Field of, Ah, Er…?

With the past, current and projected future growth of the Cranberry Township area north of Pittsburgh, Dick’s Sporting Goods, with corporate headquarters only a half-hour drive away and over 250 stores nationwide, has agreed to pay $2.2 million dollars over the next 10 years for the naming rights to a new 150 acre outdoor sports complex located in Cranberry adjacent to the Pennsylvania Turnpike (I-76). The complex will include 3 full size football fields, 5 baseball fields and additional fields for soccer and lacrosse.

Westinghouse announced last year it will build a new corporate headquarters in Cranberry, bringing over 3,000 jobs with it. This is in addition to Cranberry already being one of the fastest growing areas in the state of Pennsylvania due to it’s location at the intersection of I-76, I-79, state Routes 19 and 228 and 20 minute access to downtown Pittsburgh.

If a multi-million dollar traffic improvement program can be approved in the next year or two, Simon Properties, owner of three major malls in the Pittsburgh area, is planning an additional 900,000 square foot retail and office complex almost directly across the road from Westinghouse, bringing a projected 1,000 to 1,500 additional jobs to the area.

As reported in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Dick's Sporting Goods Inc., based in Findlay, reached an agreement with Cranberry officials to pay $2.2 million over the next 10 years for the naming rights to the proposed Graham Park along Rochester Road, Cranberry supervisor John Skorupan said Tuesday. "It's a great initiative," Skorupan said, adding that the township is growing so fast that it needs the new park. The township hopes to begin building the park this spring and have the three football fields ready for the fall season, with baseball and soccer fields available in the spring of 2009. The Cranberry board of supervisors has scheduled a special meeting Thursday to approve the agreement, Skorupan said.

Now the difficult part is deciding on the name…Field of Ah, Er…