“Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…”
- Thread starter HopeandChangeforAntoons
- Start date
Lack of fan support has always been the number one hindrance to the success of our program.
Nobody wants to drive into Oakland. The only way an on campus stadium would have a chance is a major improvement in mass transportation. The not so rapid bus is not the answer.
It's because they were all early games. Damn Nutting.
1:30 pm kickoffs only.
No late afternoon or evening kickoffs because Pitt Stadium did not have lights back then. That’s why the game against Penn State was played at Three Rivers Stadium.
They needed to “right size” Pitt Stadium with tarps.
That’ll fix everything.
That’ll fix everything.
Wasn't that costly. My seats were 5 rows below the Chancellor box. It was as fancy as a hunting blind in Elk County.
Most of the people there were staff or faculty. Sat on their hands and bitched.
Pitt was in the top 20 in attendance that year. It was a great year but the program was horrific in the 60's and early 70's. Even Major's 73'-75' teams were merely decent. Stupid article. It takes time to build up support. Let's not forget also that all 3 pro sports teams were seeing the greatest success that they had ever had at that time and the city-region was seeing it's lowest economic days. The more I think about it, the more I realize that the author was probably just the grandfather of the anti-Pitt dreck we have in town today.
🤔That was my initial thinking also...... but they were 7 games into the season, undefeated, and #2 in the country.
I'm just saying.
I suggest some of you take a look at the crowd shots in these highlights to see what 42k looked like in Pitt Stadium. Then consider that college football attendance averaged 30k for FBS in 1976. B10 was around 60k, the SEC and PAC were mid 50s, Big8 low 50s, and the ACC was high 30s. Pitt has rarely drawn well in the modern era for a variety of reasons, but it's not nearly as bad as people like to make it out. The nitwits have invaded your brains.
People don't realize that Pitt's attendance wasn't bad relative to other programs. Considering that Pitt was much more a commuter school then, it shouldn't be surprising that they haven't and still don't pack the fans in.
The issues are the Pitt hasn't maintained enough consistency compared to other programs. The constant changes in stadiums, uniforms, colors, logos, couches, etc combined with Pitt not making enough of eh effort (less true now) to bring in the students and fans.
I'm sure that same article could have been written in 1981 or 1982 as well after 6 or 7 years of success, and how rapidly it dropped at the first sign of struggle. Just sayin.
Is it a "lack of fan support" or........there are only so many Pitt fans?? That is two different things. Subtle, but different.
I'm guessing based on donations per alum as well as fans, etc, it probably leans a little more towards support.
This is really the reason. Pitt attendance is compared to the cow college in the middle of the state. That place has 30-some feeder branch campuses sending tens of thousands of kids every year to State College. How many undergrads do these state diploma mills have. Even the ones that flunk out still feel allegiance to them.
Pitt will never churn out grads in those numbers. I know 7 PS grads that have grad degrees from PItt...who do you think they root for? Pitt will have to rely on the fickle consumer to fill the stands. Its just what it is.
Pitt had been in the dumpster for a decade. It takes time to win back fans. As a kid I recall that many of my Catholic neighbors rooted for Notre Dame, and certainly the Irish ones did. ND was winning big back then under Ara Parseghian. And the Italians... a lot of them lapped up Paterno's goombah milk. "Oh, I like Penn State because Paterno is Italian." So was Carl DePasqua, but he didn't win. (Being both Catholic and Italian but a Pittsburgher, I chose my hometown Panthers over faith and ethnicity.) It was hard for Pitt to peel those people away. But in the heyday, the Panthers were Pittsburgh's team, without question.
I believe we set the season attendance record in 1982 that we broke in 2003. We had sustained success so people wanted tickets.
It can’t be the number of Pitt fans. There are plenty of us out here. However, there may be a bigger issue of developing fans as they spend 4 to 6 years of their lives in Oakland. Just count the Pitt grads each year times(X) the past 25 years or so. I think you’re seeing an effort the past few years (by the athletic dept) to cultivate future fans moreso than in the past. Branding has improved and the Panther Pitt seats seem to be getting more populated and rowdy. These fans need to be returning after graduation. More gameday experiences like Saturday will only help. There has been some sort of disconnect post graduation for many reasons for many years.
And then they immediately dumped the team at the first sign of struggle. Same with basketball in the 2000s-2010s.
So unless the team is winning championships ever few years, we aren't going to have sustained support and the drop off is rather steep.
I don't think anyone is expecting to have 100K. Even that is a rarity in college athletics. I think having "normal" 40-50K attendance should be something that is expected, much like a lot of other similar sized schools that have had the same results as Pitt, with an occassional 60K attendance for a "big" game.
Not the 20-25K that shows up.
The only way to fairly judge attendance for schools like Miami and Pitt is to compare them to other schools in major metro areas.
Miami is a really small school(less than half of Pitt), which most don't know, and actually does pretty w/attendance with only Washington and USC being better in 2019(pre-Covid football)
Miami is a really small school(less than half of Pitt), which most don't know, and actually does pretty w/attendance with only Washington and USC being better in 2019(pre-Covid football)
If Pitt can average 45-50k for ACC/PWR 5 games and 30-35k for mid majors and get those fans to donate, they'll be in the top quartile of the ACC with Clem and FSU and VT. They aren't too far from that now. They just need to get better buy-in from what they have now and grow the base by maybe 10-20% and get them bought in as well and they're set. Sure, crowds like that look middling on TV but guess what PSU doesn't draw even 90% capacity for most games. Most non-SEC programs don't.
Finish this year strong and follow up with 2 more 10-win seasons and they might be there.
Pitt only had an elite program from 76'-81' and even then they didn't beat PSU and ND enough to draw away from their casual fans. You need a solid decade to really move the needle. Pitt also needs to realize they cannot compete with ND and PSU for fans as far as magnitude. Those are totally different types of programs.
Finish this year strong and follow up with 2 more 10-win seasons and they might be there.
Pitt only had an elite program from 76'-81' and even then they didn't beat PSU and ND enough to draw away from their casual fans. You need a solid decade to really move the needle. Pitt also needs to realize they cannot compete with ND and PSU for fans as far as magnitude. Those are totally different types of programs.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
This is the only answer. This fan base is so easily triggered and the Nits were doing it Saturday evening on Twitter because they know it works.
Seats verses benches is a big deal when it comes to how "full" a stadium looks.
Wisconsin's Camp Randall looks full whether there are 80k or 60k in the place. At 80k, the place sucks as you are smashed into each designated 15 inches - especially if your row is filled with 15" plus type of people. Personally, I blame the beer, brats and curds more than the poorly planned design but I digress.
I'll take the comfort of 45k at Heinz over 80k at Camp Randall every time.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Yep. Around 52,000. Pitt was #1 and the NFL was on strike into late October. Pitt was the only game in town for a change and that attendance was at the upper limit of our capability.
