I Finally Get to The Consol

I attended the first games - exhibition and regular season - at both PNC Park and Heinz Field.  I did not make the Three Rivers Stadium opener, but I know I saw my first game there on the first weekend after it opened.  I even have a vague recollection of being at the Civic Arena at some sort of public open house before it officially opened.  All this is background to the somewhat shocking fact that it wasn't until yesterday, in the fourth season of its operation, that I attended my first event at this venue.

 

Yes, four seasons until I set foot in this place.  I know that my father, who made me the sports fan that I am, is no doubt looking down upon me with great disappointment over this fact.

Anyway, the City Game, the annual basketball game between Pitt and Duquesne, is the event that finally righted this wrong, as my buddy Len Martin and I took in the big game.

The game itself, a 17 point win by Pitt was rather unremarkable,  but aspects of it are worth commenting upon and will be addressed in a separate post within the next day or two.

Anyway, my impressions of the Consol are favorable.  Very favorable.  A beautiful place.  Wide concourses in which to maneuver, terrific selection of food and drink, comfortable seats, great sight lines, easy to get into and out of.  Just a great place to see an event.  Now I will say that for the game yesterday, the place was just a little over half full, so I am guessing that the openness and easy maneuverability might not be what I experienced at a sold out hockey game or concert.

A great experience and a great place.  Of the four major sports venues opened in Pittsburgh in this century, I would rank this just behind PNC Park and just ahead of the Peterson Athletic Center.  (If you are keeping score, yes, Heinz Field ranks fourth.)

Looking forward to getting back there.

By the way, I snapped the picture below from one of the concourse areas on the top level of the Consol.  It is where the Civic Arena used to be.  We still await, four years after the fact, all that new development that the Penguins promised us when we built them their new play pen so that they would not move to Kansas City.