should enjoy and savor the run of success that the athletic department has been on over the past few years. Success into the future isn’t guaranteed.

 

[12162022]

It stings to say this, but SMF was right about this albatross (Victory Heights)

Deficit Heights??

 

[HailtoPitt]

Hard to have a caring and donating fan base when you ship them off to the Northshore for football games and haven't made a true effort with the football program in 40+ years.

I've said this 20 years ago... Playing off campus will only make fan apathy even worse and they won't be able to find big donors. They needed to build a stadium on campus 25 years ago. Too late now.

 

[Motor_Street]

Great article, thanks. Gable's comment that athletics are the "front porch" of the university is music to my ears. Not sure who initially coined that phrase but I've heard other school administrators use those same words. I take it to mean that Joan is serious about athletics.

 

[HailtoPitt]

And for what it's worth, as a former donor to the University and former football season ticket holder, I am pretty sure that I have not received any type of mailing appeal to donate to Victory Heights. I received an appeal to support Heinz Chapel just last week. So there's that.

But ultimately, this will go down as another epic mistake in a long string of mistakes. Pitt hasn't even tried exploring the idea of fundraising or building an in campus football stadium (which lots of fans continue to ask for) short of telling people they need $600 million at the start of Lyke's introduction press conference, but they are able to commit hundreds of millions for non revenue generating athletics facilitates.

As mentioned earlier, SMF was correct. Use a fraction of that money to pay the coaches well (which is apparently what matters more for those sports) and then invest the rest into football. Too late.

 

[CrazyPaco]

Agree

It seems to suggest Gabel is serious about athletics?

Or that she is going to be cheap. I'm not sure which. I just don't see any way around the university not having to put more money into athletics to stay competitive. I do not think it is realistic to believe there is some magical way to fundraise this and private equity is selling out the future.

 

[Panther Holla]

Don’t cry for Lyke, Argentina. The Lykes of the world have a knack for networking upward, hopping from one lily pad to the next with a mixed record of accomplishment, but enough for the ol’ resume to keep them failing forward. In the end, she lands in Ann Arbor or Columbus.

 

[CrazyPaco]

She’s serious about balancing the budget. If the next ad can’t raise funds expect less spending imo.

IMO lyke and Gallagher put out significant investments in all sports including football and basketball with the hope that winning would drive support and funding. While winning has increased in most of our athletics, the support hasn’t. I mean look at the crowd yesterday at the football game.

So going forward, while I feel Pitt is still going to be serious, it won’t be an open wallet.

We've had two top 25 finishes in football (zero top 10) and one NCAA tournament in men's hoops. Volleyball is just starting to explode with interest. Soccer, despite all of its success, hasn't yet really ballooned in interest, at least nothing like what is currently happening with volleyball.

Regarding football attendance, expectations and excitement skyrocketed after the ACC title for the 2022 season, then the rug was pulled out from under it in 2023. Pitt football is where its is because of a lack of sustained success and rock bottom expectations going into this season.

All the the other sports are pretty middling or just bad. Pitt finished 52nd in the Director's cup for a reason.

So my question is, what is all this success Pitt has had that is supposed to cause some explosion in support? That building of support takes time. If Pitt is on the verge of success, that is great, but it hasn't yet built an athletic department-wide culture based on it. I'm sure fundraising can be improved, but I don't think there is a game changing amount of new money out there.

The only thing for sure is that Gable is going to 100% own whatever the result of this is.

 

[Slick Manager of Champs]

Or that she is going to be cheap. I'm not sure which. I just don't see any way around the university not having to put more money into athletics to stay competitive. I do not think it is realistic to believe there is some magical way to fundraise this and private equity is selling out the future.

I'm not sure yet about Gabel. Gutsy move firing Lyke, really needs to make a home run hire. Also, it was VERY strange that at the chancellors circle reception at Homecoming, she was nowhere to be seen. Every previous year the chancellor spoke (she did last year). This year they had a student say a few words which while nice, I didn't feel was appropriate for that audience. Gabel should have been the one addressing the crowd.

So I'm hoping this isn't a hire in the line of J. Dennis, although it would be pretty hard to be that bad.

 

[ThePanthers]

We've had two top 25 finishes in football (zero top 10) and one NCAA tournament in men's hoops. Volleyball is just starting to explode with interest. Soccer, despite all of its success, hasn't yet really ballooned in interest, at least nothing like what is currently happening with volleyball.

