Pitt vs West Virginia Forces Pirates to Change Schedule

The Pittsburgh Pirates chose to move the first pitch for their home game at PNC Park, which is the same day as Pitt Panthers-WVU ont he

Pittsburgh Panthers student section erupts after they display the Panthers 2021 ACC Championship banner during the first half of the Backyard Brawl against West Virginia at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh, PA on September 1, 2022. Pitt Vs West Virginia Backyard Brawl / Michael Longo/For USA Today Network /

PITTSBURGH -- The Backyard Brawl, featuring the Pittsburgh Panthers against the West Virginia Mountaineers, will serve as the biggest sporting event of the year in the "Steel City," which will cause some issues for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Kickoff for the Backyard Brawl is 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 14 at Acrisure Stadium, while the Pittsburgh Pirates had their first pitch time for the normal 6:40 p.m. slot on a Saturday night against the Kansas City Royals at PNC Park.

The two stadiums sit on the North Shore on the bank of the Allegheny River, less than half a mile apart from each other.

The Pirates announced in an email to fans that they would change the start of first pitch against the Royals from 6:40 p.m.to 1:00 p.m. to deal with traffic, parking and more.

Changing the start time to an earlier slot lead to perplexing thoughts from fans, who thought the later time slot accomadated the game better than the earlier one does.

I feel like this is actually worse? pic.twitter.com/8hBvmysjPm

— Brian McElhinny (@rtjr) June 11, 2024

One of the biggest issues with moving the time slot up earlier is that it doesn't account for fans that will tailgate the Backyard Brawl across the various parking lots on the North Shore earlier that morning through the afternoon to when the game starts.

This doesn't benefit the Pirates fans, as they will still need to plan extra time to find parking and will likely have to resort to looking elsewhere to do so. It also doesn't help fans who have tickets to the Backyard Brawl and the Pirates game and planned on going to both.

One advantage to starting the Pirates game earlier is that the game will end once kickoff to the Backyard Brawl begins, giving Pirates fans an easier chance to get out of the North Shore following the ending.

This year's meeting between Pitt and WVU will serve as the third straight in the Backyard Brawl. This also the first non-evening kickoff in the series since the series restarted in 2022, with the two previous games starting around 7:00/7:30 p.m. respectively.

The Mountaineers won last year's game in a terrible offensive showing from the Panthers, 17-6 at Mountaineer Field. The Panthers won the first edition in more than 11 years in 2022, 38-31, capped off with an M.J. Devonshire pick-six.

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