I bet this year because restrictions lifted, Pitt will increase average attendance (8,800+), fans want to be at the games! The Pete holds 12,508 and the highest attendance was 2009 11,194, and 2020 they averaged 8,825!
Do you know what is really PATHETIC about this situation?
- Thread starter Panther_in_Kentucky
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I seen 7000 for a Duke football game at ketchup and they announced 35 000. Some of you might have been there that rainy evening, 7000 tops
The Almighty himself could be the HC and Pitt still wouldn’t fill Heinz Field with Pitt fans for every game even if we were a Top 10 team in football. A 45-50k seat football stadium would be appropriate.
I’ll take the under. 6/7,000 would be absolutely amazing
The highest in 2009 was 11,194?
I really don’t think that is true at all.
Pitt Hoops was sold out that year. I recall clearly that standing room only seats were sold for the UConn game and attendance exceeded 12,508.
Perhaps you meant to type a different year?
I think you are correct.
But here's the issue. The average attendance in 08-09 WAS accurately 11,194 (or just about).
But there is absolutely NO way that the average attendance was 8,824 in 2019-2020. The more accurate number should be somewhere between 5-6K. It was basic lie to say it was 8,824. That might have be the highest single game that year, but that's about it.
Back in the golden days of the BE I went to every single game and while the big games in the BE where SRO ( and a lot of fun ) a lot of games even in those in conference had plenty of empty seats . Pitt was lucky to have 6000 in the building for some of the OOC games . I’m sure all numbers Pitt gives out are for seats sold not actual attendance .
They’ll be doing handstands in the ticket office when Pitts average attendance gets anywhere near 8800 .
They might be doing handstands when they actually get 8,800 for a single game again.
Pretty false narrative, if you think Pitt Stadium would still be standing if the Pete wasn’t built. It was not an historic stadium by any stretch. It was deteriorating during the waning years.
People want to forget how uncomfortable the seating was , how run down the faculties were , how horrible the traffic was , how difficult it was to park and the walk up cardiac hill ( same as Pete ) .
Thinking that Pitt Fb would be any better with an on campus stadium are fooling themselves, what Pitt Fb needs is a return of an active booster group .
I agree with this totally. I feel the biggest proponents for a on campus stadium are the Pitt students that went to school between 1973 to 1988. It would have been a magical time ---- get blown out on Friday night, wake up hungover at 11 am, pop a cold one and walk up Cardiac Hill to see a top ten ranked team each week! Then after the win pour into Oakland bars for more fun! What a great time to be a student during this time.
As a student all the realities of Pitt Stadium could be overlooked because of the fun and excitement----splintered bleacher seating, poor sight lines, terrible facilities and terrible parking.
what year was that? im calling BS. the worst attended game i've ever been too was a few years back, think it was against UVA. cold rainy day, like miserable rain. i went and i was miserable, rain hiding my tear drops on my face. think that was 3-4 years ago. and i'd say realistically, that crowd was probably 13-14k fans..
i dont think you realize how bad 7k is. that's like a wpial championship game at noon with single a teams crowd size..
How many years ago did pitt decide to tear down that friggin stadium? like 25? that is a long ass time ago. do other fanbases sit around and second guess decisions made in the time of 56k modems and car phones?
The big wigs just don’t get the value of playing big time winning Fb . It’s a shame because it builds a pride in your school that never leaves .
The worst attended Pitt game at Heinz Field was the Wednesday night game against Navy, and even that night there were more than 7,000 people there. Probably around twice that many!
I was at that Navy game and our group guessed the actual attendance to be 15,000 or a little more than that.
I would've guessed the worst attended game Pitt game at Heinz Field was the Wednesday game against UConn in 2012 in which it was absolutely pouring. If I remember correctly, this was the game when Ray Graham tore his ACL. It was one of the two or three games I skipped during my time at Pitt, but I remember watching it on TV and it looked like there were, at the most, 15K people there.
Does anyone remember the gsme I’m talking about? It was like a 3:40 Saturday game and miserably cold rain. I am pretty sure it was Virginia. We won.
I kid you not, there couldn’t have been 4,000 fans therre.
I kid you not, there couldn’t have been 4,000 fans therre.
Also went to a night game against UNC it was terrible as well. The Duke game I was referring to was a rainy night but it was warm
The same can be said for the big wigs at about 90% of the schools that play college football. There are very few big time winning programs.
