here are twp pieces of the stadium puzzle (long)

[Las Panteras]

Populous is going to reveal their findings soon. Included in their results are the following:

1) It is not feasible to acquire land outside of campus for a new stadium. As some posters have claimed....the government officials are in no hurry to allow land to be acquired that does not result in tax dollars generated. The logical and feasible conclusion is the stadium should be built on campus, which will require demolition of existing structures somewhere.

Comments; with the above in mind....can we please stop with all of the ridiculous ideas of building a stadium in Hazelwood......by the Boulevard of the Allies......in Panther hollow......what is the point of building a new stadium "near" campus when we already play in HF?

I make a motion that from now on all stadium discussions begin with the understanding that a new stadium will be build ON Campus

2) Our athletic department isnt broke....but its not flush with cash. Our athletic donations are a top shelf embarrassment.

At the same time....our university is a research juggernaut with a 3.5 billion dollar endowment. And while these funds can not be assigned to Pitt Athletics.....they can be part of a construction project for academic research....that happens to be housed in an on campus football stadium. I give you the following from Nebraska.....

http://www.omaha.com/huskers/memori...cle_a5b8f7c3-b695-5afd-975e-2511d50b7bd2.html


A joint effort will result in the research side of the university moving forward with the benefit of defraying some cost of a new stadium as it will be a shared facility.

comments: this makes sense at Nebraska....and makes sense at Pitt. these two pieces......building on campus and sharing the new facilities will be two steps in either minimizing the cost of this project or have outside help in paying for it.

so.....since I am certain Populous will suggest both of these ideas....is it remotely possible that any further stadium discussions on this board can include the above premises? i highly doubt it.....but I will ask anyway.

 

[NTOP]

Populous is going to reveal their findings soon. Included in their results are the following:

1) It is not feasible to acquire land outside of campus for a new stadium. As some posters have claimed....the government officials are in no hurry to allow land to be acquired that does not result in tax dollars generated. The logical and feasible conclusion is the stadium should be built on campus, which will require demolition of existing structures somewhere.

Comments; with the above in mind....can we please stop with all of the ridiculous ideas of building a stadium in Hazelwood......by the Boulevard of the Allies......in Panther hollow......what is the point of building a new stadium "near" campus when we already play in HF?

I make a motion that from now on all stadium discussions begin with the understanding that a new stadium will be build ON Campus

2) Our athletic department isnt broke....but its not flush with cash. Our athletic donations are a top shelf embarrassment.

At the same time....our university is a research juggernaut with a 3.5 billion dollar endowment. And while these funds can not be assigned to Pitt Athletics.....they can be part of a construction project for academic research....that happens to be housed in an on campus football stadium. I give you the following from Nebraska.....

http://www.omaha.com/huskers/memori...cle_a5b8f7c3-b695-5afd-975e-2511d50b7bd2.html


A joint effort will result in the research side of the university moving forward with the benefit of defraying some cost of a new stadium as it will be a shared facility.

comments: this makes sense at Nebraska....and makes sense at Pitt. these two pieces......building on campus and sharing the new facilities will be two steps in either minimizing the cost of this project or have outside help in paying for it.

so.....since I am certain Populous will suggest both of these ideas....is it remotely possible that any further stadium discussions on this board can include the above premises? i highly doubt it.....but I will ask anyway.

The endowment assets aren't for buildings, and are restricted in size. Nebraska has millions for athletics. We don't.

 

[CaptainMurphy]

I believe that is the same route FSU took for their massive overhaul to Doak Campbell 25 years ago. They procured more state funding by surrounding the stadium with an academic castle. If a stadium is to be built on campus I'd think the following locations make the most sense:

1. OC/Trees/Fitzgerald
2. Where Forbes Quad/Hillman currently sit
3.???? I can't think of others unless you start tearing down historic buildings.

 

[BuffetParrothead]

Populous is going to reveal their findings soon. Included in their results are the following:

1) It is not feasible to acquire land outside of campus for a new stadium. As some posters have claimed....the government officials are in no hurry to allow land to be acquired that does not result in tax dollars generated. The logical and feasible conclusion is the stadium should be built on campus, which will require demolition of existing structures somewhere.

Comments; with the above in mind....can we please stop with all of the ridiculous ideas of building a stadium in Hazelwood......by the Boulevard of the Allies......in Panther hollow......what is the point of building a new stadium "near" campus when we already play in HF?

I make a motion that from now on all stadium discussions begin with the understanding that a new stadium will be build ON Campus

2) Our athletic department isnt broke....but its not flush with cash. Our athletic donations are a top shelf embarrassment.

