Reality with AD Greene
- Thread starter CrazyPaco
- Start date
Ok. The one quote I heard from the new AD is to renew season tickets.
I was set to not renew football tickets based on my distaste for PN.
But AD said that is the way I can help. So I will, but I better see Pitt try to help itself for once in my lifetime.
I think you have the right idea, but they won't tear down the Petersen Sports Complex (nor would they need to). If the athletic department wants to create a revenue-generating development, they'll have ample real estate at the Fitzgerald Field House once the Victory Heights arena is finished.
Re read my post. I am not suggesting getting rid of the complex. The soccer team is worthy. The sofball team are women. We need them.
I am identifying the baseball diamond only. But i dont disagree with the soon to be obliterated Field house.
This is going to be my last year buying season tickets if they continue to require a Panther Club contribution and not a player salary contribution instead....and only because ND is coming in and that would be an expensive ticket. For basketball, I am not renewing, not anything to due with Capel or the program but I disagree with the Panther Club contribution and interest in the program has barely grown since Stallings. UNC tickets could have been had for $2. 2 DOLLARS! You can probably get an entire season on Stubhub for $100.
Because these kids from the DR have no chance of getting accepted to the university. They might bend the rules for a 5-star QB. They aren't bending it for a baseball player that can't speak English.
They bend the rules for soccer. They'd bend it for baseball. Also, since when don't they speak English? Most countries teach English.
Prediction: Pitt will not be disbanding the baseball program, nor will Pitt be repurposing part of the sports complex.
There are three primary real estate repurposement opportunities on upper campus (not including the Syria Mosque lot or anything else on lower campus). That’s the Fitzgerald Field House which will be superfluous when the new arena is finished; the eastern part of Trees Hall, everything other than the pool, which will be superfluous when the new arena and the new fitness center are finished; and the OC lot. You can do more than enough valuable work on the combination of those three sites to not need to do anything to the sports complex, which is the least accessible of the three.
There are three primary real estate repurposement opportunities on upper campus (not including the Syria Mosque lot or anything else on lower campus). That’s the Fitzgerald Field House which will be superfluous when the new arena is finished; the eastern part of Trees Hall, everything other than the pool, which will be superfluous when the new arena and the new fitness center are finished; and the OC lot. You can do more than enough valuable work on the combination of those three sites to not need to do anything to the sports complex, which is the least accessible of the three.
I'd rather have the Sheetz than Victory Heights.
I have no idea what your last line means. How is Pitt supposed to"help it self for once" as if it never has done anything to help itself. You want a long list? Pitt is still trying to compete at the highest level of collegiate sports despite that becoming more and more difficult with its a small and mostly apathetic fan base. That attempt to stay in the top tier is the entire point of the original article interviewing Greene, but Pitt has to up its financial game to stay in that top tier because college sports is now professionalized with no cap. There is no way around that.
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This is a good time to repost the original Victory Heights renderings, which were part of the university’s larger master plan about 7-8 years ago:
Lots of interesting things to point out:
- The Pete was supposed to have an add-on
- They already have (had?) plans for the field house post-demolition
- I’d imagine the human performance center is no longer needed with new Victory Heights arena… is there any chance we see development on the OC Lot?
- Trees Hall was supposed to be modified to include a multipurpose indoor facility; this would allow for the bubble to come down and make way for an outdoor track
- Is there still any chance that Sports Complex expansion happens? What are the additional needs this would serve?
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To address these in order:
1. I would suspect that the Pete add-on is probably still on the table with the right donor and the right funding. I suspect that it’s probably just building out a new “men’s suite” with a practice gym that the men don’t have to share with the women, and larger/redesigned locker room, strength and athletic training facilities. I also suspect that there’s a chance that they might just be able to repurpose the student fitness center to fulfill some of those goals when the new fitness center is finished, which may be a cheaper way of accomplishing the same goal.
