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April 1, 1999

PANTHERS FOOTBALL

PANTHERS FOOTBALL

"I'm tired of losing," Athletic Director Steve Pederson told the Board of Trustees March 18, shortly before it unanimously endorsed the University administration's plan to demolish Pitt Stadium after fall 1999 and play Panthers football games in the Steelers' new North Side stadium.

Under the plan, Pitt would use the current 10-acre Pitt Stadium site for its new $60 million-plus convocation center/basketball arena, a student recreation center and four new garden-style apartment buildings for students.

Later that day, professors on the University Senate's budget policies committee (BPC) said they, too, are tired of losing — millions of dollars in Pitt money — on a Panthers football program that is supposed to generate income.

BPC chairperson Richard Pratt and committee member Phil Wion said University administrators made a convincing financial case for playing Pitt home football games in the Steelers' new North Side stadium, starting in fall 2001. The Panthers would play the fall 2000 season in Three Rivers Stadium.

Playing in a state-of-the-art stadium and using UPMC Health System's new training facility on the South Side will help Pitt recruit better football players — making the team more competitive and more likely to attract fans, Pederson argued.

Chancellor Mark Nordenberg said Pitt football also would profit from sales of luxury suites, club seating, concessions and parking at the new Steelers stadium.

Pitt and Steelers officials are negotiating their revenue split from Pitt games, Nordenberg said.

The men's basketball program, Pitt's other "revenue-producing" sport, would move out of Fitzgerald Field House to the new convocation center. The Field House would be renovated and used for other varsity and intramural sports.

Because Pitt would no longer have its own football stadium and would be using athletic training and office facilities at the UPMC site, the University could (at least when its leases with the Steelers and UPMC expire) discontinue its football program or drop to a lower level of NCAA play should the program fail to make money, Wion pointed out.

"Now, it will be put up or shut up for the athletic department," he said.

In addition to accommodating the convocation center, student housing and recreation facilities, the 10-acre Pitt Stadium site would provide acres of green space.

At a press conference after the trustees meeting, Chancellor Nordenberg denied rumors that Pitt might sell some of the green space to UPMC. "I don't see ceding one square inch of that land to anyone else," he said.

— Bruce Steele


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