Stadium design: Timing is everything

[cbpitt2]

I once saw a design for the replacement for Forbes Field, one that was done in the early 60s. It looked a lot like Dodger Stadium. Unfortunately, by the time a new stadium was approved, a few years had passed, and we’d moved into a new stadium era, and that original fan friendly design was replaced by the more “modern” Stalinist concrete design that created Three Rivers Stadium, and nearly identical monstrosities in Cincinnati and Philadelphia.

Fortunately, Three Rivers was poorly built, and needed to be torn down after less than 30 years, in the midst of the smaller, throwback design era for baseball, giving Pittsburgh the beautiful PNC Park. While Heinz is just a functional stadium for football, it’s still an improvement over Three Rivers.

I think PNC will be around for a very, very long time. But for football, and specifically for Pitt football…

Eventually, and I don’t mean anytime real soon, Pitt will be playing in a new home. Either Heinz will be replaced, and Pitt will play in that replacement, or Pitt will eventually get its own stadium. I don’t want to – NOR DO I WANT ANYONE ELSE TO, PLEASE -- contribute to this thread with the same old shit that’s been said a million times before on this board about an on-campus stadium. There is currently (yet another) whining, name calling thread going on right now on the board; please keep those type of comments there. Thank you.

But we are at the end of the Jerry’s World bigger-than-life (and his ego) stadium era, and thank god for that. LA is building such a stadium for its two new NFL franchises, but I think this is about it for these types of structures. The Chargers are playing in a 27k soccer stadium in LA for the next three years, and the link below talks about a possible move to go small with future stadiums. This idea is not new; this is just a recent example.

Another issue is transportation. Forbes Field and Pitt Stadium were built without consideration for cars. Stadium, sidewalk, street, that’s it. With a 10 foot poll, you could stand on the street and touch either stadium. The thing is, we’re now heading back to the future – this is now the beginning of the end of the car era, at least as we know it. Car ownership is down; many urban millennials don’t have and don’t want to own a car. The growth of fully self-driven cars and “ubering” as a way to get around urban areas will grow in tandem, and eventually, when all cars are self-driven, urban design will change radically. Stadiums designed in 20-30 years will be far less concerned with parking and traffic flow than today, and the space needed to build one will shrink dramatically.

The point is, compared to a stadium designed in 20 years, a stadium designed and built over the next few years or so will be more expensive, take up way more room, have way more seating. And quickly, it will be outdated.

Article link on Chargers: http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/new...b8ifol6?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Was this it?

 

[Fk_Pitt]

Keep in mind that if they did build a 100K seat stadium, those nosebleeds could be very reasonably priced to allow Yinzers with less disposable income to attend. You dont think the Steelers could sell another 20K tickets if they were nosebleeds averaging $30-$40 per game instead of $150. Surely they could.

I don't see it. Yinzers have a chance go to preseason games. Those tickets are always available for free. Yet, the stadium and its sea of yellow look worse than a Pitt vs YSU game. 70K is a great number. And Dan Rooney knew it. Actually, he preferred 60 or 65k.

 

[paulbl99]

Was this it?

Exactly!!!

 

[bwh05]

I don't see it. Yinzers have a chance go to preseason games. Those tickets are always available for free. Yet, the stadium and its sea of yellow look worse than a Pitt vs YSU game. 70K is a great number. And Dan Rooney knew it. Actually, he preferred 60 or 65k.

The Steelers are very wary of stadium capacity. They'll never go really big.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

And Dan Rooney knew it. Actually, he preferred 60 or 65k.

Dan Rooney was the guy who told Ralph Wilson when he was talking about renovating the Bills stadium and increasing capacity to 80,000 that Wilson was making a huge mistake, that he was going to have trouble selling that many tickets if the team had a run of bad years. Wilson ignored Rooney's advice, told him that he'd be leaving all kinds of money on the table if he didn't go to 80,000, increased stadium capacity to over 80,000, and then shortly afterwards spent years and years playing in a stadium that the team couldn't sell out. No matter how cheaply they sold some of the tickets for.

 

[Panther Holla]

The original plan for Three Rivers -- with the sloping roofline -- was scuttled due to cost of the steel beams that would be needed to create the effect. You'd have all these different sizes of beams. I guess they didn't want another Shea Stadium, which was Three Rivers with an open outfield, like aking out a big wedge from a layer cake. So we had Three Rivers, and enclosed circle.

Oddly that original design was for 55K seats. 3RS opened at 50,350.