For those interested in the going rate for an on-campus stadium with all the bells and whistles, here you go. Seats only 35,000 and will sit on the existing Ryan Field site. I think it’s safe to say anything in Oakland would be pushing $1B…
OT: Northwestern unveils $800M new stadium plans
- Thread starter HailToPitt725
- Start date
They are massively overpaying.
San Diego St. just built a new 35,000 seat stadium for $310 million.
San Diego St. just built a new 35,000 seat stadium for $310 million.
If it's on the existing Ryan Field site, it won't be on campus. The existing facility is in a residential neighborhood well north of campus, actually near the border of Evanston and Wilmette.
I love folks like you and @Sean Miller Fan just throwing out numbers and acting like you’re subject matter experts on real estate and construction.
Never change.
Also, my understanding is a lot of this is funded by donors.
A few things. The $800 million is for the entire project, not just the stadium. That includes the demolition of the current stadium, which isnt cheap. This also seems to be an NFL-caliber stadium but smaller. Inotherwords, all the bells, whistles, and amenities that add to the cost. Pitt wouldn't need that. If we built one, it would be more along the lines of Minnesota and not UCF. My guess is JUST the cost of constructing a stadium in Oakland would be $500 million now. The cost to buy up buildings and tear them down probably adds another $100 million. Is it a good move financially, no. Neither is the volleyball arena. But they aren't building the volleyball arena to profit. They're doing it to improve the experience for the 100 student-athletes who use it per year. A stadium would improve the college experience for all students and it brings alumni back to campus.
Yup. I’m a little disappointed they’re not sticking with the integrity of the original stadium, but it does look very nice.
That’s a school confident that their program will still be in The Show when the dust settles with all the conference blowups.
Pitt is not one of those, so it would be fiscally moronic to even consider it here.
Maybe the ghosts of Pitt leadership past should feel haunted that they withdrew from football instead of pursuing the Big Ten in the 30s/40s. (Trying to get into the Halloween spirit).
35,000, though? It doesn’t seem the worth the bother for that.
Pitt is not one of those, so it would be fiscally moronic to even consider it here.
Maybe the ghosts of Pitt leadership past should feel haunted that they withdrew from football instead of pursuing the Big Ten in the 30s/40s. (Trying to get into the Halloween spirit).
35,000, though? It doesn’t seem the worth the bother for that.
Call us when there's actually shovels in the ground, this is just a proposal and don't be shocked when NW settles for just a refurb of Ryan Field. The whole hosting concerts thing seems like they want this to fail, the stadium is right in the middle of a suburban neighborhood, there's a huge difference between 6 or 7 fall Saturday afternoon NW football games and concerts, XFL or USFL team and so on.
Why should they be confident??? Why does anyone think that the Big Ten is going to hang on to every school in their conference? This is all about money and so schools like Northwestern should be pretty damn nervous that the conference tells then to kiss off and head to the MAC.
Doubtful, it's a private university. That won't matter for purposes of this project which will be 100% privately funded.
Why do you ask?
The Ryans donated a half billion for it and its all going to be privately funded. Lots of money at NW.
The interesting question would be if Tepper or someone donated a half billion to Pitt for a football stadium, would Pitt agree to build it? Or would they turn it down?
If it is that precipitous, then this is also fiscally moronic. Which I’d think is pretty foolish unless they felt they had some solid basis for confidence.
Unless they already figure on that happening and having to play in the MAC or similar, which I guess is possible, considering the proposed stadium size. But I can’t imagine it would be anything but a financial bloodbath for them (or us) to keep playing football if it isn’t in the Uber League. I can see WVU being delusional that way (“we will RULE the college football pony league!) but Northwestern (and I’d hope, Pitt) have somewhat smarter folks in charge.
For reference, the Ryan's $500M donation closed a campaign that exceeded $6B. Not sure Pitt could do that. Tepper ain't dropping $500M on a Pitt stadium so your question isn't relevant.
That's the problem. Pitt should have been pursuing such a solution, but because of MN and SP being dipsticks, they doubled down.
Just pouting out some facts. They are other newer stadium with larger capacity for even less.
