PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Pitt announced on Wednesday they will block off sections of Acrisure Stadium starting with the 2026 season to reduce capacity by 17,000 fans.
Pitt announced the upper decks on the east and west sides will no longer be open and the potential exists to tarp those sections and Pitt reserves to opportunity to open those sections for games with high demand for tickets.
The move will reduce the Pitt football seating capacity at Acrisure Stadium from 68,400 to 51,416. That means it goes from the second-largest to the 10th largest football stadium in the ACC—North Carolina, Stanford, Boston College, Syracuse, Duke, SMU and Wake Forest are smaller.
“Prior to getting here, I had heard about our capacity and heard about our fan experience,” Greene said. “Once of the very first things that Coach Narduzzi said is our players want to run out of the stadium and feel the energy from our fans. Creating a more intimate environment allows us to do that.”
“This move is going to bring our fans closer to the action and crank up the energy in a world-class stadium,” said head coach Pat Narduzzi in a statement released by the university. “Our guys are looking forward to amplifying our home-field advantage in one of the ACC’s best venues.”
Greene said there will be opportunities for those who sat in the upper deck to sit in the lower bowl ‘at an affordable price’.
Other notes
· Plans to add more ‘pop and sizzle’ to the game day experience
· They are not moving the students, the Panther Pitt will remain in the closed end zone
· Greene said there is a good collaboration between Pitt and the Steelers on concerns with the field surface
“We want to explore options to make it a more electric environment, this quite honestly, is the way to do it,” Greene said.
Panthers open the season September 5 against Miami, Ohio.