Coronavirus halts construction of Duquesne's UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse

Dave Harper remains optimistic UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse will open in time for Duquesne’s winter sports season, but he also knows grim reality in the form of the covid-19 pandemic might intervene.

Duquesne’s athletic director said Monday that construction stopped Friday on the $45 million makeover of the former A.J. Palumbo Center in compliance with Gov. Tom Wolf’s directive.

“With the government order on Friday listing this type of construction as nonessential,” Harper said, “that resulted in our project being shut down.”

What does that mean for the men’s and women’s basketball and women’s volleyball teams that were counting on moving into their new home and playing games starting in November?

“Negative planning is a reality,” Harper said. “We always take an optimistic approach, but you do have to negative plan.

“The bigger issue is so many people that will be affected by this and mitigating any circumstances where Pittsburgh might be affected, Duquesne University might be affected by this and certainly our student-athletes, coaches and staff.”

Harper said after breaking ground 12 months ago, a construction schedule was formulated with built-in contingencies. “But amongst our list of contingencies was not pandemic,” he said.

“The math is the math. Basically, when you lose a day, it’s a day you have to make up on the back end.”

He estimated as of Monday afternoon, a day and half of construction work had been lost.

“We’re just going to monitor this on a daily basis. The guiding principles always are, first, it’s the health, welfare and safety of people. That’s our No. 1 guideline.

“Then, the second guideline is to make sure we get the project done right. And when it’s done right, we’ll get back in there.

“That could be on time. That could be delayed, and we’ll make plans accordingly. There’s nothing any of us can do or predict in this situation.”

But Harper said he won’t be caught unprepared.

“If we have an opportunity to pick up some good neutral (site) games, we might be more apt to do that than before,” he said.

Harper said construction on the Forbes Avenue building, which also will house strength and conditioning facilities and office space, was proceeding in a timely manner.

“We were in a good place,” he said.

Although the situation is eight months away, basketball coaches Keith Dambrot and Dan Burt and volleyball coach Steve Opperman must consider the possibility of another season — or partial season — without a home.

“All the teams did an amazing job last year,” said Harper, noting the men’s team won 21 games and the women 20 without the benefit of a home court. “I hate to ask (them) to do it again, but if we have to, we’ll do it.”

Duquesne played its so-called home games at three venues — PPG Paints Arena, which is across the street from campus, La Roche in McCandless and Robert Morris in Moon. The men’s team was forced to travel by bus or airplane to 24 of its 30 games but still set a school record for Atlantic 10 road victories (six).

“Being homeless is tough,” Harper said. “We don’t use it as an excuse, but it is tough.”

“It’s a testament to who they are. A testament to their level of competitiveness, their selflessness as well.

“This is bigger than some basketball games and where you’re playing them.

“This is about people, their health, safety and well-being. It’s about our teams, their health, safety and well-being. “While we’re planning and doing all that, certainly, you want to be in your home, but there are bigger issues at hand here.”