Regarding football attendance, expectations and excitement skyrocketed after the ACC title for the 2022 season, then the rug was pulled out from under it in 2023. Pitt football is where its is because of a lack of sustained success and rock bottom expectations going into this season.

All the the other sports are pretty middling or just bad. Pitt finished 52nd in the Director's cup for a reason.

So my question is, what is all this success Pitt has had that is supposed to cause some explosion in support? That building of support takes time. If Pitt is on the verge of success, that is great, but it hasn't yet built an athletic department-wide culture based on it. I'm sure fundraising can be improved, but I don't think there is a game changing amount of new money out there.

The only thing for sure is that Gable is going to 100% own whatever the result of this is.

We are the only school outside of Clemson and fsu that has won an acc championship, have two and hopefully 3 top 25 finishes in the last 4 years. Volleyball has 3 final 4 appearances in the last 3 years, men’s soccer has 2, women’s soccer is a tourney team, basketball is turning around after some down years, but prior had a long run of success, and wrestling has a recent national champion. Spring sports are definitely middling, but when you there was zero investment prior to a decade ago, like you said it does take time to build the support.

But you can also point back to the golden years of Pitt football, or of men’s basketball, where you had multi year runs of success, Pitt stadium still wasn’t full, and while the Pete was full, as soon as you try to implement donor based seating to raise funds people pull out. And specifically basketball after a rough year or two the bottom drops out in support.

I look around the country and programs that have had limited success still have the grassroot efforts by the fanbase to try to make things better. That would never happen at Pitt.

 

[YourPittDanceTeam]

I know that I am in the minority on the firing of Heather Lyke, but I am glad she is gone. She did nothing to address the number one issue that the Pitt athletic department has had for quite sometime now, a new on-campus stadium.
I've heard all of the excuses for not being able to have one, I just don't believe that ii is that simple.
I genuinely believe that with a little bit of effort, the issue could have been handled years ago.

 

[ThePanthers]

I know that I am in the minority on the firing of Heather Lyke, but I am glad she is gone. She did nothing to address the number one issue that the Pitt athletic department has had for quite sometime now, a new on-campus stadium.
I've heard all of the excuses for not being able to have one, I just don't believe that ii is that simple.
I genuinely believe that with a little bit of effort, the issue could have been handled years ago.

We’ll be ready to continue to be disappointed. You can have god himself be the ad and he’ll realize an on campus stadium is not feasible.

 

[Parkview57]

I know that I am in the minority on the firing of Heather Lyke, but I am glad she is gone

On top of spending money that she could not come close to raising she was looking for other jobs, who in the world supports such nonsense?

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

Hard to have a caring and donating fan base when you ship them off to the Northshore for football games and haven't made a true effort with the football program in 40+ years.

I've said this 20 years ago... Playing off campus will only make fan apathy even worse and they won't be able to find big donors. They needed to build a stadium on campus 25 years ago. Too late now.

Pitt is 6-0 and we still have posters like you complaining. The biggest hindrance to Pitt’s success is their own alum’s lack of support. Show up to the damn games and support the program.

 

[pittchagg]

On top of spending money that she could not come close to raising she was looking for other jobs, who in the world supports such nonsense?

Or…Pat Gallagher announced in April 2022 that he would be stepping down. Perhaps Lyke was anticipating - a correct anticipation, according to this article - that the new chancellor would not be supporting the athletic department or its projects to the same degree that Gallagher did.

If you got a massive amount of support from your boss, and that boss leaves, and you have a pretty good idea that the new boss isn’t going to be as supportive, wouldn’t you look around to see if there’s a better fit? Who wouldn’t?

 

[Slick Manager of Champs]

Pitt is 6-0 and we still have posters like you complaining. The biggest hindrance to Pitt’s success is their own alum’s lack of support. Show up to the damn games and support the program.

I think the games could be played in his backyard and he would have a reason not to get off the couch and watch

 

[HailtoPitt]

Pitt is 6-0 and we still have posters like you complaining. The biggest hindrance to Pitt’s success is their own alum’s lack of support. Show up to the damn games and support the program.

It wasn't a complaint.

 

[12162022]

I know that I am in the minority on the firing of Heather Lyke, but I am glad she is gone. She did nothing to address the number one issue that the Pitt athletic department has had for quite sometime now, a new on-campus stadium.
I've heard all of the excuses for not being able to have one, I just don't believe that ii is that simple.
I genuinely believe that with a little bit of effort, the issue could have been handled years ago.

