Riverhounds go Chapter 11, sell out home opener

The U.S. Steel Tower in downtown Pittsburgh stands tall with UPMC’s letters emblazoned on it, serving as a constant reminder of the city’s fallen steel industry of the past. 

Just across the water, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds’ Steel Army, the Pittsburgh soccer team’s official support section, screamed “Go Hounds,” as the team, currently in the process of Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring, took the field in their 2014 season opener against the Wilmington Hammerheads on Saturday. The Riverhounds’ CEO, Jason Kutney, said tickets for the game in the 4,000-seat Highmark Stadium sold out.

The season opener seemed like any other Pittsburgh sporting event. Fans shouted, and the smell of fried food filled the air. White shirts with the slogan, ‘Release Your Inner Hound,’ could be seen around the stadium in Station Square. 

With excitement in the air, the Riverhounds organization and its supporters hope that a fate similar to that of the Pittsburgh steel industry will not befall the team. 

On March 27, Riverhounds Events Center, LP, owner of the Pittsburgh Riverhounds and Highmark Stadium, filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. According to federal law, Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection provides companies with temporary relief from their creditors as they try to restructure themselves, and is frequently called reorganization bankruptcy. 

Kutney will rely on the legal system for help.

“Within the next 13 weeks, we’ll put a plan together, and we’ll go before the bankruptcy courts and hopefully they will allow us to move forward with our plan,” Kutney said.

The Pittsburgh Riverhounds soccer team formed in 1999 and now plays as a professional team in the United States soccer league system, often called the American soccer pyramid. Before moving to Highmark Stadium, which was completed in April 2013, the Riverhounds were a sort of ‘nomad’ soccer team, playing around the Pittsburgh area on high school fields, including Chartiers Valley High School in Bridgeville, Pa.

The bankruptcy, while shocking to many, will not affect the Riverhounds’ business operations. The team plans to operate as scheduled according to an official statement on its website.

“It was a little bit startling when the announcement came out, but we quickly understood what [the bankruptcy] was about, and the Riverhounds continue to be just as supportive, if not more so,” Robert Gilbert, an associate professor of marketing and business economics at Pitt, said.

Gilbert teaches Projects in Marketing, a course that gives students first-hand experience in a temporary advertising agency called ProsInMotion, which works with the Pittsburgh Riverhounds.

In the past, Projects in Marketing students have worked with clients such as Honda, Mazda and the National Football League. According to Gilbert, his students have come in first place in national marketing competitions while working on their projects.

Maggie Giuffrida, the director of public relations for ProsInMotion and a senior marketing major , said she saw the news of the bankruptcy on television and was surprised.

“We had class that day, and once we realized that it was Chapter 11 and understood what that meant, we continued everything just the way we were working,” Giuffrida said.

Giuffrida hopes that ProsInMotion’s campaign will help the team in its journey towards restructuring. 

“I think our campaign really helped them. Today, everyone was wearing their shirts on campus, and everyone was talking about it. I am glad that happened.” Giuffrida said.

Gilbert explained that ProsInMotion operates as a “working marketing agency” with four main departments, including research, campaign strategy, advertising and public relations. 

The agency meets with clients and strategizes a plan to target Pitt students. 

Students from the class placed ‘Join The Pack’ signs around campus to promote the Riverhounds brand to Pitt students. The campaign featured selling tickets, holding events with the players, promoting the company on social media and closing out the campaign with a tailgate at Highmark Stadium before the game on Saturday. 

For Gilbert, after working with so many high profile companies, the Riverhounds project was a breath of fresh air. 

“It’s very different from working with the Steelers or the Pirates,” Gilbert said. “The players are very approachable. We’ve shot videos with them, and they came to our event that we had on campus and hung out with students.”

The strategy worked.

Gilbert said that ProsInMotion had successfully sold the allotment of tickets that the Riverhounds had given to the agency.

“We are thrilled with how it’s gone so far,” Gilbert said.

Although the team currently plays in the United Soccer League’s Professional Division the Riverhounds will become a Houston Dynamo — a Major League Soccer team — affiliate in 2014. The team has hopes to continue moving up to become a Major League Soccer team as well.

“We have a 10-year plan in which we can prove that Pittsburgh is a market that can sustain an MLS franchise,” Kutney said.

The team’s fans, including Daniel Yost, director-at-large of the Steel Army, believe in the possibilities for the Riverhounds franchise as well. 

“This city has always been built on many different ethnic groups,” Yost said. “Many of them are Europeans and soccer is the biggest sport in Europe. It really gives us a chance to all get together a support a single cause: the Riverhounds.”

While the Steel Army is independent of the Riverhounds organization, the groups frequently work in conjunction with one another.

Yost had been working for the past six months to organize the Steel Army’s activities for the 2014 Season, including a sports version of an army-style march of the Steel Army members into Highmark Stadium, featuring drums, bazookas and trombones.

ProsInMotion’s efforts haven’t gone unnoticed, either. 

Adam Craver, a senior majoring in Spanish, came to the season opener with his girlfriend after hearing about the event on Pitt’s campus. Craver was unaware of the bankruptcy until informed at the season opener. 

As the Riverhounds and the Wilmington Hammerheads fought for possession on the soccer field, Craver said he was glad that he was helping the club amidst the restructuring.

“I am glad that we can support a club that will hopefully help the community,” Craver said. “Soccer is becoming a huge sport in the United States.”

Though the team lost 4-3 on Saturday, it’s clear that the team experienced a victory off the field. The Steel Army expressed those sentiments during the game. According to the Riverhounds and their supporters, though, they are fighting for much more than rising from bankruptcy.

“I believe that we can win, I believe that we can win,” they chanted.