I Finally Get to The Consol

I attended the first games - exhibition and regular season - at both PNC Park and Heinz Field.  I did not make the Three Rivers Stadium opener, but I know I saw my first game there on the first weekend after it opened.  I even have a vague recollection of being at the Civic Arena at some sort of public open house before it officially opened.  All this is background to the somewhat shocking fact that it wasn't until yesterday, in the fourth season of its operation, that I attended my first event at this venue.

 

Yes, four seasons until I set foot in this place.  I know that my father, who made me the sports fan that I am, is no doubt looking down upon me with great disappointment over this fact.

Anyway, the City Game, the annual basketball game between Pitt and Duquesne, is the event that finally righted this wrong, as my buddy Len Martin and I took in the big game.

The game itself, a 17 point win by Pitt was rather unremarkable,  but aspects of it are worth commenting upon and will be addressed in a separate post within the next day or two.

Anyway, my impressions of the Consol are favorable.  Very favorable.  A beautiful place.  Wide concourses in which to maneuver, terrific selection of food and drink, comfortable seats, great sight lines, easy to get into and out of.  Just a great place to see an event.  Now I will say that for the game yesterday, the place was just a little over half full, so I am guessing that the openness and easy maneuverability might not be what I experienced at a sold out hockey game or concert.

A great experience and a great place.  Of the four major sports venues opened in Pittsburgh in this century, I would rank this just behind PNC Park and just ahead of the Peterson Athletic Center.  (If you are keeping score, yes, Heinz Field ranks fourth.)

Looking forward to getting back there.

By the way, I snapped the picture below from one of the concourse areas on the top level of the Consol.  It is where the Civic Arena used to be.  We still await, four years after the fact, all that new development that the Penguins promised us when we built them their new play pen so that they would not move to Kansas City.

Pitt, Football and Basketball

The Pitt Panthers closed their football season today the same way that they began it last Labor Day evening - by giving up 41 points to a school from Florida, and losing convincingly.  Tonight it was the Miami Hurricanes who laid the wood to the Panthers and coming away with a 41-31 win, and trust me, the game wasn't as close as the score indicated.  The Panthers finish their season with a 6-6 record and will be making a trip to some meaningless bowl game in late December.

After Florida State beat Pitt 41-13 to open the season I wrote, among other things,  the following:

You just have to hope for game by game improvement as the season progresses and maybe for an unexpected upset somewhere along the line.

Well, Pitt did get that big upset when they beat Notre Dame earlier in the month.  It was easily the high point of the season.  As to whether the game by game improvement occurred, not so much.  Every step forward seemed to be accompanied by a step-and-a-half backward, tonight's drubbing by Miami being a prime example.

On the other hand, as I was driving home from the game, the radio announcers said that 19 freshman had significant playing time for Pitt this season.  Here is hoping that that is a sign that a youth movement under Paul Chryst is taking place and that it will bear fruit in the seasons ahead.

On to basketball.  The Panther Hoopsters are 6-0 and coming off a most impressive two game performance at one of those pre-season tournaments, this one in Brooklyn, earlier in the week.  I will get to see them tomorrow afternoon when they take on Duquesne in the "City Game" at the Consol Energy Center.  I will have more on that match-up later in the weekend, but I am especially excited that this will be my first visit to the Consol Energy Center.  The building is now into its fourth year of hosting events, and I cannot believe that it has taken me this long to get down there.  Of course, I will be giving all of you my impressions of the Building.