Heinz silently continues to haunt Pitt football

[CrazyPaco]

Honestly we are lucky at this point the students and public haven't picketed up and down Fifth Avenue to demand that Pitt stops using tuition/tax money to subsidize mediocre athletics.

Tuition money perhaps. Since tax money doesn't even cover the in-state tuition discounts that Pitt gives out every year, not so much.

Many schools charge athletics fees that subsidize their varsity athletics programs. Hard to justify at Pitt when your tuition rate is constantly being attacked as being so high, but I'm not entirely opposed to that.

 

[Zeldas Open Roof]

With the number of biologic and health sciences pre-professional and professional students in Oakland, the hospitals and research labs are very much an attraction. Pitt is not just a school for undergrads. You have six full-fledged health sciences schools in Oakland, and they all want to be next to the hospitals. There is a reason Pitt gave the land to those hospitals to build on, immediately adjacent to its medical school. The fruition of it after decades was the creation of UPMC, and that was arguably more impactful for Western Pennsylvania than perhaps anything else Pitt has done in the last 100 years.

If you are giving tours for Pitt, to undergrads, and you do not mention the proximity and ease of access to these state-of-the-art, top ranked medical and health science research facilities, then you would be a very poor tour guide unless you are only touring a group made up of future art history and english lit majors.

So maybe the idea of it being a commuter school for non med school students is more accurate then we’d like to believe.

 

[pbrad]

Bring back the Golden Panthers.

 

[CrazyPaco]

So maybe the idea of it being a commuter school for non med school students is more accurate then we’d like to believe.

I don't follow your logic, but your hypothesis isn't accurate at all.

Pitt has a higher % of its total undergrad students (including 97% of freshman) living in university housing than most major land grant universities, including those big ones often referenced on this board to the east, south, and west. Pitt isn't remotely close to being a commuter school, and hasn't been for decades.

 

[paulbl99]

Charming.....all the hospitals and medical offices and any other non Pitt property generating new ideas and businesses splattered all over Oakland.

But potential football players don’t give a rats behind about those things.... other coaches in this day and age are killing Pitt for lack of a contiguous typical campus setting. Anybody thinking otherwise is off their nut...

And this is a football board...not a life sciences/ bio board.

 

[MarshallGoldberg]

Tuition money perhaps. Since tax money doesn't even cover the in-state tuition discounts that Pitt gives out every year, not so much.

Many schools charge athletics fees that subsidize their varsity athletics programs. Hard to justify at Pitt when your tuition rate is constantly being attacked as being so high, but I'm not entirely opposed to that.

Got it. It's still an absurd system where we have to subsidize athletic programs that have TV contracts in the tens of millions of dollars and where have a lot of schools losing money on athletics so a few top teams can make money off of it. No one would design a system like this on purpose, but it's what we ended up with.

 

[DiehardPanther]

Charming.....all the hospitals and medical offices and any other non Pitt property generating new ideas and businesses splattered all over Oakland.

But potential football players don’t give a rats behind about those things.... other coaches in this day and age are killing Pitt for lack of a contiguous typical campus setting. Anybody thinking otherwise is off their nut...

And this is a football board...not a life sciences/ bio board.

They are using that as ammunition against us, lack of Gameday atmosphere, mediocre success on the field, and being second fiddle in our own hometown. It is an uphill battle in recruiting.

 

[pittdan77]

Charming.....all the hospitals and medical offices and any other non Pitt property generating new ideas and businesses splattered all over Oakland.

But potential football players don’t give a rats behind about those things.... other coaches in this day and age are killing Pitt for lack of a contiguous typical campus setting. Anybody thinking otherwise is off their nut...

And this is a football board...not a life sciences/ bio board.

Except the premise that football needs a stadium over all of the hospitals and businesses is a joke. In the mind of anyone in charge up there, the potential for revenue from a medical building that can operate 24/7 versus a venue that might see seven or eight events in the fall, it isn't even a horse race. Not when you have a functional professional facility that's currently in use.

Those smart people also realize that blaming Heinz field for Pitt's football problems is just a stupid line of reasoning that happens on message boards.

 

[pittdan77]

They are using that as ammunition against us, lack of Gameday atmosphere, mediocre success on the field, and being second fiddle in our own hometown. It is an uphill battle in recruiting.

How would the atmosphere be at an on campus, Pitt stadium coming off of a 5-7 season and sitting at 2-2 with zero expectations that the rest of the season is going to go well? If the message board and media are any indication, I'd say it would be the same or worse.