At the same time....our university is a research juggernaut with a 3.5 billion dollar endowment. And while these funds can not be assigned to Pitt Athletics.....they can be part of a construction project for academic research....that happens to be housed in an on campus football stadium. I give you the following from Nebraska.....

http://www.omaha.com/huskers/memori...cle_a5b8f7c3-b695-5afd-975e-2511d50b7bd2.html


A joint effort will result in the research side of the university moving forward with the benefit of defraying some cost of a new stadium as it will be a shared facility.

comments: this makes sense at Nebraska....and makes sense at Pitt. these two pieces......building on campus and sharing the new facilities will be two steps in either minimizing the cost of this project or have outside help in paying for it.

so.....since I am certain Populous will suggest both of these ideas....is it remotely possible that any further stadium discussions on this board can include the above premises? i highly doubt it.....but I will ask anyway.

So when does a U like Pittsburgh tap their endowment assets?
It seems like an old couple accumulating their wealth with no plans to give the money to anyone!

 

[NTOP]

So when does a U like Pittsburgh tap their endowment assets?
It seems like an old couple accumulating their wealth with no plans to give the money to anyone!

They are OBLIGATED to spend a specific minimum % of the corpus each year. There might be a maximum spelled out in the document, and specific rules on what the distributions can be used for, in broad terms. It's not like a "fun money" pool that can be spent on whims or spurious projects like an unnecessary stadium.

 

[Hailpitt]

I recall Stanford used endowment funds to upgrade its Stadium (granted Stanford's is much bigger than Pitt's)

 

[Swervin27]

It's an embarrassment that our last few ADs have disregarded donations from alumni. How long did pitt designate one broad responsible for acquiring donations from rich alumni, one employee focused on this.


As much of a disaster as the hiring of Barnes was, at least he recognized our short sightedness in this and restructured the dept.

 

[oldpanther]

I believe that is the same route FSU took for their massive overhaul to Doak Campbell 25 years ago. They procured more state funding by surrounding the stadium with an academic castle. If a stadium is to be built on campus I'd think the following locations make the most sense:

1. OC/Trees/Fitzgerald
2. Where Forbes Quad/Hillman currently sit
3.???? I can't think of others unless you start tearing down historic buildings.

Build the stadium in Iraq, then hire SP for AD for one day then he can hire Isis to blow it up and replace it with a Soccer field. Seemingly it may be more feasible to move the complete campus to Johnstown and build a stadium on some mountain top.

 

[NTOP]

Build the stadium in Iraq, then hire SP for AD for one day then he can hire Isis to blow it up and replace it with a Soccer field. Seemingly it may be more feasible to move the complete campus to Johnstown and build a stadium on some mountain top.

That proposal was discussed in the 1970's.

 

[wbrpanther]

Populous is going to reveal their findings soon. Included in their results are the following:

1) It is not feasible to acquire land outside of campus for a new stadium. As some posters have claimed....the government officials are in no hurry to allow land to be acquired that does not result in tax dollars generated. The logical and feasible conclusion is the stadium should be built on campus, which will require demolition of existing structures somewhere.

Comments; with the above in mind....can we please stop with all of the ridiculous ideas of building a stadium in Hazelwood......by the Boulevard of the Allies......in Panther hollow......what is the point of building a new stadium "near" campus when we already play in HF?

I make a motion that from now on all stadium discussions begin with the understanding that a new stadium will be build ON Campus

2) Our athletic department isnt broke....but its not flush with cash. Our athletic donations are a top shelf embarrassment.

At the same time....our university is a research juggernaut with a 3.5 billion dollar endowment. And while these funds can not be assigned to Pitt Athletics.....they can be part of a construction project for academic research....that happens to be housed in an on campus football stadium. I give you the following from Nebraska.....

http://www.omaha.com/huskers/memori...cle_a5b8f7c3-b695-5afd-975e-2511d50b7bd2.html


A joint effort will result in the research side of the university moving forward with the benefit of defraying some cost of a new stadium as it will be a shared facility.

comments: this makes sense at Nebraska....and makes sense at Pitt. these two pieces......building on campus and sharing the new facilities will be two steps in either minimizing the cost of this project or have outside help in paying for it.

so.....since I am certain Populous will suggest both of these ideas....is it remotely possible that any further stadium discussions on this board can include the above premises? i highly doubt it.....but I will ask anyway.

The drawing will fit on campus quite nicely. The actual stadium not so much.

