Pitt gets the short end of the stick in the city of Pittsburgh.

If you want to see where Pitt ranks in the city of Pittsburgh sports pantheon all you have to see what happened to the Pitt versus Penn State game this weekend. With the fact that Pitt playing in Heinz Field, which shares a parking lot with PNC Park, where the Pirates play. The rub for Saturday is that the Pirates play a meaningless game at 1:05 PM. The Pirates are 69-71 and 9 games out of the Wild Card. Needless to say, the baseball season is OVER (and I’m a Pirates fan for the record). Meanwhile, you have a big college football game this weekend and the kickoff is scheduled for 8:00 PM.

With this overlap, one would think that there would be some sort of concessions by the Pirates and the City of Pittsburgh. However, there has been no movement from the City nor the Pirates. Actually, they are refusing to allow the Pitt and Penn State fans to tailgate before 5:00 PM. This is true, the Pittsburgh Police have issued a statement stating that due to traffic issues (which, let’s be fair, the Pirates average attendance is only 18,597 and they will be playing the Miami Marlins this weekend so don’t look for any attendance records to be set) that they will be enforcing a strict “No Tailgating” policy prior to 5:00 PM on Saturday afternoon.

The idea that more people will be going to the Pirates vs Marlins game over Pitt vs Penn St is laughable on it’s face. But when you start to drill down into what this means, you see the problem with Pitt having to share a professional stadium with the Steelers and have to bow down to an franchise in the Pirates who have been a laughing stock for 25 years. The actions of the City of Pittsburgh and the Pirates for not allowing tailgating before 5:00 PM shows the hierarchy of sports in the city, and how Pitt is not getting the respect that it should.

I see a lot of Pitt fans bemoaning the fact that they do not have an on-campus stadium. I understand that frustration. My first college football game that I attended was at Pitt stadium. My dad took me to a game there and it was amazing. On campus stadiums are, I believe, the backbone of college football. They don’t need to be played in venues that are built for pro teams. And Pitt versus Penn St shouldn’t be relegated to second tier status for a sub .500 baseball team that won’t get 10,000 fans through the gate on Saturday. So, if you are looking for a way to tailgate without getting in trouble? My go to move is to Homerun Harry’s in Station Square and then take the Gateway Clipper over for the game……

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