 

[CrazyPaco]

Got it. It's still an absurd system where we have to subsidize athletic programs that have TV contracts in the tens of millions of dollars and where have a lot of schools losing money on athletics so a few top teams can make money off of it. No one would design a system like this on purpose, but it's what we ended up with.

Absolutely absurd. And don't forget Title IX means a lot of sports have to be subsidized that make no money. Pitt has to hope that the ACC Network is a success. Thus far, the ACC sure isn't having a great year ahead of its launch. However, ACC Network money isn't going to make up the revenue difference with other power conference schools, it will just put Pitt further ahead of the non-power conference schools. Which is why I'm an advocate of keeping the athletic department small (not adding new sports unless necessary), keeping annual expenses and debt load low, and building endowments for the future to further help reduce annual expenses, because frankly, I just don't see any significant increases in gate, sponsorship, or donation revenue in the short term. Network money should go toward making up the gap with what the Clemson's of the world spend on football first, then everything else. Heck, I might set aside a small part of it as endowment matching funds to encourage donors. Pitt's athletic department has to continue to be strategic about what it does with this new revenue, and continue to invest the majority of its budget in football and basketball. Whether the next shift in the haves and have-nots is in 2036 or 2136, Pitt has to groom itself to be ready, and currently, it is standing in its underwear.

 

[HailtoPitt]

I don't follow your logic, but your hypothesis isn't accurate at all.

Pitt has a higher % of its undergrad students living in university housing than most major land grand universities, including those big ones often referenced on this board to the east, south, and west. Pitt isn't remotely close to being a commuter school, and hasn't been for decades.

Living in non university housing doesn't make one a commuter, imo. Living at home and commuting from Monroeville, for example, is a commuter student, and Pitt has got to have a higher percentage of student like that then those other non mentioned schools.

 

[paulbl99]

Except the premise that football needs a stadium over all of the hospitals and businesses is a joke. In the mind of anyone in charge up there, the potential for revenue from a medical building that can operate 24/7 versus a venue that might see seven or eight events in the fall, it isn't even a horse race. Not when you have a functional professional facility that's currently in use.

Those smart people also realize that blaming Heinz field for Pitt's football problems is just a stupid line of reasoning that happens on message boards.

Dude I’m the one saying those calling for a Football Field in Oakland are total goofballs....

We’re getting smeared in recruiting because of so many other things besides Heinz.
We can’t even grab our locals...and worse yet they are banding together to mock Pitt about not going there.

 

[Panther Holla]

What haunts Pitt football is mediocre coaching and 40 years of mostly "soft" football. Not the stadium, although HF is no prize. besides, Panther Hollow, part of Schenley Park, includes wetlands that are no doubt protected by 100 regulations. Even if Pitt could extract that parcel from the clutches of the City, the environmental impact studies and infrastructure would be cost prohibitive. And where ya gonna park dem dere cars? At Phipps?

 

[Delpanther]

Exactly! Add more buildings and classrooms in the North Shore/Downtown area, or any other area in the city that provides an opportunity.

The city is our campus..... what a crock!

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

nah....just being facetious. Pretty good idea who you are.

Kinda have an idea also.

 

[Slick Manager of Champs]

Living in non university housing doesn't make one a commuter, imo. Living at home and commuting from Monroeville, for example, is a commuter student, and Pitt has got to have a higher percentage of student like that then those other non mentioned schools.

maybe in the 80's, not anymore

 

[Mikefln]

Got it. It's still an absurd system where we have to subsidize athletic programs that have TV contracts in the tens of millions of dollars and where have a lot of schools losing money on athletics so a few top teams can make money off of it. No one would design a system like this on purpose, but it's what we ended up with.

Absolutely absurd.


Pitt has to groom itself to be ready, and currently, it is standing in its underwear.

Are these schools not run by Intellectuals who are incredibly smart and know better? LOL They are moon bats always have been always will be and they reap what they sow.

As for Pitt, they get what they deserve also, they had a chance to keep it going in the early 1980's but they went cheap and now they are paying for it.

 

[Mikefln]

Kinda have an idea also.

Swearvin?

 

[HailtoPitt]

maybe in the 80's, not anymore

I agree that it's no longer a "commuter school", however according to the previous post, one living in South Oakland one block from the a Pitt dorm is considered a commuter because they aren't living in official housing. I think Pitt probably also has more general studies students who commute around their work schedule from home, then those other large schools. Just a guess, though.