Attendance irony
- Thread starter JS School
- Start date
Again, selling to the converted isn't growing the pie. They keep squeezing water out of a rock. Why isn't there better attendance? Because they keep selling to the same people.
True, to a degree.This year aside, as compared o many teams, Pitt's offense has still been almost robotic.
And have had at least two scheduled and marketed men's/women's double headers, where purchase of a ticket to one game gave you admission to both games.
Incredibally, you can still sign up for the season ticket waiting list on the website. I'm not sure its possible to have a waiting list for season tickets when we are about 2,500 tickets short of selling out but somehow we do. The good news is they dont advertise the waiting list anymore which was deceptive as heck. They used to have a billboard advertising the waiting list which basically told people to stay away because no tickets were available.
I really believe Barnes is going to make a lot of positive changes in the off-season like hopefully:
- changing ticket prices to reflect current demand (ie higher prices in lower bowl, lower prices in upper deck including endzones and corners not requiring a donation)
- getting rid of the wait list forever
- actually having a marketing campaign for season tickets, tv commercials, radio, buses, etc.
- playing at least 2 marquee OOC home games per year at home
Bball has to go back to the drawing board to get fans there. The team is still pretty good. We just have to lower prices to meet demand and get the word out that we DO have tickets to be had.
I'm pretty sure there have been ads for the three game packages in the PG several times. They have also had ads for single game non conference tickets on numerous occasions, including the deal they are running to get a ticket and a zoo shirt for one low price.
It's funny that he is complaining that Pitt is only marketing to those of us who are already fans, yet doesn't see any of it.
Doesn't make some sense that someone listening to a game on the radio is probably more inclined to buy Pitt tickets than some random person seeing a billboard? This is targeted advertising.
The 3 game mini plan only offers a 5 dollar per game discount but require a 25 dollar PC contribution so its actually more expensive to buy the mini package as opposed to buying them individually.
I know…silly of me not to hear any of the radio advertisements when I'm at the friggin games.
I'm such a horrible fan.
And as far as the marketing to fans is concerned…do you know how I know it isn't working? Again, I GO to the games and see the empty seats.
But carry on…the smartest people in the room keep telling themselves they know exactly what they are doing.
I'm sorry to hear that you force yourself to sit at the Pete for 30 minutes after the game ends while I am driving home listening to the postgame radio show. You truly are a diehard.
And you truly are blind to reality.
When they are passing out Zoo tickets to anyone who wants to move down because there are 1,000 of unsold tickets, tell me how well their ubiquitous marketing plan is working. I'll make some popcorn in anticipation of your next snarky remark.
Uhhhh....the Zoo is that way mostly because school isn't in session. And lots more tix have been sold, folks don't show up, esp. the Club, where many seats are corporate owned. A lot of those show up for ACC games. I think the attendance will improve as this team gets ranked after a quick start in-conference. I sure hope so.
That said, we're not going back to the days at the Fitz.....walk up during team intros, pay $7.00, get a seat 4 rows behind the Pitt bench....in a 6700-seat dump. There will be room on the bandwagon.
Marketing is used to expand your appeal and anyone interested enough to listen ,watch or attend games knows there's plenty of seats available. Therefore you need to expand your universe and adversting to these people is a waste of time and money. The Pirates give aways and fireworks nights is an example of what's needed , waiting to get 12000 dedicated fans to attend these SOOC ( shity OOC ) games isn't ever going to happen.
I agree NTOP. And I know the students are on break. But I also know that Pitt's big marketing plan includes "selling" the Zoo seats. IE: the most recent email offering the purchase of Zoo seats to the Syracuse game (among others) at $85 a pop just like the Morehead game. The whole baseline near the Pitt bench was empty. How effective was that marketing plan focused on every Pitt radio broadcast?
Want a bigger crowd? Don't limit the impact of your marketing on those fans who are already bought in. Pitt never seems to see itself battling for the consumer dollar among the myriad of other entertainment options in town. Furthermore, the Pitt mindset over the last 12 years or so is that it doesn't NEED to market to a larger audience. And that's what frustrates me.
Hopefully Barnes breathes new life and motivation into the marketing efforts. I expect he will.
Inkn
I know exactly what. I'm watching. Your view has been obscured by the traditional position of your head up your hind end and a continuing reflexive reaction to defend JD. Should also be noted that it's not only been Pitt's offensive style that's turned people off but also his failure to recruit highly skilled offensive players. I can't believe any power 5 conference school has had guards playing the 2 who were greater bricklayers than the guys JD has recruited for the position.....and the beat goes on.
If Pitt can draw 40,000 fans to a football game, Pitt can sell 12,500 basketball tickets. Pitt doesn't need to convince random people on the street, they just need to convince their own fans to show up.
