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Joan Gabel addresses on campus stadium

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NatronaHeightsPanther

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pittsburghsportsnow.com

New Pitt Chancellor Shares Her Potential On-Campus Stadium Thoughts

Victory Heights is the major ongoing, on-campus construction project in Oakland right now, at least when it comes to Pitt athletics, but there is one project that many follow with fervent interest. The idea of a 35,000-45,000-seat on-campus stadium somewhere in Oakland has been discussed at...
pittsburghsportsnow.com pittsburghsportsnow.com

Saw this on the pay board, Vuk posted this to his site and it’s a great write up. Enjoy!

Also, God forbid Peak or his goons actually do some work and write this article.
 
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NatronaHeightsPanther said:
pittsburghsportsnow.com

New Pitt Chancellor Shares Her Potential On-Campus Stadium Thoughts

Victory Heights is the major ongoing, on-campus construction project in Oakland right now, at least when it comes to Pitt athletics, but there is one project that many follow with fervent interest. The idea of a 35,000-45,000-seat on-campus stadium somewhere in Oakland has been discussed at...
pittsburghsportsnow.com pittsburghsportsnow.com

Saw this on the pay board, Vuk posted this to his site and it’s a great write up. Enjoy!

Also, God forbid Peak or his goons actually do some work and write this article.
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odd. For some reason I hear Gary Wright belting out Dream Weaver in my kitchen.
 
As others have said, before, it was a matter that the school just didn’t want to do it. There are solid reasons that Acrisure is sufficient, not even arguing that…frankly I prefer the convenience given where I live. But the bottom line was the stance of the school.

However, now, with the utter chaos of conference realignment hell and the very real uncertainty it means for Pitt, it would FSU-like (aka mentally unstable) for Pitt leadership to even be considering it now.
 
what I read in the article is that there isn't really any room and the Fitzgerald fieldhouse space will eventually become a parking garage and who in their right mind wants a 35-45K seat football stadium unless you really are moving down to FCS or (non top league). In no way does that size stadium enhance Pitts outlook
 
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NatronaHeightsPanther said:
pittsburghsportsnow.com

New Pitt Chancellor Shares Her Potential On-Campus Stadium Thoughts

Victory Heights is the major ongoing, on-campus construction project in Oakland right now, at least when it comes to Pitt athletics, but there is one project that many follow with fervent interest. The idea of a 35,000-45,000-seat on-campus stadium somewhere in Oakland has been discussed at...
pittsburghsportsnow.com pittsburghsportsnow.com

Saw this on the pay board, Vuk posted this to his site and it’s a great write up. Enjoy!

Also, God forbid Peak or his goons actually do some work and write this article.
Click to expand...
We have a different definition of, "a great write up."

I don't see, "Pitt chancellor Joan Gabel said that she isn’t ready to fully assess the idea of an on-campus stadium considering her recent hiring" as anything worth repeating.
 
Maybe she saw how much Minnesota fans enjoyed their own stadium instead of having to rent out an NFL stadium, which they did for a short time.
 
Dointhatrag said:
what I read in the article is that there isn't really any room and the Fitzgerald fieldhouse space will eventually become a parking garage and who in their right mind wants a 35-45K seat football stadium unless you really are moving down to FCS or (non top league). In no way does that size stadium enhance Pitts outlook
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The reality of it is, a 45,000 seat football stadium is what Pitt needs. If Pitt was to release the actual number of tickets counted on game day versus some made up number of seats sold, you would find that 45,000 seats would be plenty for over 75% of their home games. For me, I'd rather have a smaller stadium that appears to be full then the nonsense we have going on right now at acrisure stadium with thousands of bright yellow seats everywhere.
 
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On-campus stadium between 45,000-50,000 seats and if you have a game that will draw 60,000+ play it at Acrisure Stadium. Plus, you're no longer beholden to the whim of the Rooneys and whatever stadium demands they will have in the future.
 
