Initially announced in 2020, the city of Pittsburgh approved Victory Heights on April 4 – a $240 million athletics facility upgrade to Pitt. Notably absent from the plans is a Pittsburgh Panthers-specific football stadium. Currently, the Panthers play at Acrisure Stadium (formerly Heinz Field), sharing the facility with the hometown Pittsburgh Steelers.
Included in the plans is a new arena for gymnastics, volleyball, and wrestling that will seat 3,000 fans. An indoor track, new practice facilities for gymnastics and wrestling, and a strength & conditioning facility are also in the works. But Acrisure Stadium, which has housed the Panthers since 2001, will remain the home of Pittsburgh football.
First reported by CBS Pittsburgh, the project will be completed by 2025.
No New Pittsburgh Football Stadium In The Works
Before Heinz Field, Pitt played their football at Pitt Stadium. It was an on-campus, 69,400-seat facility that opened in 1925 and housed the team through 1999. The stadium was also built with the possibility of adding an 30,000-seat upper deck in mind, which would have put Pitt Stadium on the precipice of being the ninth 100,000-seat stadium in the country.
Of course, that never came to fruition and the stadium settled on 56,150 seats. The Panthers moved out of Pitt Stadium after the ’99 season and it was subsequently demolished.
After a brief stint in Three Rivers Stadium, Pitt football moved into the newly-built Heinz Field across the Allegheny River in 2001.
As of April 2023, Pitt will continue to share its home football stadium with the Steelers. Currently, their lease runs through February 2031.
The Panthers are one of just five FBS teams to share a home stadium with a pro team, also including Miami (Hard Rock Stadium), Temple (Lincoln Financial Field), USF (Raymond James Stadium), and UNLV (Allegiant Stadium). USF has plans to build an on-campus stadium and Miami may release plans soon.
Should Miami approve a stadium, that would leave Pitt as the lone standing Power Five program without their own facility.
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