When Pitt athletic director Steve Pederson was rehired several months ago, he said that he… When Pitt athletic director Steve Pederson was rehired several months ago, he said that he wanted to focus on getting fans back to Heinz Field for Pitt football games.

He and the Pitt staff have already started that campaign, beginning with their release of cheaper Pitt student season-ticket packages today.

In hopes of selling out each of the 10,000-plus student seats at Heinz Field, Pitt released its new $25 student season football ticket plan, which students can purchase starting today through Pitt’s athletics website or at the Panthers’ ticket office. The price was nearly cut in half from the $49 season tickets last year.

“At a $25 price, the value’s great,” Pederson said. “So we hope that students will see this as a great opportunity to be involved.”

Student season ticket holders will also have the option of purchasing a $5 “buddy pass,” which allows a student season-ticket holder to buy a student ticket for a friend that does not attend Pitt.

Student football tickets will also be available for purchase at the Pitt ticket office on a game-by-game basis for $10 each.

“So, if you’re going to go to two games, why not just buy the full season ticket?” Pederson said.

Another way the Pitt athletics department is hoping to involve students is by creating a “student bash” directly outside Heinz Field on game days. Pederson said that while most of the activities that they hope to feature are still in the planning stages, he already has a distinct vision of what the game-day atmosphere outside Heinz Field could be like.

“It’s going to be electric,” Pederson said. “We want to work with student groups to talk about what kinds of things they want down there. Our commitment is to make it the biggest and the best.”

Pederson also said he has been talking about possibly getting game-day shuttles to Heinz Field to leave from an upper-campus location, as opposed to just from Bigelow Boulevard between Fifth and Forbes avenues.

Another change will be made inside the stadium. The Pitt band, which bounced from the north end zone two years ago to the west corner of the south end zone last year, will move again and sit adjacent to the student section on the Pitt sideline.

“We have to get the band right next to the students to enable that interaction and that energy,” Pitt’s assistant athletic director for marketing and promotions Chris Ferris said.

Still, the energy and excitement at Pitt football home games is ultimately influenced by the team’s play, which Pederson believes is going to be a major attraction, especially playing a home schedule with games against Iowa, Louisville and West Virginia.

“I think that as we look at this season, that we have potentially the best team coming back that we’ve had in a long time,” Pederson said. “We’ve got some of the top players in college football