Earlier this week, a gentleman named Gary Rector made the following "This Date In History"-type post on Jim Haller's "Corsair Tales" Facebook group:
Nov. 14, 1956 The Pirates threaten to move the franchise from Pittsburgh unless a new municipal stadium is built to replace Forbes Field. The second division club drew 949,878 fans, the fifth best total of the eight National League teams.
This led to a number of comments along the lines of "well this is how far back corporate and municipal blackmail by sports teams went". I also made the following comment to Mr. Rector's post:
PNC Park just completed its 16th season. Three Rivers Stadium lasted for 31 seasons, and the discontent with the place began well before then. The Braves and the Rangers have already shown us that the shelf life of "state of the art" ball parks is about twenty years. Nothing coming from 115 Federal Street in the next five years or so about this issue will surprise me. Nothing.
I could add to that that I would be even less surprised if such rumblings emanated from the Steelers' corporate offices expressing discontent with Heinz Field. In fact, such rumblings appeared three or four years ago, and that led to the construction of those 3,000 new "club level" seats at Heinz Field.
It will be interesting to see how the ownership groups of both the Pirates and Steelers act about their respective stadiums in three or four more years when this facilities begin their third decade of operations. As I said, nothing will surprise me.
Showing posts with label Heinz Field. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Heinz Field. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Heinz Field's New Look
This past Saturday, I paid my first visit to Heinz Field in 2015 to see the Pitt-Youngstown State football game. This is my first visit to Heinz Field since the installation of approximately 3,000 new seats in the south end zone of the Stadium.
I have long maintained that, unlike PNC Park, Heinz Field is pretty much a generic football stadium. Nothing plush or fancy, but a pleasant enough place to watch a football game. In my mind, the only thing that set Heinz Field apart from every other bowl of a football stadium was the open south end of the stadium. It was aesthetically pleasing and offered a fairly nice view of the slope leading to the Allegheny River. That open end was especially nice when you came INTO the stadium for a game at one of the two entrance gates on the south end. You walked through the turnstile and had a lovely view onto the playing surface of the field.
Here is a look at the new south end of Heinz Field:
So much for the view of the riverfront. And when you enter the stadium on that south end, instead of that nice view on to the playing surface, you get a nice view of concrete block walls. Kind of like walking into the unfinished portion of my basement where the water heater, furnace, and boxes of Christmas decorations are.
It should also be noted that those new end zone seats are the gray colored ones and have been designated as "Club Seats" by the Steelers, similar to the club seats on the east and west sides of Heinz Field, and a new "Stadium Club" resides behind those new seats. If the past is any guide, this little trick enables the Steelers to charge more for these seats, and sets a higher price for the requisite seats licenses to said seats. To be fair, I do not know that last statement to be a fact, but if they follow the same guidelines that were in place when Heinz Field opened, and I was a season ticket holder at the time, so I know whereof I speak, that would be the case with these new seats. If someone tells me I am wrong, I will gladly print that. I would also argue that those new seats, especially the ones in the lower level of the end zone, may well be the worst place from which to watch a game, but that's just me.
However, it has been noted that the Steelers sold all of those new seats in less time than it took you to read this post, so what the hell? Business is business.
I have long maintained that, unlike PNC Park, Heinz Field is pretty much a generic football stadium. Nothing plush or fancy, but a pleasant enough place to watch a football game. In my mind, the only thing that set Heinz Field apart from every other bowl of a football stadium was the open south end of the stadium. It was aesthetically pleasing and offered a fairly nice view of the slope leading to the Allegheny River. That open end was especially nice when you came INTO the stadium for a game at one of the two entrance gates on the south end. You walked through the turnstile and had a lovely view onto the playing surface of the field.
Here is a look at the new south end of Heinz Field:
So much for the view of the riverfront. And when you enter the stadium on that south end, instead of that nice view on to the playing surface, you get a nice view of concrete block walls. Kind of like walking into the unfinished portion of my basement where the water heater, furnace, and boxes of Christmas decorations are.
It should also be noted that those new end zone seats are the gray colored ones and have been designated as "Club Seats" by the Steelers, similar to the club seats on the east and west sides of Heinz Field, and a new "Stadium Club" resides behind those new seats. If the past is any guide, this little trick enables the Steelers to charge more for these seats, and sets a higher price for the requisite seats licenses to said seats. To be fair, I do not know that last statement to be a fact, but if they follow the same guidelines that were in place when Heinz Field opened, and I was a season ticket holder at the time, so I know whereof I speak, that would be the case with these new seats. If someone tells me I am wrong, I will gladly print that. I would also argue that those new seats, especially the ones in the lower level of the end zone, may well be the worst place from which to watch a game, but that's just me.
However, it has been noted that the Steelers sold all of those new seats in less time than it took you to read this post, so what the hell? Business is business.
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Selected Sports Subjects
A quick whirl around the wide, wide world of sports.....