 

[ratking17]

Rumor has it that Barnes left enough money in the budget for updated computers. So instead of Microsoft paint drawings of stadiums, we can now use Google slides with cool animations

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

I recall Stanford used endowment funds to upgrade its Stadium (granted Stanford's is much bigger than Pitt's)

Only if people donated to an endowment that specified that the money could be used for that.

 

[King Of All Message Boards]

Only if people donated to an endowment that specified that the money could be used for that.

I knew little to nothing about endowments prior to joining this board. And while not an expert and don't care to be, it's astounding with the information that's been posted on this board there are some that still don't understand this money just can't be spent anywhere.

Or maybe I spend too much time on this board.

 

[Swervin27]

I knew little to nothing about endowments prior to joining this board. And while not an expert and don't care to be, it's astounding with the information that's been posted on this board there are some that still don't understand this money just can't be spent anywhere.

Or maybe I spend too much time on this board.

I'm still surprised Harvard has a 50billion+ endowment. We are elite with 3billion. That's insane.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

I knew little to nothing about endowments prior to joining this board. And while not an expert and don't care to be, it's astounding with the information that's been posted on this board there are some that still don't understand this money just can't be spent anywhere.

Or maybe I spend too much time on this board.

There are simply some people who get ideas in their heads and will not let go of them, no matter how many times they are told and shown that they are wrong.

 

[Chris Peak]

For what it's worth, I'm told that Populous was not commissioned by Pitt to study anything relating to a football stadium. It's not on the agenda.

 

[Swervin27]

For what it's worth, I'm told that Populous was not commissioned by Pitt to study anything relating to a football stadium. It's not on the agenda.

Any idea what the reasoning would be?

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

For what it's worth, I'm told that Populous was not commissioned by Pitt to study anything relating to a football stadium. It's not on the agenda.

If this is true it would be simply hilarious given what certain people have posted here on the subject.

 

[Swervin27]

If this is true it would be simply hilarious given what certain people have posted here on the subject.

Curious why pitt would hire a sports venue architectural company if it's not for a stadium. Any upgrades to trees wouldn't need a large company, the baseball-softball venues are new, the Pete is there.

 

[Chris Peak]

Any idea what the reasoning would be?

The reasoning behind not investing half a billion dollars when they can do a lot of other things for a fraction of that cost and improve the overall athletics at Pitt?

 

[Chris Peak]

Curious why pitt would hire a sports venue architectural company if it's not for a stadium. Any upgrades to trees wouldn't need a large company, the baseball-softball venues are new, the Pete is there.

Scott Barnes talked about exploring athletics expansions/upgrades/improvements/projects all over campus; that's what Populous was comissioned to do: identify how much Pitt could expand its athletics and how much it would cost to do so. But that did not include a directive to look into a football stadium.

 

[Swervin27]

The reasoning behind not investing half a billion dollars when they can do a lot of other things for a fraction of that cost and improve the overall athletics at Pitt?

Do you hire a global architectural firm to get ideas about building a track? Kind of an overkill IMO. If it's for a non revenue sport in limited spacing, do a local search. No one cares anyways.

Good news I guess, maybe this dept isn't as cash strapped as we all think.

 

[King Of All Message Boards]

Chris - and be gentle - are you saying that www.newpittstadium.com isn't legit?

 

[Chris Peak]

Chris - and be gentle - are you saying that www.newpittstadium.com isn't legit?

Man, somebody put a lot of time into that.

 

[Chris Peak]

Do you hire a global architectural firm to get ideas about building a track? Kind of an overkill IMO. If it's for a non revenue sport in limited spacing, do a local search. No one cares anyways.

Good news I guess, maybe this dept isn't as cash strapped as we all think.

I think they were thinking broader and bigger than "building a track." Barnes was thinking big-picture and long-term, and when you talked to him, you got the sense that he was truly working on a vision for how to get Pitt into the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years.

 

[CrazyPaco]

For what it's worth, I'm told that Populous was not commissioned by Pitt to study anything relating to a football stadium. It's not on the agenda.

You really needed to ask that?

 

[Swervin27]

I think they were thinking broader and bigger than "building a track." Barnes was thinking big-picture and long-term, and when you talked to him, you got the sense that he was truly working on a vision for how to get Pitt into the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years.

Sweet. Pitt Better hurry before any more chain hotels come up. There are only 4 new ones on the books for oakland.

 

[TheNoise88]

Do you hire a global architectural firm to get ideas about building a track? Kind of an overkill IMO. If it's for a non revenue sport in limited spacing, do a local search. No one cares anyways.

Good news I guess, maybe this dept isn't as cash strapped as we all think.

