There’s been some buzz that a USHL team could be coming to Pittsburgh, with the Lemieux Sports Complex potentially playing a role in the plans.

Nothing has been officially confirmed yet, but the idea of bringing USHL hockey to the Pittsburgh area would definitely be something to watch.

Could Pittsburgh be the next USHL market?

I'm sure it would get plenty of support. I know most of the USHL grumbles about doing events in Pittsburgh, considering Youngstown is the furthest Eastern team in the league, which is maybe why they moved the showcase to Chicago. Extending their reach eastward wouldn't be a bad thing.

I have not heard anything recently, but I'll recap some of the old highlights on this topic. When the Lemiuex Center was built, there was supposedly some thought that future expansion could include a third sheet with a larger seating section on the North end of the building. That third sheet/stadium bowl would be an attractive draw to a USHL team. I don't know how, if at all, the Wegman's going in on that side of the rink might impact the room to grow. Separately, I'd heard that their was interest/hope/ambition to get the Youngstown team to relocate to Cranberry. Given that the Youngstown team is a Blackbear property (BB bought them in 2018), I don't know if that plan is still viable/attractive.

I'd think the biggest issue would be attendance. Most of the successful USHL franchises are in the middle of nowhere where they are the only show in town. Hard to think with all the other sports teams in the area that they could make it work without someone dumping a lot of funds into keeping the team going.

This rumor has been around for years. As someone already said, a third sheet of ice was to be constructed. The rumor I heard was the RMU Division 1 teams would leave the Island Sports Center and use this as their home ice in addition to a USHL team locating there. This was all before Covid so things changed.

I don't know how successful a USHL team would be in Pittsburgh. Some of you may remember the Pittsburgh Forge who were in the NAHL from 2001-2003. They were sold and moved to Toledo. They were successful on the ice but I don't remember their game attendance being that great.

No way a D1 team is going to move to an off campus rink that far away

On 10/3/2026 at 1:05 AM, nemesis8679 said:

No way a D1 team is going to move to an off campus rink that far away

Has anything ever come of the talks of RMU adding the on campus rink?

It's been talked about and early designs have been reviewed, along with costs. It hasn't progressed beyond that though.