Time to weigh in on the subject of the nickname of the NFL's Washington DC franchise. How anyone, Daniels Snyder and son-of-a-US-Senator Roger Goodell especially, can defend a name as pejorative as "Redskins" as an honorable tribute to the heritage of American Indians is at best a joke, and is in actuality an embarrassment and a disgrace. Many of you have probably received the supposed-to-be-funny email circulating that defends the "Redskins" name by attacking the entire concept of political correctness, but, really, do the folks sending that out REALLY think it is okay to bandy about a terms like "Redskins"? In the year of Our Lord 2014? Wow.
The sad irony is that Snyder and the NFL will inevitably give in and change the nickname, not because it is the right thing to do, but because they will realize how much money can be made from merchandise sales when a new nickname is put in place.
I am not so certain where names such as "Braves", "Warriors", "Chiefs", and "Indians" fall in this discussion. They seem less offensive, if not inoffensive, to me, but, then again I am not a Native American, so perhaps I'm not qualified to judge. That said, even if the name is okay, the Indian-head logo of the Cleveland Indians really has to go.
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The Steelers, in the person of Heinz Field Operations Manager and mouthpiece Jimmy Sacco, have weighed in on the pigsty that Luke Bryan concert attendees turned the Heinz Field parking lots into last Saturday. In case you missed it....
Time to weigh in on the subject of the nickname of the NFL's Washington DC franchise. How anyone, Daniels Snyder and son-of-a-US-Senator Roger Goodell especially, can defend a name as pejorative as "Redskins" as an honorable tribute to the heritage of American Indians is at best a joke, and is in actuality an embarrassment and a disgrace. Many of you have probably received the supposed-to-be-funny email circulating that defends the "Redskins" name by attacking the entire concept of political correctness, but, really, do the folks sending that out REALLY think it is okay to bandy about a terms like "Redskins"? In the year of Our Lord 2014? Wow.
The sad irony is that Snyder and the NFL will inevitably give in and change the nickname, not because it is the right thing to do, but because they will realize how much money can be made from merchandise sales when a new nickname is put in place.
I am not so certain where names such as "Braves", "Warriors", "Chiefs", and "Indians" fall in this discussion. They seem less offensive, if not inoffensive, to me, but, then again I am not a Native American, so perhaps I'm not qualified to judge. That said, even if the name is okay, the Indian-head logo of the Cleveland Indians really has to go.
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The Steelers, in the person of Heinz Field Operations Manager and mouthpiece Jimmy Sacco, have weighed in on the pigsty that Luke Bryan concert attendees turned the Heinz Field parking lots into last Saturday. In case you missed it....
The word coming down from on high is that it wasn't so bad, not nearly as bad as last year's Kenny Chesney concert (now THERE'S a great argument!), and anyway, look how much in tax revenue was collected by the City. The Mayor's Office responded with words to the effect that a just because one pays taxes, it doesn't give you the right to turn city property into a waste dump and an open public toilet.
I think this is one instance where the Steelers should have just kept their mouths shut.
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Belated congratulations to the San Antonio Spurs for their thoroughly dominating beat down of the Miami Heat in the recently concluded NBA Finals. Winning four games out of five with each win having a greater than 15 point margin of victory, the Spurs left no doubt as to who the best team was in the NBA Playoffs.
This was the Spurs fifth NBA title in the last fifteen seasons (and they were so close to winning it last year, too). The term "dynasty" is not undeserved when discussing the Spurs of the Greg Popovich Era. And is not Tim Duncan the most underated, unappreciated "great" player of his generation, if not of all time? And you could ask the same question about Greg Popovich as well.
The Spurs seem to be getting a bit long in the tooth, so who knows how long this run will continue, but it sure has been a great one.
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Speaking of the NBA, the playoffs really brought the LeBron James haters out in full force. Not sure I understand the enmity that is out there towards James (other than in the City of Cleveland, of course), but it is only going to get worse now that he has elected to opt out of his contract in Miami - which, I remind you, he has every right to do (as he did when he left Cleveland in 2010) - and become a free agent. The pursuit and eventual landing spot of LeBron James will no doubt completely dominate off-season basketball news.
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Barring any rain outs, the Pirates will reach the literal half-way mark of the 2014 season at the conclusion of Saturday's game. They currently sit at 39-39, and there is some stat out there that tells you that they have had the best or second best record in the National League since May 1. They are not the team we saw last season, to be sure, but neither are they the team of the twenty seasons previous to last year. There are areas of concern, but it really isn't a sinking ship or a lost cause at PNC Park, either.