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cbpitt2 said:
On-campus stadium between 45,000-50,000 seats and if you have a game that will draw 60,000+ play it at Acrisure Stadium. Plus, you're no longer beholden to the whim of the Rooneys and whatever stadium demands they will have in the future.
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No. You don’t move your biggest home games away from your home stadium. That is sheer stupidity. It reeks of small tIme. And Pitt won’t - nor should they - ever do it.
 
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The Trib had the same story today, and after reading my thoughts were that she was trying to politely say "there's no freakin way we are building a stadium on campus" without actually saying those words, so that the people who think that's all that keeps Pitt from being a national power in football could say "see, there's still a chance!"
 
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PittMan 72 said:
No. You don’t move your biggest home games away from your home stadium. That is sheer stupidity. It reeks of small tIme. And Pitt won’t - nor should they - ever do it.
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the rare double never gonna happen either way hypothetical on top of a hypothetical....
 
HailToPitt725 said:
At this point, I think we ought to just support getting the T extended into Oakland. Besides, Heinz Field with massive renovations is better than any on-campus stadium we could build ourselves. Just my opinion, though.
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I say this a lot but I will say it again. Someone needs to study a joint MLS/Pitt stadium......like San Diego State's but a bit bigger. Is Cuban a futbol fan?
 
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Sean Miller Fan said:
I say this a lot but I will say it again. Someone needs to study a joint MLS/Pitt stadium......like San Diego State's but a bit bigger. Is Cuban a futbol fan?
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Something to consider is that the MLS likely wouldn’t come to Pittsburgh for quite a while… what will the “minimum” seating look like for new soccer-specific stadiums in, say, 2035 or 2040? By then, it might be pushing 40,000 which could make that at least a consideration. Right now, the largest soccer-specific stadium is Nashville’s 30,000-seat stadium. That’s just too small for Pitt.
 
HailToPitt725 said:
Something to consider is that the MLS likely wouldn’t come to Pittsburgh for quite a while… what will the “minimum” seating look like for new soccer-specific stadiums in, say, 2035 or 2040? By then, it might be pushing 40,000 which could make that at least a consideration. Right now, the largest soccer-specific stadium is Nashville’s 30,000-seat stadium. That’s just too small for Pitt.
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MLS will go pretty much anywhere where a stadium is guaranteed. If Cuban said he was building a 45K seat stadium with soccer seating for 30K (tarping off upper decks), MLS could possibly expand to Pittsburgh.
 
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Once again, Paul Zeise makes the complicated, simple....Read, learn, accept...

www.post-gazette.com

Paul Zeise: An on-campus Pitt football stadium is and will always be a pipe dream

It took less than three months, but Pitt chancellor Joan Gabel finally kicked the hornet’s nest in order to wake up the “on-campus stadium”...
www.post-gazette.com www.post-gazette.com

It took less than three months, but Pitt chancellor Joan Gabel finally kicked the hornet’s nest in order to wake up the “on-campus stadium” wackos of the Panthers fan base.

Actually, given that her first official day on the job was July 17th, she managed to pull it off in less than two months, which is impressive.

That’s because this “on-campus” stadium discussion and the small but vocal minority of people who still think it is necessary for Pitt football to thrive can’t let it go. That’s why it came up this week in an interview and why Gabel said just enough to fan the flames of speculation even more.

“It’s a big change to bring that kind of traffic to a new location, whether it’s on campus or somewhere else in the city,” Joan Gabel told the Tribune-Review. “But I am absolutely open to the exploration and to the evaluation.

“I think we’re due for master planning. And so it’s probably time to certainly include that in the questions we would ask ourselves about the future of campus.”

I can save Gabel, the University of Pittsburgh and the athletic department millions of dollars in studies by giving them this evaluation: Building an on-campus stadium would be a colossal waste of money and won’t do a single thing to improve Pitt’s football program.

It won’t improve recruiting, it won’t improve attendance, and it won’t suddenly vault Pitt to the top of the world of college football. It won’t do anything except allow you to brag about having an on-campus stadium that cost an enormous amount of money and looks pretty.

