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OT: Kansas(yes, Kansas) renovating stadium: price 300m

Good for them. It needs it. A lot of that is going towards a new indoor practice facility as well.
 
Kansas wants to make sure they don't get left behind when the B12 eventually falls apart.


Keeping up with facilities is great...but if their on field product does not improve...would not matter if they are playing in a palace...they will be left behind for sure. #priorities Hail to Pitt!
 
Keeping up with facilities is great...but if their on field product does not improve...would not matter if they are playing in a palace...they will be left behind for sure. #priorities Hail to Pitt!

They are a blue blood BB program. While hoops doesn't matter as much as FB it still matters and Kansas is a top 10 program. That alone likely gets them picked up, probably 3rd in the pecking order behind TX and OK, but improving the FB program will guarantee they get picked up.
 
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They are a blue blood BB program. While hoops doesn't matter as much as FB it still matters and Kansas is a top 10 program. That alone likely gets them picked up, probably 3rd in the pecking order behind TX and OK, but improving the FB program will guarantee they get picked up.

Like I said...better improve the product on the field. A nice new stadium or a freshly remodeled stadium is great...but if the team playing there sucks....it will not elevate the program. I'm not convinced the Big XII is doomed to break up...there is little financial incentive for the other leagues to expand. I guess time will tell. Hail to Pitt!
 
They are a blue blood BB program. While hoops doesn't matter as much as FB it still matters and Kansas is a top 10 program. That alone likely gets them picked up, probably 3rd in the pecking order behind TX and OK, but improving the FB program will guarantee they get picked up.
Anyone notice their '18 football class? They're in the top 20 currently and have pulled 5-6 players from Louisiana including a 5 star WR that turned down LSU. They have a few former LA HS school coaches as assistants... we'll see if they can keep the class but pretty crazy stuff.
 
wonder what they would do if their space was limited and they had to decide between a state of the art basketball facility or an upgrade of a decrepit football venue with another football venue option available.
They'd be smart enough to keep the FB stadium & build a gym elsewhere.
 
wonder what they would do if their space was limited and they had to decide between a state of the art basketball facility or an upgrade of a decrepit football venue with another football venue option available.
I'll bet they wouldn't throw in behind basketball, then allow the basketball program that had been a perennial top 10 to degenerate so completely within five years that it can't fill its roster and there is serious doubt that it will win more than 5 total games for the next 2 or 3 seasons. Yeah, I'll bet they don't follow that tack.
 
wonder what they would do if their space was limited and they had to decide between a state of the art basketball facility or an upgrade of a decrepit football venue with another football venue option available.

It really is never a binary decision. Any school that is serious at competing at the highest levels of football and basketball MUST do both--keep state of the art football and basketball facilities. Good for Kansas for making the investment--hope it works out for them. Hail to Pitt!
 
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They'd be smart enough to keep the FB stadium & build a gym elsewhere.
at Kansas? The home of James Naismith Kansas? hahahaha. Besides, I stated a hypothetical. "if their space was limited"
 
wonder what they would do if their space was limited and they had to decide between a state of the art basketball facility or an upgrade of a decrepit football venue with another football venue option available.
I am not going to debate the on campus stadium as it has been done to death. However, it will be interesting to see what happens when the Steelers need/want a new stadium and there is no place to put one on the North Shore because it is built up. They wont be able to play at Pitt's stadium until a new one is built. So they can implode Heinz and Pitt and the Steelers can play elsewhere? Or build at another location, which more than likely will be further from Pitt's campus. We are what, 15 or so years into the current stadium?
 
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wonder what they would do if their space was limited and they had to decide between a state of the art basketball facility or an upgrade of a decrepit football venue with another football venue option available.

They wouldn’t be stupid and tear down the ON-CAMPUS football stadium I can tell you that. Those universities that chose to leave campus have learned the HUGE ERROR of their ways and have returned to campus. The smart thing would be to knock down the old stadium, if it can’t be renovated, and build a new one. Then find space for a new basketball facility as that takes up FAR LESS space and would be easier to find a space for ON-CAMPUS.
 
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at Kansas? The home of James Naismith Kansas? hahahaha. Besides, I stated a hypothetical. "if their space was limited"

Trivia question: Who is the only basketball coach in the history of the University of Kansas with a losing record for his tenure?
 
wonder what they would do if their space was limited and they had to decide between a state of the art basketball facility or an upgrade of a decrepit football venue with another football venue option available.