Yea, I know but hypothetically if a donor or group of donors brought a check to Pitt and said "this is for you to build a stadium," would Pitt turn it down? I have a feeling they would. I don't think money is the reason they aren't building one. They just view it as unnecessary....redundant since the city has one.
Why do other stadiums get a full overhang to provide shade and protection from the elements, but in Pittsburgh, Acrisure Stadium and PNC Park have ones that probably do not even cover half of the upper deck?
1-1 1/2 miles is not "well north" its a 15 minute stroll akin to Point State Park to the Stadium formerly known as Heinz Field..
No. They wouldn't.
Thankfully it's irrelevant. Northwestern has 10x the billionaire alumni that Pitt does.
I really believe the same. Even if fully funded, I think they would believe that pursuit of an on campus stadium for football would appear, for want of a better term, unwoke … to “more worthy” concerns, sports or otherwise. Even if funding existed, the mere engagement in it likely would abhor them. And before this turns into a partisan shat-show that gets deleted, everything that emanates from Pitt completely supports this opinion . Maybe even ESPECIALLY if it were funded privately. The mere idea that somebody would give Pitt nearly $1B only to see it ‘squandered’ on a male sport whose fanbase is predominately older white males? Never never never.
Pitt absolutely would not turn down a $500M donation for any reason or purpose, get a hold of yourselves.
Are we playing a game to see who can make the dumbest post possible?
Pitt gladly accepted a $5M donation from the Koch Foundation, of all places, just a few years ago. Your whole premise is flawed.
Part of the problem is that, due to Pitt's location, they are at the mercy of a bunch of stakeholders, so even if Pitt brass wanted to move forward building the stadium, they would have to get a bunch of other entities on board and that would be an extremely challenging task, probably not worth the headaches. You would need to work with the city and PRT and perhaps even PennDOT on upgrading roads and mass transportation, you would have to deal with that Oakland Planning Commission that appears to dislike any development, etc.
That's a nice looking facility. Ryan does need to be demolished. There just isn't too much you can do with a stadium of it's age and shape..
It's absolutely a flaw in Acrisure's design... That overhang or canopy or whatever the proper term is should cover not only everyone in the upper deck sidelines but almost everyone in the lower bowl sidelines as well.
That stadium should have been built as a full bowl akin to Three Rivers (obviously with better dimensions and amenities). Yes, the river view is nice but the atmosphere (and sound) within a full bowl like TRS was so much better. I think having a fully enclosed stadium would also make it much easier to extend the canopy out further.
I get that the lighting at Acrisure is on the edge of the canopy/overhang, so the stadium's lighting would have to be completely redesigned if you change that. I just always thought it was weird that they provide shade and weather protection to the folks sitting in peanut heaven on the sidelines (obviously no sort of protection for the folks in the bleachers in the upper end zone).
Well that’s just it. Give Pitt 500m, for something with a minimal footprint on property that’s already clear…yeah, I can see them accepting it. But for something the size of a stadium in Oakland, there is acquiring the property, relocation and demolition, and every thing difficult that comes from that, all with the objective for a male sport that appeals mainly to the devil, aka white males. If they could pitch it similar to what Northwestern is doing, saying it’s for other things as well, they could try that but that would likely would get called out for the BS that it is. It isn’t being built for poetry forums or Lilith fairs, it’s Being built for ugh, football. This just isn’t the era to do it. They would never go for that.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Not that it matters but there is really zero comparison to Pitt, here. Northwestern is a glorified, ivy league, wannabe, that has to at least look like it's making an effort to justify it's cut of the conference funds. I'm not sure that building a stadium that will be the smallest in the conference by 15k seats is signaling any kind of commitment to football going forward.
It will be the third smallest P5 stadium behind Wake 31.5K and Duke and 34K
Wash St 35K
Vandy 40.5K
NW was 49.2K
Wash St 35K
Vandy 40.5K
NW was 49.2K
Not sure how "glorified" or "wannabe" NW is as a consensus top 10 ranked national university ranked above all but 4 of the Ivys. I guess Stanford, MIT, Hopkins and U. of Chicago are all glorified Ivy wannabes as well.
I also don't see them losing their seat at the table based mostly on the fact that NW is a founding member of the B10 and its academic standard bearer. Even though it's all about money, I don't think the B1G will agree to any deals without them.
