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Pittsburgh wants to host matchup in 2004

Thursday, December 05, 2002

By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Pittsburgh convention officials admit it's a long shot -- sort of like completing an 80-yard touchdown pass with 30 seconds left in a game.

But President Joseph McGrath and Vice President Robert Imperata of the Greater Pittsburgh Convention & Visitors Bureau are pressing ahead anyway with a bid to have Pittsburgh host the Army-Navy college football game in 2004 and perhaps for several years afterward.

The game attracts national political figures, TV and print reporters from across the country and several thousand students from both military service academies. It would be held at Heinz Field in early December of 2004 if things can be worked out -- a very large if.

Pittsburgh's chances largely hinge on whether sufficient funding can be raised from local corporate and private sources, whether enough hotel rooms can be found in and around Downtown and whether a date for the game can be found that doesn't conflict with the Steelers' and the Pitt Panthers' schedules, McGrath said yesterday.

"I think it would be great if we could do it," said Mayor Tom Murphy. "We've got the Senior Games coming here in 2005, and with the two new stadiums on the North Shore and the new Petersen Center at Pitt, we have some good venues here for major sports events."

Steelers spokesman Ron Wahl said the convention bureau had talked with the team about using Heinz Field for the game.

"We think it would be a great event for Pittsburgh," he said.

"We are considering it, but there are a lot of things that have to be worked out."

The Pittsburgh convention bureau is sending a representative to this year's Army-Navy game, which will be held Saturday at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. A host city puts on a gala dinner the night before the game, pays for transportation for student bodies and guarantees the two schools several hundred thousand dollars each for playing the game.

This year will be one of only six Army-Navy games since 1945 that hasn't been held in Philadelphia. The event was held at the Baltimore Ravens stadium in 2000, at Giants Stadium in 1989, 1993 and 1997, and at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., in 1983.

The service academies' current agreement with Philadelphia expires after next year's football game, and 14 cities, including Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, are competing to be the next host city.

Others in the running include East Rutherford, Baltimore, Chicago, Miami, Houston, San Antonio, Washington, D.C., Buffalo, N.Y., Tampa and Jacksonville, Fla., and two cities in Rhode Island.

"We're looking for the best deal," Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk told The Associated Press. "It could be a one-year deal. It could be a four-year deal. It could be two cities, three cities or four cities. We're going into this open-minded."

The deadline for submitting bids to host the 2004 game is Jan. 15, with a decision expected in March.

McGrath said the top quality of Heinz Field should be a plus for Pittsburgh, along with the city being a new venue for the game without being too far away for travel from the Army academy in West Point, N.Y., or the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

He said Pittsburgh has about 3,500 hotel rooms Downtown and 13,000 available in Allegheny County, so it should be possible to set aside 5,000 or so as the academies require.

Having such a major event in early December -- normally a slow time for convention business -- would be a major boost for local hotels, restaurants and stores, he said.

Imperata added, "The game is an event that gets a lot of national exposure. It's watched not just by the sporting public. The president of the United States often attends and the national press is all over it. It would give us a good chance to show them what the real Pittsburgh is all about."

Tom Barnes can be reached at tbarnes@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1548.