Cashing In On Sports
Oakland Moves On

Of all the moves made by Steve Pederson when he was the athletic director at the University of Pittsburgh, the demolition of Pitt Stadium and construction of the Petersen Events Center on the same site was the boldest. It angered, or at the very least saddened, many long time Pitt supporters with nostalgic ties to the old building, dilapidated as it was. Most have gotten over it.

But those most affected by the change may never get completely over it. They are the restaurants and bars in the heart of Oakland. Some still yearn for those glory days of old, when their top business days of the year came on football weekends.

During the last three years the Panthers played atop Cardiac Hill, they averaged 40,327 people per game for 19 home dates. Not great attendance figures, but still a lot of people walking around Oakland.

"We would quadruple our usual business on a football Saturday," says Bill Lantz, the day manager for Primanti's on Forbes Avenue. "And with people coming from out of town for the weekends, business would be better on Fridays and Sundays too."

While Oakland has lost those football crowds to the North Side and Heinz Field, it has gained some business back with basketball at the Petersen Events Center. Attendance for basketball at the Pete has averaged 10,424 per game through the first 51 games there. In their last three years playing in Fitzgerald Field House, the Panthers averaged 5,316 fans over the same 51 game stretch: nearly twice as many people today.

More than one million sports fans attended games over the last three seasons that both football and basketball were played in Oakland. In the first three years of the Pete, a little over 550,000 have gone to basketball games--a lot less people buying drinks and grub.

Nick Pawlenko is the general manager of Peter's Pub. While his crowds may be twice as big on a hoops night now, it doesn't make up for the loss in football related business.

"The football crowd is different," explains Pawlenko. "They are more of a drinking crowd. On basketball nights, we get people who stop and have a few before the game or after the game, but it's not the event that a football game used to be."

There are those who look at the changes differently.

Vic Bovalino is director of operations for Joe Mama's Italian Deluxe on Forbes Avenue and the Fuel & Fuddle, which sits just around the corner on Oakland Avenue. He knows how crazy it used to be during the football rush, but says, "It wasn't manageable business. We'd have lines out the doors and people in the aisles, but we couldn't service them all. It was a catch-22. Our business is up now on basketball nights but it's a much more low-keyed crowd."

Business has definitely changed since 1999, when the last football game was played in Oakland. But it's changed for a lot of reasons. Gone are the days when partiers would head out for a night at Zelda's or CJ's. Those establishments have gone the way of Pitt Stadium.

"Overall, Oakland has changed," Pawlenko says. "Business is down because fewer people these days go out in Oakland."

When Steve Pederson first considered building a basketball facility on the land where Pitt Stadium sat, he probably thought about the reaction of football fans. But he probably didn't think about what that decision might do to local hangouts. Nor should he have. Time marches on. Heck, the Panthers, Pirates and Steelers once all played their games in Oakland.

It may not jump like it used to, but the reasons run much deeper than the loss of six or seven football games a year. And thanks in part to a successful basketball team, it's not exactly a ghost town.

Guy Junker co-hosts the "Junker & Crow Show" weekdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on ESPN Radio 1250.