They are going to make it interesting for fans in the second half. Making the Post-Season will not be easy, but it is far from a lost cause at this point.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
King Art II Goes to Court
It was reported in the business section of the Post-Gazette this morning that the Steelers are going to court to sue someone (the Sports and Exhibition Authority? the City? Eric Holder? who really cares?) over precisely who should be paying for the addition of the 3,000 seats that are to be added to the now somewhat inadequate 12 year old Heinz Field. One thing for sure, Art II wants to make certain that the lion's share of the cost of these seats will be born by anyone BUT the Steelers, who will most directly benefit from the addition of the seats. Oh, and rest assured of one other thing, that portion of the cost that the Steelers will say that they are paying will really be paid for by the ticket buyers in the form of higher ticket prices and parking fees.
The part of this story that is also dispiriting is the implication that Heinz Field, which is, as noted above, only twelve years old, is now somehow unable to properly support the Steelers with statements along the lines of it being 25th out of 32 NFL stadiums in revenue generation. Should this lawsuit drag on and Art II doesn't get what he wants, I can't wait for the trial balloon to be floated of a new stadium in Washington or Westmoreland County that would provide a home for the Steelers that would enable them to compete forever with the Big Boys in New York and Dallas and blah blah blah. You know, kind of like Mario Lemieux did with Kansas City a few years ago. And like Lemieux, someone will blink and Art II will get what he wants.
Art Rooney Sr. might never have done something like this, and maybe Dan Rooney would hesitate, but Art II ain't his grandfather. He is a cold-blooded, bean counting businessman, so don't be surprised if this happens.
You read it here first.
The part of this story that is also dispiriting is the implication that Heinz Field, which is, as noted above, only twelve years old, is now somehow unable to properly support the Steelers with statements along the lines of it being 25th out of 32 NFL stadiums in revenue generation. Should this lawsuit drag on and Art II doesn't get what he wants, I can't wait for the trial balloon to be floated of a new stadium in Washington or Westmoreland County that would provide a home for the Steelers that would enable them to compete forever with the Big Boys in New York and Dallas and blah blah blah. You know, kind of like Mario Lemieux did with Kansas City a few years ago. And like Lemieux, someone will blink and Art II will get what he wants.
Art Rooney Sr. might never have done something like this, and maybe Dan Rooney would hesitate, but Art II ain't his grandfather. He is a cold-blooded, bean counting businessman, so don't be surprised if this happens.
You read it here first.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Do You Feel Sorry for Either Party Here?
Interesting story in the Post-Gazette this morning about the Steelers' planned addition of 3,000 seats to Heinz Field for the 2013 season.
My own feeling on this is that adding these seats will take away the one design feature of Heinz Field that makes it unique - the open ended south end of the Stadium that gives one a view of the riverfront and the city. The Steelers say that that will not be lost in the redesign. We'll see.
Anyway, it seems that the Sports and Exhibition Authority (SEA) has not given the final rubber stamp on this that would enable construction to begin and be completed by the opening of the 2013 season. The SEA is saying financing has not been finalized. One financing feature being proposed is a $2 or $3 surcharge for parking at the Heinz Field lots. Parking czar Merrill Stabile says that this is "unfair" to the public. Oh, by the way, Stabile also mentioned that he is considering an increase in the parking price for Steelers game anyway. Last time I heard, it already cost $35 to park for a Steelers game.
The Steelers have also proposed that they, the team, will finance the construction. How are they going to do this? You guessed it - seat licenses and an additional surcharge on all tickets. In other words, the ticket buyers, not the Steelers, are paying for this. The Steelers will also tell you that they want to add these seats for "the fans", especially those people who have been on the waiting list for so long. The fact that these seats will bring in another $2.4 million a year (and that includes the two practice games that they force on you) has little to do with it as far as the altruistic Art Rooney II is concerned.
So who do you sympathize with the most here? Art II or Merrill Stabile? I'm just gald that they both have the public's interest at heart here.
My own feeling on this is that adding these seats will take away the one design feature of Heinz Field that makes it unique - the open ended south end of the Stadium that gives one a view of the riverfront and the city. The Steelers say that that will not be lost in the redesign. We'll see.
Anyway, it seems that the Sports and Exhibition Authority (SEA) has not given the final rubber stamp on this that would enable construction to begin and be completed by the opening of the 2013 season. The SEA is saying financing has not been finalized. One financing feature being proposed is a $2 or $3 surcharge for parking at the Heinz Field lots. Parking czar Merrill Stabile says that this is "unfair" to the public. Oh, by the way, Stabile also mentioned that he is considering an increase in the parking price for Steelers game anyway. Last time I heard, it already cost $35 to park for a Steelers game.
The Steelers have also proposed that they, the team, will finance the construction. How are they going to do this? You guessed it - seat licenses and an additional surcharge on all tickets. In other words, the ticket buyers, not the Steelers, are paying for this. The Steelers will also tell you that they want to add these seats for "the fans", especially those people who have been on the waiting list for so long. The fact that these seats will bring in another $2.4 million a year (and that includes the two practice games that they force on you) has little to do with it as far as the altruistic Art Rooney II is concerned.
So who do you sympathize with the most here? Art II or Merrill Stabile? I'm just gald that they both have the public's interest at heart here.
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