No money to pay for an OC or to hire a decent basketball coach...plenty of money to give to a stadium company to NOT give them recommendations about a stadium...

It's a wonder our teams actually ever win at all, given such assclownery...

 

[eastcoasthoops]

For what it's worth, I'm told that Populous was not commissioned by Pitt to study anything relating to a football stadium. It's not on the agenda.

Chris, I'm sorry. You are very ill informed. Z3 or whatever his name is these days told us clearly that very high level detailed discussions were discussed over tomato salads at Meat & Potatoes recently. It's documented. The new stadium and all of its amenities are going to fit neatly in the OC Lot.

 

[Chris Peak]

No money to pay for an OC or to hire a decent basketball coach...plenty of money to give to a stadium company to NOT give them recommendations about a stadium...

It's a wonder our teams actually ever win at all, given such assclownery...

Except for the million dollars they were willing to spend on Matt Canada and the countless raises/extensions they gave Jamie Dixon...

 

[raleighpanther]

The question is, what can we do? I think we need more etch-a-sketch drawings of stadiums superimposed on spaces in Oakland for this to be come a reality.

 

[Team_Pitt_Fan]

how did that work out for them

 

[ThePanthers]

Except for the million dollars they were willing to spend on Matt Canada and the countless raises/extensions they gave Jamie Dixon...

Exactly. Some people are fing clueless.

 

[ThePanthers]

The reasoning behind not investing half a billion dollars when they can do a lot of other things for a fraction of that cost and improve the overall athletics at Pitt?

Which is what the smart people that actually have a clue have been saying for a long time on this board.

 

[Ski11585]

SMF not pleased.

 

[NTOP]

Any idea what the reasoning would be?

I'll take "common sense" for $400.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

The reasoning behind not investing half a billion dollars when they can do a lot of other things for a fraction of that cost and improve the overall athletics at Pitt?

Do you hire a global architectural firm to get ideas about building a track? Kind of an overkill IMO. If it's for a non revenue sport in limited spacing, do a local search. No one cares anyways.

Good news I guess, maybe this dept isn't as cash strapped as we all think.

I am sorry but there's no way you hire Populous to study new band buildings and a new academic support building. You can have some intern do that for a school project.

Perhaps Pitt is keeping it tight-lipped about what they are studying and don't want to tell ANYONE a stadium is being studied so to not get anyone's hope up and not allow the public and Rooney's believe they dont think Heinz is a fit.

So i don't doubt somebody told Chris that a stadium wasn't being studied but it probably wouldn't have been in their best interest to tell him. In fact, I'd bet the only people who lnow know the stadium is the main reason for the study (and the other stuff is the rooze) is Gallagher, Barnes, and the BOT. I would guess just about all high-level athletic department employees don't know.

I mean Barnes literally said Populous would be going to football games throughout the year and making recommendations. I dont think the intention of them doing that is to figure out if they needed to add port-a-potties.

 

[NTOP]

I am sorry but there's no way you hire Populous to study new band buildings and a new academic support building. You can have some intern do that for a school project.

Perhaps Pitt is keeping it tight-lipped about what they are studying and don't want to tell ANYONE a stadium is being studied so to not get anyone's hope up and not allow the public and Rooney's believe they dont think Heinz is a fit.

So i don't doubt somebody told Chris that a stadium wasn't being studied but it probably wouldn't have been in their best interest to tell him. In fact, I'd bet the only people who lnow know the stadium is the main reason for the study (and the other stuff is the rooze) is Gallagher, Barnes, and the BOT. I would guess just about all high-level athletic department employees don't know.

I mean Barnes literally said Populous would be going to football games throughout the year and making recommendations. I dont think the intention of them doing that is to figure out if they needed to add port-a-potties.

Well....do you now believe ANYTHING Barnes has said? The Chancellor has said: "The numbers don't work". Populous is looking at all the facilities for athletics......but I doubt for something as stupid as a new stadium on campus. Maybe they went to a game or 2?? If it was Syracuse or Miami...they'd realize we don't draw enough to spend that kind of money. People complained about Oakland for years, and its more crowded now than ever. And if they only went to the psu game, they'd think HF is just fine.
What the hell is a"rooze"? That's no autocorrect mistake. Were you referring to "rose"?? "rise"?? Ohhh...."ruse".

 

[ZetaZetaBeta]

THE ON CAMPUS STADIUM IS GOING TO HAPPEN. Thank you.

 

[Swervin27]

THE ON CAMPUS STADIUM IS GOING TO HAPPEN. Thank you.

IF and when it does, and if it goes where you say it will, we all owe you an apology.