No little bit of effort. They let the Stadium rot. If the school didn't care about it, they were not about to replace it for 6 days a year. They cut a deal with the Rooney empire to get decent training places. At least we got the Pete.

 

[12162022]

Great article, thanks. Gable's comment that athletics are the "front porch" of the university is music to my ears. Not sure who initially coined that phrase but I've heard other school administrators use those same words. I take it to mean that Joan is serious about athletics.

Easy to say, not easy to make it. The new AD will be interesting.

 

[Macchiato]

Heather aimed high, elevating our athletics program to a new level, positioning us to stand out if another wave of conference realignment occurs. She delivered an ACC championship, and we’re contending again this year in football. Our volleyball team ranks among the nation’s best, and our soccer teams are also highly competitive. She accomplished all of this with far fewer resources than her peers and without any NCAA violations. Heather is now considered one of the top Athletic Directors we’ve ever had.

 

[CrazyPaco]

We are the only school outside of Clemson and fsu that has won an acc championship, have two and hopefully 3 top 25 finishes in the last 4 years. Volleyball has 3 final 4 appearances in the last 3 years, men’s soccer has 2, women’s soccer is a tourney team, basketball is turning around after some down years, but prior had a long run of success, and wrestling has a recent national champion. Spring sports are definitely middling, but when you there was zero investment prior to a decade ago, like you said it does take time to build the support.

But you can also point back to the golden years of Pitt football, or of men’s basketball, where you had multi year runs of success, Pitt stadium still wasn’t full, and while the Pete was full, as soon as you try to implement donor based seating to raise funds people pull out. And specifically basketball after a rough year or two the bottom drops out in support.

I look around the country and programs that have had limited success still have the grassroot efforts by the fanbase to try to make things better. That would never happen at Pitt.

Basketball didn't just suffer "rough" years. It suffered some of the worst seasons in Pitt history, if not the history of power conference hoops. Cratering would be a kind description.

 

[Islanderpanther]

Should also put to rest there ever being an on campus stadium. Those are far more expensive and I don’t see there being a much larger uptick for donating to that.

Nonsense!!!! People are lined io to contribute to financing a stadium. People told Luke they weren’t interested in victory Heights but would pony up for a stadium.

 

[CrazyPaco]

Nonsense!!!! People are lined io to contribute to financing a stadium. People told Luke they weren’t interested in victory Heights but would pony up for a stadium.

Do they have $500m lined up? No. A stadium isn't happening. Get over it. It isn't anywhere near a priority list for the athletic department or the university, nor should it be. It would be a giant waste of resources that would make Victory Heights pale in comparison. At least Victory Heights is replacing a 73 year old antiquated non-climate controlled barn that is beneath even Patriot League level facilities. You could fund raise half of the cost of a football stadium and it would still cost the university much more than 100% of Victory Heights will, and the end result would be much worse than Acrisure as far as attributes and amenities. That's before the infeasability of actually finding land on or adjacent to campus along with the resultant necessary infrastructure upgrades that would be needed, let alone the political capital that would need to be spent (if that much even exists) and all the community interest groups you'd have to pay off handsomely. There are MUCH MUCH bigger issues to tackle with fundraising in the current play-for-pay era.

 

[Parkview57]

If you got a massive amount of support from your boss, and that boss leaves, and you have a pretty good idea that the new boss isn’t going to be as supportive, wouldn’t you look around to see if there’s a better fit? Who wouldn’t?

She has every right to look for another job, but are ethics even a thing among these AD's? Setting up financial crisis and then bailing out seems hard to defend, I am referring to those who question letting her go, not her right to leave.

 

[pittchagg]

She has every right to look for another job, but are ethics even a thing among these AD's? Setting up financial crisis and then bailing out seems hard to defend, I am referring to those who question letting her go, not her right to leave.

I think the situation is more that her old boss didn’t believe that it was a financial crisis, and her new boss doesn’t share that same opinion. Not saying one is right or one is wrong, but the truth is that Gallagher was very supportive of Victory Heights and the levels of operational spending that Lyke guided us to, and it sounds like Gabel is not as supportive of either one.

Gabel’s ultimately the one in the big chair and the end result will be on her (good or bad), but I think everything that we’ve been seeing after the dismissal is a lot of post facto window-dressing around a relatively basic dynamic of “new boss doesn’t have the same opinions as the old boss, and the C-suite admins who were hired by the old boss don’t see eye to eye with the new boss and aren’t long for their jobs.”