I have lived in Pittsburgh for three years; until recently I lived (temporarily) in a complex along the Allegheny River two blocks from PNC Park and about a half dozen or so blocks from Heinz Field. I was just in Heinz Field yesterday for Steelers-Ravens and have seen a number of events there, including a small number of Pitt football games.

The Pitt campus is in the Oakland neighborhood. It's probably a 15-20 minute drive from the stadium, depending on the route and traffic. I don't know how Pitt students typically get to the stadium, but student attendance is not a real problem. Pitt students fill a good chunk of the end zone in the games I've seen in the last few years.

I have been to a game at old Pitt Stadium on the Oakland campus back in the 1990s. That facility was old and decrepit. It was torn down and the Petersen Events Center was built on that site. There is no location on the current campus large enough to hold a stadium. There are a few locations in nearby neighborhoods where there is enough vacant land and/or run down buildings that you MIGHT build a stadium. But there would be no infrastructure in place to support a football stadium. And any new stadium near Oakland would have the same problem the old stadium had - a horrible parking and traffic situation.

I have complaints about Heinz Field - mainly the entries and exits - but it is really hard to beat the site on the North Shore. There is a reasonable amount of outdoor parking suitable for tailgating and several parking garages in easy walking distance - something that is fairly rare at downtown stadiums. Folks tailgate on boats in the river. The stadium is modern and though it is Steelers-centric, they do a reasonable job of making it look like Pitt's home too. I have been to several stadiums that seem just as disconnected to campus as Heinz Field.

The capacity of Heinz Field is too large for most Pitt games. They can sell out for West Virginia, Penn State or Notre Dame, because those schools bring plenty of fans. Pitt ought to draw bigger crowds for Tech games because it is reasonably driveable from Blacksburg and from northern Virginia. And Pittsburgh is a very good destination city for a weekend football visit. Plenty of restaurants, breweries and things to do. Problem for Pitt-VT games is that we stink up the joint every time we play here. But it would be very easy to tarp off the upper deck of the end zone and "home" side of the stadium, to make crowds look more television friendly.

The one issue I question is Pitt's training facility. On the one hand, they share a building and lots of common facilities with the Steelers and have access to first class equipment. Pitt and the Steelers do not necessarily share the same practice fields; they are adjacent. But the location on the South Side of the Monongahela River is horrible. It is not much more proximate to campus, if at all, than Heinz Field. It's not very attractive from the outside. It's in an old industrial area. I am sure it is fine for pros who spend all day at the practice facility four or five days a week. But I can't imagine it is very convenient for college students who, in theory, have classes to attend before or after workouts. I think Pitt would benefit from having some kind of training facility on or closer to campus, on the same side of the river. Even though the facility is first class, and you never know when you might run into Big Ben or some Pitt alum like Aaron Donald, I just have to think it would be better to have a training facility on or closer to campus, and one that you could really dress up as your own. Pitt football has a lot of history - some of it very old history - but it's got to be hard to dress up the Pitt brand when you are a tenant of one of the biggest brands in professional sports.