WINNING football is popular in Pittsburgh.
As is WINNING hockey. Or WINNING baseball. And even WINNING Pitt basketball.
I will concede that winning football is more lucrative than the others, as the Steelers have shown. Yinzers do get more passionate about it for sure. But it gotta be WINNING. Yinzers aren't good sports fans, they are good WINNING sports fans.
But when any of those teams don't win, even the Steelers (see the pre-1970s crowds) they aren't very popular. Kind of like ... Pitt football for the last 30 years.
The prospects of crappy teams here are dire, actually. The Pens almost went under, how many times? Even in the years AFTER Lemieux and Jagr, which gave them such glory, it couldn't sustain them The moment the Toby Peterson and German Titov era took over, crowds plummeted and they nearly had to leave town.
Maybe if Pitt had won the Terrelle Pryor draft lottery ... oh wait, crap college teams don't get great players handed to them. Their administrations have to do it the old fashioned way: buy great coaches, spend heartily on recruiting, let boosters operate liberally, and compromise on grades and ethics as needed. Pitt to their credit or regret, refuses. Hoops too, kinda, but at least they've been willing to pony up to keep Dixon after success (though not his quality assistants).