2. I think that the combination of the field house no longer being necessary (all competition, S&C and coaches offices will move to the new facility), and the eastern half of Trees Hall not being necessary (student fitness will move to the new fitness center, gymnastics and cheer will move to the new facility, and whatever else they use it for can probably be moved elsewhere) were a big reason for the university stepping up and funding Victory Heights. That’s a whole lot of square footage between those two soon-to-be-vacated facilities that the university can use and integrate into their long-term planning. Student housing, structured parking, there are a lot of possibilities.
3. The “human performance center” was just integrated into the Victory Heights site, so they basically just moved the facility that they were contemplating on the OC lot to the Pete lawn, and decided to put a student green space on the top of the building instead of the lacrosse field. So yeah, the OC lot still appears to be wide open.
4. I would be surprised if this happens in the modern era, unless they were to build a large new structure (we all know what that would be) on the OC lot. I suspect that the indoor track plans are still on the books, but that feels like a heavier funding lift in the post-revenue share era. Which is deeply unfortunate for Herb Douglas’ memory, but that might be the reality.
5. I think that the sports complex expansion will probably be sport specific. I think the only expansion after adding the third floor to the building would be capacity expansions for the three facilities - I think the soccer stadium is probably the only one of the three that can support an expansion right now. They did build an indoor hitting/pitching facility for the softball team a couple years ago.
Rule of thumb: people that complain the most typically do the least to help a situation
Clearly you aren't paying attention to the kids from the DR that play for the Pirates. Cruz is an excellent example.
And, no, they won't bend it for baseball. They only have pressure to bend it when $$ is involved.
They bend it for all sports, revenue generating or not. Even the Ivy bends admission standards for "special skills".
These are all great answers; I appreciate the insight. Good callout on using the current student fitness center for the MBB expansion. I agree with you that I’d love to see them honor Mr. Douglas’ legacy with a track-specific facility, but it’s looking more and more unlikely in the new age of collegiate athletics.
A follow-up question: where does the lacrosse team currently have their offices? I wonder if a PSC expansion would benefit them if they ever wanted to move into the complex (I believe they still play at Highmark?).
The Petersen sports complex has the offices and the locker room for the lacrosse team. That was part of the third floor expansion. They bus over to Highmark, where they’ve got a dedicated game day locker room. I think most of their practices and everything are either in the Cost Center or the sports dome. I think the original plan was to have lacrosse play at Urbanic for a few years until they got the OC lot facility done, but that proved to be unworkable to share it between men’s and women’s soccer as well as lacrosse. The ultimate problem there is that there really isn’t a place to put another turf field on upper campus, and all of the places where you could put a turf field probably could be better used for something different. I think the actual building of the sports complex is totally finished - the remainder of the sports complex expansion is just space for expanded stadium facilities. They could expand the Urbanic grandstand in either direction, they could expand the baseball bleachers up the third and first base lines, things like that, rather than administrative/locker room space in the building itself.
I suspect that there might still be a path for the indoor track, but it’ll take a lot of creativity. I think there’s ultimately some value in the indoor track considering that there isn’t an indoor track at all in the Pittsburgh region, so there may be some funding streams that you can find to add that amenity to the region. Plus, an indoor track is significantly, significantly less expensive than the arena complex, so it’ll theoretically be a little easier to fund down the road compared to the arena.
Absolutely. It’s long overdue but I won’t hold my breath, at least for a little while after the completion of the new facility. Again, great posts.
No, there really aren't D1 level players that MLB teams don't sign, other than, like I said, a few who may have fallen through the cracks. For example, the Pirates just signed 13 kids from the Dominican in their international class. Overall, 249 Dominicans signed with one team or another. And that's just one year.
Add in the fact that most of these kids have gotten no where near the education needed to get into and be able to stay in an American college, and that very, very few of them even speak English, and no, it simply is not possible for a school to go to the Dominican and bring back 20 players.
