This was a banner week for the Pitt football program. The Panthers inaugural season in the Atlantic Coast Conference is now set in stone, with the announcement of the official schedule released Monday. The slate includes many intriguing battles, including a Labor Day weekend game at Heinz Field against the Florida State Seminoles – essentially the status-quo program of the ACC. Also coming to Pittsburgh this fall will beNorth Carolina,Virginia, andMiami. Road games include Duke, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, and Syracuse. The non-conference home schedule will be highlighted by a return of rival Notre Dame, an interesting game againstNew Mexico, and of course a DI-AA team in Old Dominion. The Old Dominion game replaces Villanova on the schedule in order to facilitate the home game against Florida State on opening week. The Monarchs are in their final season on DI-AA play before moving up to DI-A in 2014. The Panthers will also venture to Navy, which is always a challenging match-up for any team.
It is a schedule that may indeed be the best all-around slate the Pitt Panthers have played in decades. The move to the ACC has drenched the Panthers in games against football-rich traditional programs like Florida State, Miami,Virginia Tech,Georgia Tech, and eventually inter-divisional rivals Boston College, Clemson, and North Carolina State. Beyond that, we will also eventually see Pitt tangle with the football versions of Wake Forest and Maryland, both basketball powers who have faced off with the Pitt basketball team over the years. The move to the ACC may be a bitter pill for Pitt hoops fans to swallow, but eventually the switch should benefit both programs through increased competition and in turn, increased recruiting.
The ACC deal was a smart move by Pitt Athletic Director Steve Pederson, perhaps the only one he has made since initially taking over the athletic department for the first time in 1996. Pederson was the AD at Pitt from 1996-2002, when he left to take his “dream job” as AD at his alma mater,Nebraska. The dream turned out to be a nightmare for Pederson, as under his leadership (a term I use loosely), he managed to single-handedly turn a powerhouse legacy football program into an also-ran in just under five years. He was handed a husk of corn and shown the door to the barn in 2007, and somehow he convinced the Pitt powers that be to re-hire him into his old job. The Pederson II era has been a train wreck, with the football head coaching slot – once considered a premium job – being at the forefront of a horrific tenure thus far. The hiring of current head coach Paul Chryst may end up being the bets move Pederson has made at the University in either of his stints.
Basketball fans will point out that Pederson was the catalyst for the building of thePetersonEventsCenter, one of the best NCAA basketball venues in the Country. The “Pete” was constructed on grounds made available by the razing of old Pitt Stadium in 1999. Pitt Stadium was hardly a gem by the time it was torn down. Outdated, falling apart and lacking the modern club amenities that are now so important to all sports venues, the old stadium was ready to be replaced. It is no coincidence that the opening of thePetersonEventsCentercoincided with the emergence of the Pitt basketball team as a perennial tournament team. Having a brand new, state of the art, ON-campus arena is a big time tool for recruiting players. It shows that the University is serious about their hoops and the location is perfect for all students on campus to attend games. The “Oakland Zoo” is one of the most revered student sections in all of college basketball, and the big-time alumni can enjoy their team from the comforts of some fantastic digs on the club level. As far a major college sports venues go, The Peterson Events Center is one of the best in the Country.
The main factor that makes “The Pete” so much of a tool to attract recruits and draw big sellout crowds is the location. As anyone who ever took the stroll up “Cardiac Hill” to football games at Pitt Stadium can tell you, the experience is phenomenal. In college sports it is all about the environment produced by the fans – mainly the students. Hence the reason why the next major step taken by the University of Pittsburgh MUST be a return to ON CAMPUS college football.
Right away we will hear the detractors and their legitimate concerns. Paramount is a contract that the University has with Heinz Field and the Sports & Exhibition Authority of Pittsburgh. When Heinz Field was built, it was with the Panthers in mind as one of the main tenants. If you have ever been to the jewel of the North Shore, you have surely noticed the array of Pitt Panthers logos on the gates, seats, and walls of the stadium. The Coca Cola Great Hall is set up with several huge displays dedicated to Pitt football history. While all of this shows the commitment that the University obviously made to Heinz Field, it is all cosmetic and could easily be removed. The other legitimate concern is the lack of available space inOakland for a major college football stadium.
Oaklandis an area of the city that has been re-built overtop of itself many times. Students who visit the campus for the first time are dumbfounded by the fact that Forbes Field used to sit right at the current location of Posvar Hall. Picturing that glorious baseball stadium sitting in the current Oakland quagmire is difficult even for those who attended games at the former Pirates home. As we discussed earlier, the best place for an on-campus stadium was the original Pitt Stadium footprint now occupied by “The Pete”. That leaves very little real estate for a new stadium, and forces us to look outside of the main campus area. North Oakland– generally defined as the Craig Street business district, the Cathedral of Learning, and the area around the middle of campus – is out of the question. There is simply no room to build a hot dog stand, let alone a 65,000 seat football stadium.
West Oakland is the UPMC neck of the woods, running down towards the Birmingham Bridge. Once again, real estate is at a premium in this area and medical facilities dominate, leaving no room for pigskin. Central Oakland(a term that is rarely used by anyone) is the grid of streets between Forbes Avenue and the Boulevard of the Allies. There are thousands of student-rented housing units that are within walking distance to most of the educational buildings, leaving this area as an important piece of Oakland and thus needed for the University to operate its main purpose – education.
