Riverhounds announcement 1/10/12 - The Future Starts Here

Anyone have an idea what the announcement is on 1/10/12. Both Facebook and Twitter have similar posts of "The Future Starts Here".

Stadium news????

Yes, it is. And that's very cool.

Burghers are going to have to hip me as to where on that property they're going to be able to put a stadium and have it done by this summer.

Is it going to be a Washington Kastles temp stadium deal? I guess we'll find out tomorrow. Just curious.

Multi-sport stadium coming to Station Square

http://www.wtae.com/sports/30170648/detail.html

I STILL think they should rename themselves the Labradoodles

Okay, this is fabulous:



Details:

• $7.5 million cost
• Completion this summer
• Soccer lines the only permanent lines (which must mean it's turf)
• 3,500 seats
• Open at one end to the skyline of Pittsburgh
• 16 suites

This is tremendous news. To be honest, I wouldn't have expected Pittsburgh to be the next team to get its own stadium, and I don't know quite how they're going to build it in five or six months, but rock on.

USL press release here

http://www.uslsoccer.com/home/589759.html

Great location,

Hopefully they don't try to cut too many corners like Atlanta did with their stadium. It doesn't need to be fancy but permanent bathrooms would be a good start!

Also I can see quite a few sellouts in Pittsburgh's future with 3500 seats.

congrats Riverhounds.

for all my jokes, this really is a good thing. Congrats to the Hounds. I just wonder exactly where its going to be, the area looks pretty compact and built up already

Richmond, you're on the clock.

for real.

With the trains right there, it might be like playing games at Quaker Valley, when the trains would rumble by and you couldn't hear anyone for a good 5-10 minutes.

I'd love to have a more accurate definition of "this summer". Having a stadium in downtown Pittsburgh can have...certain strategic advantages depending on schedule timing.

"This summer" = June 20 - September 22.

Schedule comes out tomorrow. I can't imagine, given the USL Pro schedule starts in April, that they'd realistically be able to backload Pittsburgh's home schedule as much as they would need to to get all of their home dates at the new yard. Maybe they'll open the season at their current field and hope to move halfway through, barring any construction delays.

Last season went from April 2 - August 14. Pittsburgh's home opener was April 23.

Haven't seen a report from the actual press conference yet, that may answer some questions.

That's why I wish there were a more exact date. I don't see them backloading that much either. They'd have to wait over half the season to get there.

So schedule is certainly tomorrow? Good news. I can make my summer plans.

Further detail about the stadium is rather ambitious. They plan on having 16 suites with their own upscale concessions. Pittsburgh must want to remain D-3 in the long haul unless they try to build a larger venue elsewhere in the future, because I don't see anything much larger than the current plan going in that spot. There's already extremely sparce land at Station Square between river and rail.

One of the Pittsburgh papers said "late summer," which would almost be at the season's end (as you might expect...even a 3,500-seat stadium is going to take time to construct). But the USL release didn't shed light, and none of the media reports so far out of Pittsburgh say anything other than "this summer."

June 20 is 162 days away. Let's say late July and call it 200 days. That's still not a lot of days. I'm no construction expert, but I'd have to guess this thing might open as just a first phase in 2012.

I was at the press conference today.

They said if they stay on schedule they'll break ground in March and open by mid July (which would be crazy fast). They also said there is room for expansion if they want to though personally I don't think it would be a whole lot.

WOW.

I mean, Crew Stadium (admittedly much, much bigger) was built in 274 days. If they broke ground in early March, that'd be 120 days or so. It took more than two years to build what is now Sahlen's Stadium (they had a lot of delays, I think).

That plot of land looks kinda small. You tell me, Vesty.

Unless they plan on pulling an Empire Field and building the main structure bare-bones. They managed to get seat backs and luxury boxes in there.

As for size, I don't know exactly where in Station Square they're building it, but one thing's for sure: it's never gonna be much bigger than it's being planned for.

This is google.

Not a lot of room between the River and the railroad

http://kylemchenry.com/misc/rhstadium001.jpg

That's where it'll be. I have no idea what the field size is so I took somewhere in the middle. Length looks about right based off the renderings but it's not going to be that wide. They're going to develop the stage to the left into parking. Not a lot of space to expand south unless they make tiers. That's extreme future talk though so not going to worry about it. Just extremely happy to be getting a SSS.

-e- WakeMed is 68.5 meters wide and 109 long. I'd imagine it'll be about that wide.

It looks like they might be able to fudge it a little further southeast to give them some breathing room.

60 meters is the minimum, so it is wide enough for soccer, but is not long enough 100 meters (no room for the goal nets).

That is just the field, how about the stands?

68.5 X 110 meters is optimum

http://www.athleticfieldmarker.com/soccerfield

Gonna be scenic, though.

Especially at this level, I'd rather have a bandbox that is theirs, that isn't a high school football stadium, that shows off the sport properly, and that you can do television out of, and worry about the future somewhere down the road. For now, you're talking about a franchise that's averaged 1,126 fans per game since coming back from hiatus in 2008, so filling the bandbox regularly would be the first order of business and all other future goals would be secondary.