Let’s have a true home game: Bring football back to Oakland

Your print-at-home tickets have arrived!

An e-mail that students should open with excitement has turned into another overlooked item in our inboxes.

Football games at Pitt are different from stereotypical college football games. The lack of an on-campus stadium has tainted our college game day experience. 

We are unlike other universities. Our football team does not have a true home — a stadium of our own that holds a special place in every student’s heart. We do not have a stadium that connects us to the greats of Dan Marino and Tony Dorsett. We do not have a connection with Heinz Field — frankly, a stadium with capacity of 65,500 cannot be filled by a school that has roughly 18,000 undergraduates.

Athletes would much rather play in a stadium that is consistently packed, where students are shouting and everyone is cheering. There is no reason why the football team should feel embarrassed to play at home in an empty Heinz Field. The Thursday night game was the first ever “gold-out” at Heinz Field, as it seemed that there were more empty seats than fans in the stadium.

A game that was broadcast on ESPN should have gone completely different for the Panthers. We found ourselves in a great position with the opportunity to show the world how passionate we are about our football team. But as fans, we failed.

Our football team, which has seen somewhat of a turnaround in recent years under head coach Paul Chryst, still cannot attract students to games. 

Is Pitt’s shaky play before the upcoming game the reason why students don’t show up to home games? Is it because they want to see Pitt play better opponents?

Or is it simply because the idea of waking up early to get on a bus and be driven to a stadium that holds no connection to our school or team does not sound appealing?

This idea is the main thing that has steered students away. Waking up early to skip the line that stretches all the way to Towers from WPU is something most students are not willing to do. 

How can other schools with comparable football programs sell out their stadium’s seats, game after game? Although the University of Michigan has 10,000 more undergrads than Pitt, the 40,000 more seats in their stadium put us in a similar group. Michigan continues to sell 100,000 tickets to their games even after terrible loses to Notre Dame, Utah, Minnesota and Rutgers.

In October 2014, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writer Rob Rossi said the stadium was so empty against Virginia Tech that, “Dan Marino could have jaywalked across Tony Dorsett Drive without notice.”

Rossi has a point. Football players thrive on adrenaline. How do they get these adrenaline rushes? They play under the big bright lights and make their fans happy — but how can they when no one shows up to the games?

The only way to take the football atmosphere and the status of the school to the level where it should be is to bring a stadium back to Oakland. There could be a game on Tuesday and the stadium would be packed. We could finally bring back the meaning of college football to Oakland.

Chryst and chancellor Patrick D. Gallagher have to take the initiative. As crazy as it sounds, this is not an unforeseeable outcome, because of the incredible amount of money the school and its established alumni, not only of the school, but also of the football program, have: Aaron Donald, Larry Fitzgerald, LeSean McCoy and Darrelle Revis, to name a few.

Location will be tough since The Petersen Events center took over Pitt Stadium, the greatest spot on campus, but there are still places in Oakland. For example, Schenley Plaza that now serves as a place to sit only in the spring when temperatures are not frigid, could serve as a great place for a stadium right in the middle of campus.

If the dreams of many students come true, they will have a place to call home. The football program will have a place to call home. 

It will take time, it will cost a lot of money and it might not even happen. But as a Pitt student, I can still dream of how nice it would be.

Write to Elias at epe1@pitt.edu