I've been to every home game Pitt has played at Heinz Field that fans were allowed to attend. There has never been a game where there were only 4,000 fans there.
I don't remember the exact number that Pitt announced as the attendance that night, but it was somewhere around 30,000 (I think just a little less than that iirc). I always said that they didn't count people, they counted the number of eyes that were watching the game.
It was this game. Yes, I agree, more then 4k. They listed it at 30k and I would bet my life therre weren’t 15k fans inside.
Again, miserable beyond belief. Cold annoying rain. We Actuelly played well.
For a very long time at Heinz Field Pitt never announced an attendance number smaller than 30,000. If there were 20,000 or 25,000 there they would announce something like 30,102. The people in charge of such things must have felt that there was some stigma attached to a number that started with a "2" instead of a "3".
Let alone a "1".
I think they’ve gotten better last handful of years. I truly believe at Heinz, you always seem to have people hanging out in concourse and on rotunda or trying to get past the yellow coat mafia but the numbers they announce are turnstile count.
Attendance estimates are always dubious. There could be 4k fans at any one time on concourses, ramps, clubs, suites, concession lines, bathrooms... especially in a cold rain. None of them are visible in seats.
It's because of advertising. I knew someone who used to work in the athletic department who sold sponsorship / advertising. They inflate the number to help them sell banners, digital ads, sponsorship, etc... Of course they know it's probably wrong, but a few years from now those people will likely forget or you'll be dealing with new people.
I get that.
But the inflation is so egregious at times, it just seems really ridiculous, or at worse, it just looks like flat out lying.
To this day, my favorite example continues to be the "snowfall" hoops game against Seton Hall in 2010 (when we got 22 inches of snow and folks were asked to stay home).
Pitt didn't take tickets for the game, and did not use the turnstiles at all. People could just walk in and sit down. And despite pleas to stay at home. plenty of people showed up and pretty much filled up the 6 Club sections (but there really weren't many folks at all in any other sections).
I thought a good estimate was about 3,000 people in attendance. If one was to say 4,000, I would have thought that was high for sure, but not totally implausible.
But that day, Pitt reported an actual attendance of 6,681. Knowing that not a single ticket was taken or not one person moved a turnstile, it was obvious that it was a completely "made up" number.
With the unusual situation that was that day, they could have even said a flat 5,000 for attendance and basically not even one such as myself would have thought much of it. But after the game, Dixon was bragging about "how we tell people not to come and we still get 7,000."
It just feels like complete BS to me, and that just rubs me the wrong way.
Understand, and I'm not saying it's the right way to go about it. Just passing along why they do it. Steve P was notorious for inflating numbers. On the flipside, how many people remember what the attendance was at that game besides some diehard Pitt fans? Anyone looking at historical attendance numbers sees 6,681, and that's the number used to calculate the season average.
BTW, I was at that game. 3k is a good guess.
I think the number of people who remember (or care) about attendance is probably 4. Me, @Joe the Panther Fan, and ... well I'm sure there are two others.
Pitt Stadium was a dump. In the early 80s Sports Illustrated called it the worst place to watch good football. Horrible seating comfort, minimal and very limited concessions, and the bathrooms were scarce and difficult to get to. And the field was too far away because of the track going around it. I don't like Heinz Field but it is light years ahead of Pitt Stadium and moving there was the absolute right thing to do. Now they just have to start winning. Still needs to be right-size with tarps in the visitor side 500 level and the upper end zone stands.
My issue is that I think it is beneath a University to lie about something so inconsequential. If they want to inflate the announced attendance then just say that from now on they will be announcing the number of tickets distributed for the game. And then when they say that the attendance is 42,000 at a game that there were actually 28,000 people at, so what? But if you are telling me that you are announcing the real, actual number of people who are at the game then don't say 42,000, say 28,000. If saying 28,000 embarrasses you then do something about it.
Peterson was ridiculous with inflating attendance but I truly think it’s gotten a lot better.
I agree though, who cares about this outside of some crazy fans on here.
Actually, another poster in the thread clarified. Your post meant the "highest average crowd" of 11,194 in 2008-2009. I thought you were suggesting that 11,194 was the largest single crowd of that year.
But yes, I was indeed at all of the games at the Pete that year. I've missed a total of 5 games at the Pete since it opened!
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