Jordano on our baseball facility

[Sean Miller Fan]

"Our facility is very nice. But when you compare it to some of the facilities that exist in this conference, there is a ways to go."

Its true. Its a nice little facility but its obvious we got it for a bargain basement price. There's nothing to it. We went from having the very worst D1 facility in the nation to an average D1 facility and quite honestly, a below average ACC facility.

I know its not a revenue sport and nobody cares but I felt if you were going to do it, do it right. Dont just build something to build something.

 

[89nole]

Well at least Pitt is making an effort which is more than I can say for BC or Duke. Hopefully your fans and admin will embrace ACC baseball and improvments can be made. VT came in upgraded their facility and coaching and did some damage. You seem like your coaching is good and your facility is decent now you got to recruit, recruit. Pitt should dominate the area in recruiting the ACC is head and shoulders above the competition your geographic rivals are playing.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Originally posted by 89nole:
Well at least Pitt is making an effort which is more than I can say for BC or Duke. Hopefully your fans and admin will embrace ACC baseball and improvments can be made. VT came in upgraded their facility and coaching and did some damage. You seem like your coaching is good and your facility is decent now you got to recruit, recruit. Pitt should dominate the area in recruiting the ACC is head and shoulders above the competition your geographic rivals are playing.

As spartan of a facility that it is, its said to be the nicest in the NE besides Penn State's. A former PSU baseball player who is now a multi-millionaire built them a minor league stadium that they share with a Short Season A Ball team. However, Big Ten baseball is a mid-major league.

The thought is that since we play in a great league, play many games in the south in nice weather, and have the best facility in the NE, we should be able to land a good many NE players who dont want to be too far from home but want to play at the highest level.

Pitt baseball recruiting is getting better but we have a LOOOOOOOOOOONG way to go. I'd suspect we'll be an ACC doormat for the first few years.

 

[singregardless]

You're way ahead of yourself - the first need thing they need to do is better promote the program - the best in the NE last year, Roche back as a preseason 1st Team All-American, Jordano is fantastic around cameras/mics - and attract new fans.

Any expansion of the facility given the numbers they've had - and I know, I've attended the majority of the home games the last three seasons - would be comically misguided.

 

[bwh05]

Expansion of the facility shouldn't mean more seats. It should mean expanding the hitting building, putting in coaches offices and a luxury suite for events, adding a video board, and installing bathrooms in the dugout. We're going to draw better with better teams coming in, but we also need to do a better job of promoting ourselves to draw fans.

 

[Gregpitt]

The reality is baseball is very big in the ACC/SEC country where I live. They were talking Clemson basketball and remarked that it's in 3rd place here behind FB and baseball. All their and USC's baseball games are on the radio, preempting all regularly scheduled shows. Pitt barely as their games on tracker.

 

[TTOWN2]

Doormat??? IMO middle of the pack at this point!! Must@will be recruiting stronger as the seasons continue to roll by..will be holding our own until then, thank you!!

...HTP-Forever!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[CrazyPaco]

Originally posted by bwh05:
Expansion of the facility shouldn't mean more seats. It should mean expanding the hitting building, putting in coaches offices and a luxury suite for events, adding a video board, and installing bathrooms in the dugout. We're going to draw better with better teams coming in, but we also need to do a better job of promoting ourselves to draw fans.

Bingo.

Pitt has the ability to fill a niche as the premiere baseball program in the northeast, particularly now that it is in arguably the best conference in the nation.

It is a worthwhile investment, IMO. Promote the program.

 

[CrazyPaco]

I'd say lower third of the conference right now.

We've been pulling in successively better recruiting classes, and this past on is no exception, but when you recruit your all-time best class and it is still like 8th in the conference that you play in, you start to realize the difference in the world we are about to step in to.

Despite PSU's facility advantage, their program has been middling even in the Big Ten. Pitt has had no right to be a better program than them based on facilities and scholarships, yet it has definitively been better because of Pitt's superior coaching staff. But now with facilities and scholarships, we should be looking at the possibility of being a regular NCAA participant and taking the mantle of the premiere northeastern program, something St. John's historically, and more recently UConn, had really been able to claim. But, I'm just not impressed with the athletic department's historic ability to market itself. I know its more difficult in an urban pro city setting to escape the general background noise, but baseball needs to be promoted to the degree women's hoops is because it has the chance to fill a void in the northeast of the major college program there. And people will recognize that I've been harping on this point for years, but it is especially true now, and again, I say that as no special fan of baseball over other sports.

This post was edited on 2/13 4:47 PM by CrazyPaco

 

[TTOWN2]

Verygood post CP...HTP-Forever!!!!

 

[ThePanthers]

Personally, I think that if you see growth in the interest in the baseball team, you will see improvements to the baseball facilities. Playing in the ACC should help. The first step though was to replace the dump that was Trees Field, and from there, you can make the improvements to the facilities going forward. At least that is what I hope they will do.

But no need IMO to go all in and then have it sit there empty if it does not catch on. But if it does, like someone else said, add some luxury boxes, player upgrades in the dugout and locker rooms, coaching offices, etc.