Tuesday marked a milestone for the athletic department at the University of Pittsburgh. Chancellor Patrick Gallagher and Athletic Director Heather Lyke announced the plans to set in motion Pitt’s ‘Victory Heights’ initiative.
Tuesday announcement revealed the concrete plans that the athletic department will develop in the coming years. The plans include a new 3,500-seat arena that will house the Wrestling, Volleyball, and Gymnastics programs. There will be a new indoor track and field facility that will give the program the ability to host home meets. That building will also serve as the new home for the Pitt band as well, with offices, storage, and a practice facility.
The third and final piece of the plan that was announced on Tuesday is an athletic performance center, which will be the strength and conditioning home for 16 of the university’s 19 athletic programs.
“Victory Heights is about coming together as a community and doing our part to drive comprehensive excellence,” Gallagher said. “And it’s about taking the steps needed to give each of our student-athletes the very best environment to learn, grow and reach their highest potential.”
“For far too long, a significant percentage of our student-athletes have been forced to compete in facilities that do not reflect the lofty standards and aspirations of the University of Pittsburgh,” Lyke said. “Today’s announcement is the first step in transforming that liability into a game-changing asset in our quest for comprehensive excellence.”
The centerpiece of the announcement is the new 3,500 seat arena. The Pitt Volleyball program has taken on national prominence in recent seasons under the guidance of Head Coach Dan Fisher. This new home for his program will enhance his program’s growth into the future.
“We’ve been able to make it work,” Fisher said of building a contending program at the dated Fitzgerald Field House. “But this is clearly going to be much better.”
The Pitt wrestling and gymnastics programs also share the Field House with the volleyball program, and having that kind of arena along with designated practice space will help grow those programs as well.
“It’s just going to be a lot more efficient for training,” head Wrestling coach Keith Gavin said.
Added Gymnastics head coach Samantha Snider, “It’s going to be by and far away the best facility in our conference with the teams that we immediately see. It’s going to rival a lot of our Big 10 and Big 12 competitors as well, and so it’s exciting because it’s a challenge for us to fill that arena, but we’re definitely growing our fan base and it’s definitely going to be exciting for them to see how great this new facility and not just training, but the competition facility as well and just having atmosphere on meet day for us is going to be exceptional.”
Lyke said she expects to break ground for this project in the summer of 2021 and have the arena and performance center opened by the fall of 2023. The site of the new facilities will be adjacent to the Petersen Events Center in the lawn outside of the arena.
The second project is the new indoor Track and Field facility. Lyke targeted sometime in 2024 for the completion of that facility. It will be a full 8-lane track and will give Pitt the ability to host home meets, something the program has been unable to do before.
“It’s going to have a major impact, especially for our student athletes because right now we travel for every single meet,” veteran Track and Field Coach Alonzo Webb said.
The facility will also give space to the Pitt Band. Lyke noted that Pitt does not have a music department and that the band is comprised of students that want to be involved, and giving them a home will be beneficial.
The location of the new indoor track will be behind the Cost Center. Though it was not addressed further, another part of Victory Heights is the addition of a women’s lacrosse stadium. Pitt announced last November that it will be adding the sport for the 2021-22 school year. The stadium will go where the current OC Lot sits now, directly behind the Petersen Events Center.
Lyke gave no set timeline on when that facility will be completed, but that will be the third phase of the project.
The total cost of the project is around 250 million Lyke estimated.
“The project is in total of both sites of Victory Heights is around 250 million, and the university has committed to supporting the vision and making sure that this is moving forward. We are fundraising to offset those expenses and obviously a payment towards it and we’re just getting going with that piece of it. We have a number of commitments already from our champions advisors board.”
Gallagher and Lyke both confirmed that the project is not contingent on any set of commitments from fundraising and that the project will go forward, but the hope is that fundraising will help alleviate the costs from the university.
The new construction will not affect construction either, Lyke confirmed.
“The parking will not be impacted,” she said. “Obviously we have complex parking plans as a part of campus masterplan and they’ve definitely thought through the parking issue challenges here, but we’re not removing parking for those two projects.”
As for the fate of Fitzgerald Field House both Gallagher and Lyke said a final decision has not been made of what will happen to the facility in the future.