Pitt’s football program is fine playing at Acrisure Stadium, and it makes far more sense than trying to build a stadium in Oakland.

There is access from all sides of the city to the North Shore, on good roads built for lots of cars. There is very limited access to Oakland from the west and south of the city, and to a lesser extent the north.

If you have ever tried to get in and out of Oakland to see a sold-out event at Petersen Events Center — which holds 12,500 — you understand what a logistical nightmare it is and how much traffic backs up. Now multiply that amount of people by four, and imagine what that would be like.

So in short, once you get to the Oakland exit, it could take you longer to get to where you are going to park as it did to get to the exit. I’ve sat in traffic on the ramp up to Oakland from the Parkway East for 20-25 minutes trying to get to events at Pitt in the past.

And that brings me to the next point: Where is everyone going to park?

There is adequate parking on the North Shore, but where exactly are you going to put parking for 45,000-50,000 people in Oakland?

It makes no practical sense to try and build a stadium in Oakland for so many reasons that the fact so many on the outside and within the university continue to talking about it is ridiculous.

A number of athletic department officials and some key people from the university at large have had ongoing discussions about this for at least the last three or four years. There have even been a few models thrown about and some preliminary looks at the feasibility of it all.

Gabel was just answering a question, so I don’t blame her. But this is one of those things that needs to go away for a long, long time. It just doesn’t make sense, especially considering the reasons I am always told it has to happen.

Here are the reasons and why they are nonsense:

1.) It will help attendance!

Actually, it would probably hurt attendance because getting in and out of Oakland would be a logistical nightmare. The only people who would benefit from an on-campus stadium are students, but student tickets basically sell out every year. The university has done a great job of making it easy for students to get to the game, which is why the student section is always full even when the rest of the stadium is half-empty. And let’s get this straight — when Pitt had a stadium in Oakland and even when they had a team that was competing (and winning) national championships, they didn’t sell out and didn’t have a full student section. So the attendance thing is a myth — Pitt’s program has struggled to sell tickets because it was wallowing in the wilderness of mediocrity for 35 years or so.

Here is the other thing: They are talking about “right sizing” the stadium and that Heinz Field is too big for Pitt’s crowd. However, there are a few games that Pitt has which will sell 65,000-70,000 seats, but you can’t do that if your stadium only holds 48,000-50,000 seats. If the empty seats on some game days offend people that much, put some tarps up on the upper deck and move on.

2.) It will help recruiting!

I have no idea how it would help recruiting. None. The current stadium is nice and it is an NFL stadium, and that in and of itself is a selling point. I can’t imagine there is any measurable number of players who would say, “If Pitt had a stadium in Oakland instead of the North Shore, I would have went there.” Recruits are choosing Pitt for the school, the conference, the coaching staff, the weight room and facilities, the NIL money, etc. The location of the stadium is not likely in the top 10 reasons a kid might or might not choose Pitt.

The facilities on the South Side are a different story, and if you want to tell me that Pitt should move those back to Oakland, I might agree. But those facilities don’t come with the traffic flow and parking issues, although I have no idea where a facility like that, complete with practice fields, would fit in Oakland, either. There are some discussions about Pitt and the Steelers outgrowing the South Side facility and one of them eventually having to move but that is a lot of talk now.

3) Nostalgia!

Oh, please. Pitt Stadium was mostly a dump and the Panthers played a lot of really bad football there. As I always say, Ppease look at Pitt from about 1936 to about 2000 — all in an on-campus stadium — and tell me how much outside of the era from 1975-1983 is worthy of all of this nostalgia. And nostalgia doesn’t pay the bills, either.

4) Pitt could control its own schedule!

This is hilarious because the ACC has more control of Pitt’s schedule than Pitt. And the number of conflicts Pitt has with the Pirates is so minimal and has caused so few scheduling headaches it isn’t even worth talking about. This is silly.