That leaves South Oakland, lovingly referred to as the “ghetto”. This is the area beyond the Boulevard of the Allies and contains Magee-Womans Hospital of UPMC. Other than the hospital, this area is mostly dilapidated student housing. South Oakland borders Carnegie Mellon University as well, so any plans for building a massive stadium would need to include CMU’s input. This could actually work to Pitt’s benefit in one of my possible scenarios.
South Oakland is an area that needs to be looked at for a potential new Pitt football stadium. The majority of the buildings are falling apart, and the parking situation is horrendous. Add to that the odd layout of the area, which makes garbage collection nearly impossible, and you have a situation ripe for the taking. With more and more students finding housing outside of the traditional areas of Oakland due to the development of the past twenty years, razing a massive radius of the houses in South Oakland would create a perfect space for a new on campus stomping ground for the Panthers. The proximity to Carnegie Mellon (and Duquesne for that matter) would also lend to the possibility of turning the new stadium into a multi-purpose athletic garden that could be utilized by all three schools. While CMU and Duquesne are too small to play football in a Division I level stadium, the addition of track and field and soccer facilities could make it a significant upgrade for both smaller schools. Adding additional training facilities, rehabilitation centers, and auxiliary gymnasiums to the complex would also greatly increase Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne’s overall athletic profiles.
OK, so we have our real estate. Now let’s talk logistics, because ultimately that would be the main source of headaches for all involved. The City of Pittsburgh would need to get involved and use grant money to provide new roads to and from the new facility. This would be a way for the City to expand their public transportation under the new Green initiatives – solar or electric ran buses are something that the City is looking into establishing anyway; this could be a ground zero-type project for that as well. As far as seating is concerned, I am imagining a 65,000 seat stadium closely modeled to Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium in Louisville. An athletic complex based around the stadium, with all of the amenities we listed above shared between all three major universities in the Oakland area. The new stadium would of course have the modern private club boxes and upscale seating for alumni. As mentioned earlier, the addition of top of the line track and field facilities to be used by all three schools would be included. The stadium would have different seating capacities based on the event being held, so if soccer games were being played, the stadium could be retrofitted for a crowd of say – 10,000. The rest of the stadium would be shut down via gates.
The field of the new stadium would be Field Turf. The surface is composed of monofilament polyethylene blend fibers tufted into a polypropylene backing. The infill is composed of a bottom layer of silica sand, a middle layer which is a mixture of sand and cryogenic rubber and a top layer of only rubber. The fibers are meant to replicate blades of grass, while the infill acts as a cushion. This cushion improves safety when compared to earlier artificial surfaces and allows players to plant and pivot as if they were playing on a grass field. This playing surface would be much more durable than a grass field, and safer than regular turf. Stadiums that utilize Field Turf include Gillette Stadium in New England, MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, and numerous college stadiums around the Country. Field Turf would be ideal to use here, and would open the possibility of hosting local high school championships in soccer, track and field, and even football.
The current situation for Pitt football at Heinz Field is simply unacceptable. First off, taking college football off campus completely kills the “feel” of a big-time college football game. As nice as Heinz Field is for the Steelers, NFL football is different animal. College football crowds are supposed to be made up of mainly students, and when Pitt moved its home games to Heinz, they effectively killed the gameday experience for those students. The North Side is only a few miles from Oakland, but for a college student in Pittsburgh, it might as well be on Mars (or in Mars, for that matter). The average college student at Pitt does not have a car, and the current public transportation system is not adequate to provide for the type of traffic that a major University needs. Pitt has created some unique methods for handling student travel to games, but the entire system is a bloated, expensive program. An on-campus stadium gives the Pitt Football program back its “big time” feel and honestly, it probably cuts down on irresponsible actions like drinking and driving (I do not have statistics to back up that statement, I am just assuming based off of personal experiences).
Imagine if you will the energy that could be created on campus for the football program. This would immediately increase the marketability of Pitt football to potential recruits, and adding a state of the art football stadium to the already brilliant Peterson Events Center would put Pitt on the map as the University with the best sports facilities in the Country, bar none. The attention given to the other two schools involved would help with their profile in that area also, although both are more academic than athletic minded. The good will of opening up the brand new stadium to the neighbor universities would be a great story in itself.
One last step for the Pitt Football Panthers – bring back the script Pitt logo, the old color scheme, and spend some money for an on-campus athletic hall of fame at the new sports complex. Reach out to the alumni and bring them back into the fold, return Pitt football to its roots as one of the most prolific programs in the Country. Picture a brisk Saturday morning, walking down the streets of Oakland. You are one of thousands of people, all dressed in Pitt attire and heading for the new stadium. ESPN College Gameday is LIVE at the foot of the entrance to the newly-christened Beano Cook Stadium at Panther Hollow. Pitt’s Championship flags are blowing in the wind at the entrance as you walk in listening to “Hail to Pitt” blaring over the loudspeakers. You take your seat in the beautiful new stadium and watch as the crowd of 65,000 strong leap to their feet as YOUR Pittsburgh Panthers take the field in their beautiful bright blue and mustard yellow uniforms. It is a great day for football in the greatest football city in the world, and finally the University of Pittsburgh is back where it belongs – one of the best programs in the Country.
It all starts with a new stadium. It’s time to bring Pitt football back to Oakland. Mr., Pederson, time to earn your paycheck.