Also, unless there is something else going on, these kids aren't getting cut from the MLB teams that signed them when they are 18. Maybe if they show they can't play at all (and then why would anyone else want them?), but they aren't signing kids that young and then giving up on them in a year or two. They just aren't, no matter what you've convinced yourself of.
We're talking extreme circumstances here. Kids who can't speak English in a non-revenue sport who don't have a history of good education aren't going to be swept into Pitt in some misguided notion of possible baseball achievement.
It's just my opinion, but it hasn't happened anywhere yet.
Because these kids go to middle/upper middle class school districts and have a well-defined record of at least some academic achievement.
The professionalization of college sports will whittle away any remaining eligibility and admission barriers.
In any case, https://www.linguistics.pitt.edu/esl-tesol. Motivated All-American types in any sport is going to end up somewhere if they want. But in baseball, if they are that good, they'll just play in the minors. Colleges aren't going to be able to compete with MLB, at least not yet.
First of all, I doubt that 100% of DR kids don't speak English. Second of all, if a Pitt coach went to the DR on his own dime and said he wants to admit these 10 kids, do you honestly think that the University of Pittsburgh is going to tell him, "Sorry, they don't meet admission requirements."
As it applies to baseball, I think what will happen shortly is the guys who skip college for the minors but then enroll in college when they get cut at 22 or 23 will be able to then play college baseball.
If you need me to list the crappy maneuvers from the Pitt athletic department over the last 40 years, you’re hopeless.
Which, in fact, you are. Didn’t you have a spot lined up as Haywood’s DC or was that Paul Hackett?
This is another one of those things that you have convinced yourself, all evidence to the contrary, that you know more about and understand better than the people who do it for a living. And all because some random idea popped into your head.
My wife's cousin coaches minor league baseball. They do not speak English. He had to learn Spanish.
It seems that every young player from the DR that has been a Pirate can't speak English upon arrival.
Yeah, I mean I don't think it's just a coincidence lol. Obviously there are gonna some bilingual English speakers in the DR but it clearly is a vast minority.
Additionally, UPMC is currently building a $1.5 Billion 17 story Hospital on Campus which will be used 24/7.
Penn State will be spending $700 million to remodel Beaver Stadium which will be used 7 times a year.
Build research facilities vs sports facilities to attract more research money. More money in research vs sports.
I enjoy Club Seating while watching Pitt Football Games at Acrisure Stadium. I guess Penn State may have additional Club Seating at Beaver Stadium once the $700 million remodel is complete.
Many colleges and universities will be financially struggling in the next 12-15 years when the "Baby Bust" generation graduates from HS.
Not only is the number of students decreasing but the number of students who want to go to college has dropped to only 62%.
Penn State is facing that problem now on their 19 Branch Campuses where student body has dropped in some cases by 50%.
Financial losses mount and they have a committee studying what to do about it.
HAIL TO PITT!!!!
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There is some panic amongst the staff at the branch campuses. There won't be nearly as many in a few years.
LOL. Well yes, anyone can list a bunch of boneheaded decisions and missed opportunities. It's quite convenient to skip all the other decisions that have Pitt still playing in a power conference.
In spite of all the Oval Jayneses or J. Dennises, the bottom line question is Pitt still playing at the highest level of college athletics or not? Is it spending more than ever on athletics to do so? Why is that?
On average, is the university matching its peers in institutional investments into athletics?
On average, are fans and boosters matching those efforts compared to peer fan bases?
The numbers easily bear out the answers to those two questions. Yes and No, in that order.
This is a great point. There is really no value in many of the educational pursuits that the current curriculum offers. In addition, AI is going to make many degrees or professions moot in the next 10 years. This is the paradigm shift we will see in federal funding in education. There is no way to support the "supposed" rising cost of education on many levels.....particualrly when you can be educated online at a tenth of the price.
We are paying more but not getting the return. Don't you think that proves the system is broken and needs to be changed?
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