I notice that a lot of empty seats on nationally televised games occurred at the on campus stadium as well
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I notice that a lot of empty seats on nationally televised games occurred at the on campus stadium as well
It was also on a Thursday night.
I notice that a lot of empty seats on nationally televised games occurred at the on campus stadium as well
Thursday night against the Miami Hurricanes
plus there was a Pens game ...
Official attendance 40,191
You do realize that the team posted non-winning records for seven years in a row prior to that season, right?
2-9
6-6
4-7
2-9
3-8
3-8
3-9
By 1997 (even though there was some excitement with a new coach) they were lucky the player's families showed up for the games.
The torch cut numerals were too hard to read from the stands. Had to watch one t.v.it was a school night
people couldn't tailgate
are there any other pitt related attendance excuses we can use
I would have done that in my less sober youth in the 80s. By 97 I was already too old and chicken to get into that quagmire! ... Just watched from safe distance! At least I didn't leave early to beat trafficIt was fun. I happily assisted with goalpost take down, and then saved a police horse from getting hurt by some of you who were carrying the goalpost haphazardly.
Ohio State only has the NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets as competition, and clearly that's not much competition at all. The Blue Jackets formed in 1997, long after the Buckeyes had the area dominated. Columbus also has a metro population of nearly 2 million people, almost as much as Pittsburgh. Imagine if Pitt and the Penguins were the only two teams in Pittsburgh. No Pirates, no Steelers. If that's not enough, Ohio State also has over 57,000 students on the main campus, twice what Pitt has. That means not only a large number of current students, but also a large number of alumni.
Michigan is very similar. They are just 45 minutes from Detroit, which is close enough to visit games, but with an attendance of over 100,000, they are a a large college town. The Detroit metro area has 4.3 million people in it, double that of Pittsburgh. If that's not enough Michigan has 43,000 students on the main campus, and they are believed to have the most living alumni in the country. That's how you routinely fill up the biggest football stadium, college or pro, in the country.
Texas is in Austin, which has over 1.8 million people in the metro area, and no professional sports teams. That alone will make the Longhorns football program popular. But then throw in an enrollment of over 52,000 and you can see why they get double what Pitt gets in attendance.
Then there's Penn State, who Pitt fans are most compared to. The Nittany Lions have no pro teams within hours yet can still draw from both Pittsburgh's 2.4 million metro population and Philadelphia's 6 million metro population. That's a double whammy. On top of that they also have a combined 98,000 total students in their entire system. By comparison, Pitt has 35,000 total students in their entire system. Let me repeat that so it will sink in- Penn State has three times more people to chose from.
Looking further at the schools with top attendance, one sees much of the same. No. 3 in attendance is Alabama with just over 101,000. They have the perfect blend of big college town (93,000), close to a big city (Birmingham with 1.1 million metro population), and a big university (nearly 35,000).
No. 6 in attendance is Tennessee with around 95,500. The university competes with no sports teams, but has 850,000 people in their metro area, and a large university of 27,000 students. Again, roughly the same size school and population as Pittsburgh, but with no sports teams to compete against them. They are the Steelers, Pirates, and Penguins all wrapped up in a big ball of orange.
The next four are Georgia, LSU, Nebraska, and Florida. All are college towns with no professional teams within an hour of them, yet close to major population centers. Like Penn State, Georgia is the state school, and draws from all over the state. Atlanta, with it's 5.5 million metro population, and Augusta with over 500,000 more, are close by. LSU is in Baton Rouge, which has over 800,000 people in it's metro population, and is a little more than an hour from New Orleans, which has 1.2 million more in it's metro population. Nebraska is in Lincoln, which has 265,000 people, and is less than an hour from Omaha which has about 875,000 more in it's metro population. Florida is in Gainesville, which is just a little over an hour from Jacksonville which has 1.4 million people in the metro area, and has 50,000 students.
I think all of this proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt that Pitt's attendance does not mean that they don't have fans that care, but that it all depends on how many people a school can draw from.
The magic potion is to have a very large university, near, but not in, a major city, and with no major professional teams present. The University of Pittsburgh meets none of that criteria, meaning that their attendance will never reach huge numbers, and may be maxed out at roughly half of what the schools with the most attendance achieve.
http://panthersprey.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-myth-of-pitt-football-attendance.html
There was actually a Pirate game that night vs. Houston- the Pirates were in a pennant race chasing the Astros- that was the 'freak show' team.plus there was a Pens game ...