Highmark Stadium (Pennsylvania)

Highmark Stadium

Location	Station Square, 510 West Station Square Drive Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15219
Coordinates	40°26′10″N 80°0′34″W
Capacity	3,500
Surface	hybrid-turf
Construction
Broke ground	July 2012
Opened	Fall 2012 (anticipated)
Construction cost	USD $10.2 million
Architect	ThenDesign Architecture
Project manager	Millcraft Industries, Inc.
General contractor	Nello Construction
Tenants
Pittsburgh Riverhounds 2012- Pittsburgh Passion 2012-

Highmark Stadium is a 3,500-seat soccer-specific stadium currently under construction at Pittsburgh's Station Square which will be home to the Pittsburgh Riverhounds of the USL Pro league. Pittsburgh, Pa.-based Millcraft Industries, Inc. coordinated construction activities for the multi-sport and entertainment facility, while Nello Construction, headquartered in Canonsburg, Pa., served as Highmark Stadium’s general contractor. The architect of record is Ohio-based ThenDesign Architecture. The $10.2 million project began with the demolishing and excavating of the former Trib Total Media Amphitheater, building foundations for the scoreboard, light poles and grading foundations for the grandstands as well as the installation of underground utilities.

Construction of the stadium was scheduled to begin in late March to early April 2012 and to be completed during summer 2012. However, construct at the site began in August, several months behind schedule. The stadium's opening is now scheduled to open on April 13, 2013, the first home game of the season for the Riverhounds.

File:Http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/29/a-new-stadium-in-pittsburgh/

Naming rights for the stadium were purchased by Pittsburgh-based health insurance company Highmark and the stadium was subsequently named Highmark Stadium. In addition to soccer matches, the stadium will be home to the Pittsburgh Passion of the Women's Football Alliance as well as tournaments for soccer, football, lacrosse, rugby, and softball, and non-sporting events. The venue will also accommodate concerts, cultural fairs, and special events. There are also plans to incorporate outdoor ice rinks during the winter months for public skate hours and amateur hockey games. Once completed, the Riverhounds will be only the third USL Pro team to have their own soccer-specific stadium, along with the Charleston Battery (Blackbaud Stadium) and the Rochester Rhinos (Sahlen's Stadium). Although the original seating capacity is 3,102, the stadium is expandable vertically on three sides in excess of 18,000 fans, the average attendance of Major League Soccer, making the stadium capable of housing the Riverhounds as they seek to join MLS within a decade.  

Station Square, close to stadium site

History

Since the team's creation, there had been no official announcement concerning a permanent home for the Hounds, but much had been speculated since GM and manager Gene Klein, on 13 July 2007, said that the Riverhounds "are to the point on the stadium complex where it is a matter of paperwork and it will get done. We hope to make an official announcement on it...but like everything else, we'll walk with it before we try and run. We are doing things the right way." On 9 July 2008, Dan Onorato, Chief Executive of Allegheny County, announced a planned development of a 78-acre (320,000 m²) sports and recreation park that covers area near Pittsburgh in Coraopolis, Robinson, and Moon known as Montour Junction. The land was donated to the county's Redevelopment Authority by the Sports Legacy Foundation, which is chaired by Riverhounds founder and former owner Paul Heasley. The SLF had owned the land since 2002 and had already spent about $60k for the environmental cleanup of the land, which was once owned by the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad and had been declared a brownfield. The proposed uses for the park included soccer pitches as well as other multipurpose team sports fields such as rugby and lacrosse. It was believed by many that a stadium would be built around one of the fields and that it would likely become a permanent home for the Hounds. However, none of these earlier plans materialized.

Despite speculation and previous attempts to build a permanent home for the Riverhounds at other locations, on December 8, 2011, it was revealed that a stadium for the club could be built at Station Square on the site of the current amphitheater close to downtown Pittsburgh as part of a redevelopment of the area. However, at the time there was no timeline set for the proposed redevelopment. Less than a month later on January 10, 2012, an official announcement was made that the construction would begin and that the stadium would be completed by summer 2012. The stadium was financed with an estimated $7 million dollars by private investors in addition to several corporate sponsors including Highmark who hold naming rights for the stadium. It was also announced that although it will be a soccer-specific stadium, other sporting and non-sporting events will be held at the stadium, including the home games of the Pittsburgh Passion. Riverhounds CEO Jason Kutney has also said that the stadium will allow the Riverhounds to explore hosting soccer teams from Europe and elsewhere to play friendlies as well as the possibility of bringing women's professional soccer to Pittsburgh.

References

http://whirlmagazine.com/home-field-advantage/

External links

• Official Website
• Stadium Walkthrough
• Station Square Official Site
• Stadium Renderings
• Seating Chart

Events and tenants
Preceded by Chartiers Valley High School Stadium	Home of the Pittsburgh Riverhounds 2012–present	Succeeded by Current