They wouldn't be stupid enough to be placed in that situation. Remember, Pitt had a location for the arena and chose the stadium's location instead. Only at Pitt.
 
They wouldn't be stupid enough to be placed in that situation. Remember, Pitt had a location for the arena and chose the stadium's location instead. Only at Pitt.
And where was that??
 
Off the top of my head, I don't recall, but the plan previous to the Pete had the new ( even larger) arena on a different spot.

Much smaller facility (not necessarily much less seating capacity, but everything else about it) on the OC lot. Was also much more expensive to build on that plot.
 
Much smaller facility (not necessarily much less seating capacity, but everything else about it) on the OC lot. Was also much more expensive to build on that plot.

I believe that plan called for a 20,000 seat arena. Perhaps it didn't include things like student rec center and other academic space, but there was another spot. Most schools would have kept their stadium location and built the basketball arena elsewhere.
 
I believe that plan called for a 20,000 seat arena. Perhaps it didn't include things like student rec center and other academic space, but there was another spot. Most schools would have kept their stadium location and built the basketball arena elsewhere.

More like 15K or less. The footprint was considerably smaller, and the athletic and academic amenities were considerably less or non-existent. It also didn't include a water chiller.

There was a spot. No argument. But the facts remain as to why the decision was made, and comparisons to other schools are not suitable to Pitt's situation at all. But debate of the decision is fine, as long as one is realistic about what Pitt was facing in the late 1990s. The OC lot is expensive to build on which is why hasn't been thus far. No major Division 1 schools have less acres of land, is more densely constructed, nor is expansion as prohibitive. Arguably no major Division 1 school had worse athletic facilities. Only 2-3 had less athletic revenue. Few other major schools had new professional stadia going up within a five mile radius. No other school was dealing with an atrocious legacy deal that had $20-70 million in state funding uselessly floating in the political ether. Multiple attempts at fundraising had failed. The University's general financial situation was precarious. Football operations were already moving off campus. Those issues simply aren't wiped from history because one asserts how "most other schools" would act.
 
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More like 15K or less. The footprint was considerably smaller, and the athletic and academic amenities were considerably less or non-existent. It also didn't include a water chiller.

There was a spot. No argument. But the facts remain as to why the decision was made, and comparisons to other schools are not suitable to Pitt's situation at all. But debate of the decision is fine, as long as one is realistic about what Pitt was facing in the late 1990s. The OC lot is expensive to build on which is why hasn't been thus far. No major Division 1 schools have less acres of land, is more densely constructed, nor is expansion as prohibitive. Arguably no major Division 1 school had worse athletic facilities. Only 2-3 had less athletic revenue. Few other major schools had new professional stadia going up within a five mile radius. No other school was dealing with an atrocious legacy deal that had $20-70 million in state funding uselessly floating in the political ether. Multiple attempts at fundraising had failed. The University's general financial situation was precarious. Football operations were already moving off campus. Those issues simply aren't wiped from history because one asserts how "most other schools" would act.

You are correct that the original plan was 15,000. I believe that 20,000 would have been the basketball capacity for a domed Pitt Stadium had the University went through with that plan, but it has been awhile since I have read about it, so those details are fuzzy.

My point is that they did have a different location for the new arena and could have built it there. We all understand the issue Pitt has with limited space. We understand that the OC lot is more expensive to build on, but oddly enough the costs skyrocketed AFTER the location change. And the chiller was already in the plans, not added as a result of the new location.
 
You are correct that the original plan was 15,000. I believe that 20,000 would have been the basketball capacity for a domed Pitt Stadium had the University went through with that plan, but it has been awhile since I have read about it, so those details are fuzzy.

My point is that they did have a different location for the new arena and could have built it there. We all understand the issue Pitt has with limited space. We understand that the OC lot is more expensive to build on, but oddly enough the costs skyrocketed AFTER the location change. And the chiller was already in the plans, not added as a result of the new location.

The domed Pitt Stadium was more like 35K...similar to the Carrier Dome, and way to big.

The skyrocketing costs had zero to do with building on the level footprint of the stadium. Although, there was an underground mine that they had to deal with that they didn't know was there. Those are also known to exist underneath the OC plot.
 
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