Cincinnati tarp
- Thread starter Sean Miller Fan
- Start date
It is what it is...if you are bald, wearing a toupe only makes you look like a fool. If you cannot fill the stadium, putting a tarp over empty seats looks absolutely no better than an empty seat. Some of you have way to much time to think about these things. Attendance will be lackluster this season, and will improve with a better home schedule and another solid season from the Panthers. It is what it is...if you decide to play in an NFL venue, you have to take the bad with the good. The bad is the stadium is simply too large for the Panther fan base for all but a few high profile games. Hail to Pitt!
I just mean it's a waste of money, it probably would cost you thousands of dollars. For what? So people watching on TV "perceive" it's fuller than it is? Buy a couple strippers for recruits when they visit! That would be more productive! LOL!
I got it!!!! What's the best way to use those bright yellow seats to Pitt's advantage? They are undeniably incredibly visible when empty to a television audience. Well, if some have suggested that it's been done where every other row is sold, sell tickets so that the bright empty yellow ones spell Pitt in script when visible especially from a high camera or blimp. Take your negative and turn it into an advertising/marketing positive. I'm an idea man I tell ya.
Probably the most productive suggestion.
But I swear, we love to feed trolls on this board. Attendance and stadium posts are just fodder for the haters. Why do we bother?
Spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a new stadium in Oakland with a capacity of 45,000 fans for 7 home games per year is STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID.
HAIL TO PITT!!!!
Im not a campus stadium advocate due to the access issue. But the argument that it is only usable 7 days a year is amateurish. Properly designed and integrated, there are myriad uses for a university. Think beyond what ancient Pitt Stadium was (and even it had other purposes beyond 7 football games a year). There are plenty of valid arguments to make against it ... but in the right situation, smartly designed, a stadium could have a ton of cool uses. Beyond the usual soccer games, lacrosse, outdoor ceremonies, outdoor concerts, etc. Think street level retail/eateries, classrooms, office space, and perhaps the coolest dorm ever.
Thanks Heel
Your comments on this subject are appreciated by those that think Tarping is a good idea and has been successfully used before.
HAIL TO PITT!!!!
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Perception is REALITY!!!!!
Successful businesses with outstanding marketing departments have been using this concept for decades.
HAIL TO PITT!!!!
PERCEPTION
PERCEPTION
PERCEPTION
Simple inexpensive way to create perception and thus a REALITY.
Heels comments. The ACC use of tarping shows they understood the concept.
HAIL TO PITT!!!!
Well, Pitt will be playing ball at Heinz for the foreseeable future. And, the seats ain't changing color anytime soon. So... Wear the retro that matches the seats better more often, tarp at least the upper deck end zone to drop capacity just below 60K. I really think it's that simple. If Pitt's good, they'll draw close to capacity with that size of a stadium.
What those who advocate tarping don't consider is that the perception those on the outside will have is that Pitt isn't trying to sell out the stadium. A tarp screams, "We're okay with 70%. It's barely a passing grade, but you know what we're okay with that. So much so, that we spent thousands of dollars on tarps to show everyone that we don't expect to sell tickets."
Tarping a conference championship game; a bowl game; a concert; a soccer game; or anything else that isn't the home team's home stadium isn't something that can be compared. Tarping your home stadium, regardless of the size is bush league, and tells folks that you're okay with the status quo - and you don't expect any better.
And absolutely none of that requires a several hundred million dollar stadium to build,
But that's exactly how the Pitt administration DOES think (except I think they'd feel 70% is an uncomfortable reach). They ARE bush league. They are FINE with the status quo. They DON'T expect any better.
Which makes it almost a certainly they've looked into tarping before. And hit some kind of restriction to it. Which is why it's not been done.
I've got nuffin to refute that. Except, by not doing it, maybe we're the only ones who know. If they did it, everyone would know.
So what if we found ourselves in a 100,000 seat stadium? Would it still be bush league to tarp? Or should we spread our 45,000 fans around those 100,000 seats? How about a 130,000 seat NASCAR stadium?
Since Michigan has a 110,000 seat stadium, isn't every other school quitting by not adding capacity up to that amount?
Single-A schools do not have the same size stadiums as Quad A schools. They have different size bases.
The point is not that we're trying to fool people into thinking we are selling every available seat. The point is that it would be right sizing the stadium for our fan base. There are lots of 50,000-ish seat stadiums in the power five conferences. Just because we share a stadium with the Steelers does not mean that we are doing something wrong by not selling 70,000 seats to our football games.
Advocates of tarping are not trying to fool anybody. We're simply saying that it would look better and produce a much better atmosphere if our 45,000 fans were sitting in a 55,000 seat stadium.
Fair points. I'll say this though, just because the lower sections would be more full, doesn't mean it will be a "much better" atmosphere. I sit in a section that happens to be pretty full nearly every game. But the atmosphere in my section is pretty darn glum when the team stinks and isn't playing for anything. People sit on their hands, or gripe, or grumble. Jamming the rest of 'em into the rest of the lower bowl isn't going to make for a better mood in crappy games due to so-so teams. They'll still be grumpy and quiet, only less comfortable as well because they are crammed together. Well, until they leave early, which they will, if the team stinks.
