Being a Steelers fan, I know how Heinz field rocks when it is sold out and the crowd is in full throat. Being a Pitt fan, I know how silent the stadium is when the seats seem to be half filled. I could only imagine how deflating it must be for the players to get themselves hyped up in the locker room, have the butterflies churning in their stomachs as they walk down the tunnel, and then sprint on to the field with all of that enthusiasm… only to see empty seats and hear virtually no cheers from the crowd. Also, the recruits that are in attendance who the previous Saturday may have been at a home game of our friends to the east with their "107k strong", for them to walk in to Heinz Field and see the countless empty yellow seats that seem to outnumber the fans in attendance, makes it seem like we are an inferior program. Which is one of the top things that other schools use to negatively recruit against us. We are not inferior to any program out there.
I compare Pitt football to where the Pittsburgh Pirates were in the past in terms of struggling to get bodies into seats. I thought back to what they did, and still do today to get the casual fan to buy a ticket and watch them play on the weekend. Their solution has been promotional giveaways (bobble heads, t-shirts, etc.) to the first however many fans and fireworks. For some reason, Pittsburghers flock to those games and get there early to assure themselves the promotional gift. The spring game had a great turnout due in part to the free t-shirt giveaway.
Here is the schedule with corresponding promotions that could run that day to improve ticket sales:
September 5th Youngstown State – Bobble Head (all time great alumni)
October 10th Virginia – T-shirt giveaway(GOLD OUT)
October 29th North Carolina (night game) – Fireworks night
November 7th Notre Dame – Pitt rally towel
November 21st Louisville – T-shirt giveaway(BLUE OUT)
November 27th Miami – Bobble Head (all time great alumni)
Other ways to increase sales and interest could be to offer upper deck seats discounts to Elementary through High School aged children who walk up to the ticket window with their school colors/jerseys on. Then at some point during the game put the school names of those in attendance up on the scoreboard. This would help fill the upper deck as well as build a new young fan base.
I have no idea what the cost analysis for advertisement and production on these items would be, but selling out the stadium would be invaluable to the current players and recruits!
Fellow Lair members, what would be the pros and cons to these ideas? What steps would be needed to get some of these implemented for this upcoming season?
I compare Pitt football to where the Pittsburgh Pirates were in the past in terms of struggling to get bodies into seats. I thought back to what they did, and still do today to get the casual fan to buy a ticket and watch them play on the weekend. Their solution has been promotional giveaways (bobble heads, t-shirts, etc.) to the first however many fans and fireworks. For some reason, Pittsburghers flock to those games and get there early to assure themselves the promotional gift. The spring game had a great turnout due in part to the free t-shirt giveaway.
Here is the schedule with corresponding promotions that could run that day to improve ticket sales:
September 5th Youngstown State – Bobble Head (all time great alumni)
October 10th Virginia – T-shirt giveaway(GOLD OUT)
October 29th North Carolina (night game) – Fireworks night
November 7th Notre Dame – Pitt rally towel
November 21st Louisville – T-shirt giveaway(BLUE OUT)
November 27th Miami – Bobble Head (all time great alumni)
Other ways to increase sales and interest could be to offer upper deck seats discounts to Elementary through High School aged children who walk up to the ticket window with their school colors/jerseys on. Then at some point during the game put the school names of those in attendance up on the scoreboard. This would help fill the upper deck as well as build a new young fan base.
I have no idea what the cost analysis for advertisement and production on these items would be, but selling out the stadium would be invaluable to the current players and recruits!
Fellow Lair members, what would be the pros and cons to these ideas? What steps would be needed to get some of these implemented for this upcoming season?
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