Pitt, like many universities, has been concerned with funding and budgets in recent years and has had to have some tuition raises and whatnot, as well. But now you are going to convince me that spending $1 billion on a stadium that isn’t necessary and won’t improve the football program is a good idea?

Gabel’s answer to the question about a new stadium was mostly a nothing burger, but it was enough red meat to get the usual crowd clinging to this pipe dream salivating.

But the idea of an on-campus stadium and the practicality of pulling it off are worlds apart, and the fact that otherwise intelligent people continue to entertain it is mind-numbing to say the least.
 
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Haven't been to a game in over 5 seasons. When they build an on campus stadium, I'll be a season ticket holder again. Until then I can watch from my comfortable couch.

I know that irks many here. Too bad.

And yes, I realize that likely means that I will never be a season ticket holder.

And Zeiss doesn't know what he's talking about. He interviewed SP once and didn't call him out on his lie about student season tickets, so he falls in line with the other dolts.
 
HailtoPitt said:
Haven't been to a game in over 5 seasons. When they build an on campus stadium, I'll be a season ticket holder again. Until then I can watch from my comfortable couch.

I know that irks many here. Too bad.

And yes, I realize that likely means that I will never be a season ticket holder.

And Zeiss doesn't know what he's talking about. He interviewed SP once and didn't call him out on his lie about student season tickets, so he falls in line with the other dolts.
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What if they don’t allow seat cushions?
 
HailToPitt725 said:
At this point, I think we ought to just support getting the T extended into Oakland. Besides, Heinz Field with massive renovations is better than any on-campus stadium we could build ourselves. Just my opinion, though.
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What massive renovations do you want to see that would make the average fan experience better? I want the teams to have the nicest locker/training rooms, etc. Luxury upgrades cater to a small percentage, so I'm looking for what would enhance the rest of our fan experience.
 
King Of All Message Boards said:
What if they don’t allow seat cushions?
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At least it will be up to Pitt what to allow, instead of the NFL. Like I said, if a senior citizen can't take a seat cushion into the stadium, then I'm no longer going. Walked straight back to the car and went home, where my father in law was able to watch Pitt lose to Miami from home.
 
I'm sad that they are going to abandon the Fieldhouse. I was a Fanatic and had a lot of fun in that building. Won't be the same when she is gone. I miss the old upper campus.

Now that Pitt Stadium is gone I'm ok staying at Heinz. I think it makes the most sense. I miss Pitt Stadium but that ship sailed a long time ago sadly.
 
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Gep Dawg said:
I'm sad that they are going to abandon the Fieldhouse. I was one a Fanatic and had a lot of fun in that building. Won't be the same when she is gone. I miss the old upper campus.

Now that Pitt Stadium is gone I'm ok staying at Heinz. I think it makes the most sense. I miss Pitt Stadium but that ship sailed a long time ago sadly.
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It is important though, to state that the 'no space' argument is only true becasue Pitt has purposely allowed it to be true, so that they can say there is no space.
 
Sean Miller Fan said:
You ask the SEC what helps our chances. A cozy 45K seater on or near campus or the 70K one on the North Side that they can bring scores of their fanbase too.
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Of course, the whole world understands that the SEC would never ask......

But keep the crap-posting coming......
 
NatronaHeightsPanther said:
It was a great write up. Open to the possibility of it is newsworthy. Peak again is asleep at the switch.
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She was being polite and saying the typical response that is non-committal. There won't be a 35K - 45K seat stadium in Oakland because Pitt needs at least a 55K stadium. And there isn't room anywhere for that. It's not happening. The article was a fluff piece, nothing more.
 
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HailToPitt1985 said:
She was being polite and saying the typical response that is non-committal. There won't be a 35K - 45K seat stadium in Oakland because Pitt needs at least a 55K stadium. And there isn't room anywhere for that. It's not happening. The article was a fluff piece, nothing more.
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55K would leave 7-10K seats empty each week.
 
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When they introduced the new chancellor at the game today I could have sworn she was booed .
 
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