But investing what it takes in a GREAT team WILL produce excellent atmospheres...and most likely close to the whole place will be filled too. I've said above and will say again, if they would ever tarp or otherwise restrict sales to the upper or endzone areas, it would be OK with me (as mentioned, nothing would really change in MY section, since it's mostly full right now). But WINNING is where the focus should be.
I don't disagree with any of that. I would never say tarp and quit trying. But I'm 49 years old and have been to probably 90% of games in my lifetime. Nothing in my experience tells me that we can ever average 60,000 people for more than a year or so. I'd love to be wrong, but I just don't see it. A school the size of Pitt needs casual fans, not just alumni. And that's just not realistic in a city the size of Pittsburgh with three professional sports teams, one of which is possibly the most popular football team in the world.
I can't speak to your experience in your section. But I do know that I get more involved the more people there are around. It just feels more important and that you can actually make a difference by joining with those around you making noise at appropriate times.
Bingo. And that was the point of me posting the "definitive attendance" thread. Our fan base is limited for many reasons. As is most city schools. Secondly,. what some on this board hasn't learned, being a "fan" of a program doesn't mean you are actually going to go to all of the games or some of the games. That is if you can get 25% of your true fanbase attending games, you are actually doing well.
Agree with your comments.
People seem to forget that Old Pitt Stadium only had a seating capacity of 56,000.
By "Right Sizing" Heinz Field to 56,000 capacity would be returning to the original capacity of OUR stadium.
HAIL TO PITT!!!!
I don't know. But the Hounds are a bad example. They are barely professional in a pro town. And everyone in the soccer community in western PA hates the RH due to them directly competing at the youth level vs every club and community in the area. Not a good business model if you're counting on filling your seats.
Nippert stadium is pretty cool because it is seated right into the campus and students walk right through the stadium concourses as they go to class. My daughter is being recruited by Cincinnati for soccer and I walked through it while the construction was going on. They do have a nice plan and good fan support for MLS expansion. But fab support is only part of it. MLS is looking for corporate support and plenty of other things above and beyond attendance. Pittsburgh isn't even on MLS radar, while there are 5-6 other cities that are. Do you want Pittsburgh to be the 40th franchise?
But getting back to Pitt and our stadium issue. I could envision a Nippert Stadium type facility that also houses other university needs down by Hillman.
But then there's the infrastructure issue.
Most likely possibilities are the Stadium Authority or the Steelers. May dispute the advertising we'd want. Or concern it would cause damage to the seats. Or the stadium workers wouldn't want the responsibility to put on and take off, yet don't want to let Pitt bring in its own crew. Or liability issues (what if the tarps fly off and smother a section of fans, fly off into the city and obstruct a bike lane, etc.
If not that, possibly the conference would balk, because they don't want to limit average capacity figures for member stadiums, or limit potential sales for other members' cut or availability.
I just think it's such a rather obvious idea that they would have looked into it.
Pittsburgh isn't even close to the top 5-6 potential MLS expansion cities. A few month back MLS asked for bids from potentially interested parties. Groups from the following cities put in proposals:
Charlotte
Cincinnati
Detroit
Indianapolis
Nashville
Phoenix
Raleigh/Durham
Sacramento
San Antonio
San Diego
St Louis
Tampa/St Pete
That's a dozen. And Pittsburgh is no where on the list. It is very unlikely that there will be an MLS team in Pittsburgh for at least the next several decades.
Thanks for posting. I don't even know how many MLS teams there are because I don't follow it. But I know that at least 6 of those cities are light years ahead of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh isn't even in the race.
22 right now, with a new Los Angeles club starting next year and David Beckham's group in Miami finally getting their stadium site together so they will (I am guessing) start in 2019. That gets them to 24. They are now talking about 28. If they go to 28 the favorites at the moment are probably St. Louis, San Diego and maybe Cincinnati (and they would have been no where on the list a year and a half ago). In the end where they can get soccer specific stadiums built will be a huge determining factor.
I remember when the Pirates put up tarps in the upper deck of Three Rivers Stadium as I'm sure many others do as well.
That added sooooo much atmosphere to the games. I couldn't wait to go to a Pirates game and look at those impressive tarps. The noise from thousands of other Pirate fans who went solely for the increased excitement and experience the tarps created was deafening and certainly added to the event. Don't you all remember that? Tarps! Tarps! Tarps! Fans could all sit closer together, hold hands and sing Kumbaya. They were the answer to making Pirates games exciting and the place just felt so much fuller.
Did this show up in the sarcasm font?
That added sooooo much atmosphere to the games. I couldn't wait to go to a Pirates game and look at those impressive tarps. The noise from thousands of other Pirate fans who went solely for the increased excitement and experience the tarps created was deafening and certainly added to the event. Don't you all remember that? Tarps! Tarps! Tarps! Fans could all sit closer together, hold hands and sing Kumbaya. They were the answer to making Pirates games exciting and the place just felt so much fuller.
Did this show up in the sarcasm font?
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