That doesn't seem to correlate all that well. This is a FB town, NOT a hoops town, except for big-event games with perceived-to-be top opponents. Our OOC games at the Igloo did OK....UNC, UCLA, etc. The BE games usually sold well, but SHU, Prov., BC, etc. weren't hot tickets. It looks like the Pens are fading a bit, too. Before #87 arrived, seats were easy to get for home games....as Pitt became the HOT winter ticket. The Pete rocked many nights....but not so much with rent-a-victims. As JD gets our guys into ranked status, the ACC games will be fine. Lots of frontrunners. Many are now cruising the fancy restaurants in Larry-Ville.
I don't think counting on the football fans to fill up the Pete or the bb fans all buying season tickets to Fb games is an effective strategy. For years we got a friends bb tickets because they weren't interested in bb and they were far better seats than we had available to us and while I root for the Fb team and will watch them on tv at times I'm simply not interested in attending the games. Everyone isn't all Pitt all the time. There really is only one answer to filling up major venues like the Pete or Heinz Field and that's being consistently in the picture for national championships and Pitt has chosen not to go down that road to acquire the talent needed.
90% or greater of all schools don't "go down that road" to become regular contenders for a national championship. I'm not sure what that phrase even means. Unless you are talking about spending for assistants or something. Just kind of nebulous what road you are talking about. If it were just that easy, why don't all schools "go down that road"?
FWIW, Barnes agrees with those of us who want a more exciting OOC. Read Werner's twitter. He said he likes the resume but we need to infuse more excitement and has told all coaches to look at scheduling rivalry games.
Inotherwords, look for WVU bball to come to the Pete next season as part of a long-term deal probably.
His first comment about liking the resume but wanting more excitement is pretty much what some of us have said. Morehead is a good RPI game but nobody showed up and nobody cared. Even a bad brand name team (like SJU) would have created at least a little excitement.
Inotherwords, look for WVU bball to come to the Pete next season as part of a long-term deal probably.
His first comment about liking the resume but wanting more excitement is pretty much what some of us have said. Morehead is a good RPI game but nobody showed up and nobody cared. Even a bad brand name team (like SJU) would have created at least a little excitement.
Nobody showed up for games against SJU when they were part of the Big East, why would they start now? People couldn't even be bothered to show up for Purdue.
But of course it's quite likely that scheduling St John's rather than Morehead would actually end up hurting our RPI. If you like "the resume" then you have to understand how it was built, and that means if you are going to schedule more "name" teams then you have to recognize that if you don't do it right you can end up with a record that is no better but a "resume" that is worse.
Why did Rowan end up at NCS or why is Heron going to Auburn ? How did Pitt acquire such great talent before in bb and Fb? It started with the Golden Panther$ and a will to win . That's the path they've chosen not to take. They also stay away from thugs ,but I think they'll go out on the limb a little academically .
I agree 90% of the colleges and universities are in the same situation as Pitt. I doubt that very few fill up a 12500 bb or 70000 Fb stadium either. Those other 10% do and Pitt cannot compete with them.
SJU was an example. It would have been totally stupid to schedule a home and home with them starting this year because you have a pretty good idea they were going to suck. You dont want to risk a home and home on a bad P5 team. That said, I dont think SJU and Morehead's RPIs will end up being much different. The BE is a lot like the Big 12. Most of the league ends up in the RPI Top 75 so just playing those teams and beating a few helps your RPI.
We are talking about really bad P5 programs. There are plenty of respectable beatable programs out there we can play.
And we can stop this discussion because Barnes confirmed he's adding at least 1, maybe more strong OOC games to the schedule next year.
But for your strength of schedule where a team's RPI ends up really means nothing, other than if one team ends up in the top 100 (or a similar metric) and the other doesn't. Because one of the stupid things about the RPI is that your strength of schedule is based only on your opponent's record (and to a much lesser extent, their opponent's record). Where the team ends up in the RPI has nothing at all to do with it.
As an example, right now which would be better for Pitt's RPI, winning a game against RPI number 6 Florida or winning a game against RPI number 13 Arkansas-Little Rock? One would think that the answer to that question is obvious. Beating the number 6 ranked team is obviously better than beating the number 13 ranked team. Except in the RPI, it isn't. Right now beating Arkansas-Little Rock, current record 7-0, would be much better than beating Florida, current record 6-3. If at the end of the season Florida is 24-8 and ranked 10 in the RPI and Arkansas-Little Rock is 29-3 and ranked 30 in the RPI it will still have been much better for a team's RPI to beat the 30th ranked team rather than the 10th ranked team. It's one of the absurdities of the RPI, and it's the reason that people who think it's the be all and end all of figuring out how good teams are have no idea what they are talking about.
If you want a real end of the year example from last season, it would have been better for a team's RPI to have played number 11 Northern Iowa than it would have been to have played number 5 Kansas. And it wouldn't have even been close. Or if you want an example from teams not at the top of the RPI, it would have been much better for Pitt's RPI to have played 153 ranked Robert Morris rather than 142 ranked Georgia Tech. Again, it wouldn't have even been close.
At the end of the season if Morehead is 24-8 and ranked 100 in the RPI and St John's is 15-17 and ranked 99 in the RPI playing Morehead would be much, much better for Pitt's RPI than playing St. John's would have been.
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