Lykens Has some very hard decisions to make
- Thread starter joefromlancaster
- Start date
What the hell are they going to have a heart to heart with UPMC about? Sponsoring tarps?
Rice might not even get to 30K.
One thing has been proven, power conference teams with big rankings don't draw squat from the local casual fans. Pitt might as well schedule lower rung G5 and build up its win total. The same Pitt fans that were there for YSU were pretty much there for OSU. Pitt is better off trying to create some sort of buzz with inflated win totals than relying on high caliber opponents to sell tickets.
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The lower bowl is sold out. Student tickets are sold out. You can't move the upper deck people down because the seats in the lowers are sold. The people just don't show up.
The tickets are too cheap so it's not a big deal. Supply greatly outweighs demand so prices stay depressed.
They might as well double or triple donation amounts and put them on every ticket in the stadium. You'll still get the same 30k fans and make more money.
Tarping won't solve anything because Heinz is a hell hole for Pitt football.
The tickets are too cheap so it's not a big deal. Supply greatly outweighs demand so prices stay depressed.
They might as well double or triple donation amounts and put them on every ticket in the stadium. You'll still get the same 30k fans and make more money.
Tarping won't solve anything because Heinz is a hell hole for Pitt football.
Yep, pretty much. However, a few Einsteins think it's their god given right to see Pitt play a tough schedule because they paid $250 for season tickets.
There is no benefit to this program playing the OOC they play. None, zero, nada. They should into conference play 3-1 or 4-0 every year. Let people make fun of the easy schedule. Wins are what matter.
For what it is worth, if you go to the Pitt web site and search for tickets for the Rice and NC State games the only seats it shows you are in the upper level.
It's always sold out, people just don't go. Season tickets cost nothing.
Reduce the size of Heinz to 50k, charge more for seats, give people with the most priority points first choice on their seats and then work your way down to season ticket holders with no donations. The PS game is the big carrot for next year. Less supply and more demand should drive up the prices. The only way to get a ticket to that game is via season tickets.
Joe has a good point. Not sure how you'd pull this off without pissing off an already edgy fan base. The reseating at the Pete when it was close to selling out was not popular. Can you imagine asking someone to give up their seats in Heinz right now?
Lol, Lykens??
Kudos to whoever gets meyou're a bo$$
LOL. Honestly, I thought that is what the OP had in mind when they wrote that.
If I were to guess there are maybe 2-3k people total that attend most home games in the Endzone Upper Deck and Visitors Side Upper Deck. It is not like we are moving 10-15k people.
That's fine, but again, the fan base right now is edgy. I'm not saying tarping the seats is a bad idea, but I'm not sure how you pull it off without pissing off those loyal season ticket holders.
And @Joe the Panther Fan is right - who/how do you displace others in the lower bowl?
If they don't start playing better, you can tarp the whole damned stadium.
Cruzer
Cruzer
How about Pittsburgh just start understanding that games like Duke GT and UNC are actually more important than the big 3 rivalry games... or at the very least start paying attention to Winn the conference as THE route to success... I realize OSU isn't conference either but holy hell way to show ignorance collectively by only showing for "big" games that mean nothing other then bragging rights....
Everything pisses someone off . I guess your choice is for your team to play in a stadium that looks and feels empty or a stadium that looks like there's actually fans at .
Believe it or not the few thousand who have tickets in the North End Zone like sitting there.
They're similar to the people who move away from populated areas to get away from people. If you "jammed" them in other sections they probably wouldnt attend the game. Lots of them have kids who like the space in the North End Zone!
Years ago we alternated our seats to sit with some friends in the North End Zone since we had more than one set of tickets.
The lower bowl is not exactly "sold out." The athletic department gives corporate sponsors scores of tickets (more tickets than what should be given) in the lower bowl simply because they have too many tickets to sell, so instead of giving them, say 10 tickets, they get 100.....thinking maybe they'll get used but they don't. The 2 seats next to me are corporate-owned and they've only been filled 3 times in 3 years.
That is part of the reason you see so many no-shows. Pitt fans don't have those seats. Corporations do and they're only using them for PSU or ND.
There are probably 200 people that sit there. Who cares if we tarp that section? 150 of them will buy tickets somewhere else and maybe 50 get upset upset and dont renew. Not a big deal.
She needs to start building the fan base and raising money.
I want an on campus stadium and f* all of you that tell me I am crazy and its pointless. But having said that, we currently do not have one. She needs to start with the students and make those bus rides and time spent at the games memorable. How, well she is paid the big bucks to do that. Then, start kissing some a$$ for to the fans that continue to go to the games and get disappointed before they start to leave. Next, find out who the people were that were pissed and never came back. Find out what it takes to get them back and get a plan in place. Next, hit every big $$ donor to the university.
Tarping the stadium sticks a band aid on the real issue. She needs to fix the real issue.
Oh yeah, Nard and Gallagher(sp?) aren't off the hook either, but that is for another thread.
I want an on campus stadium and f* all of you that tell me I am crazy and its pointless. But having said that, we currently do not have one. She needs to start with the students and make those bus rides and time spent at the games memorable. How, well she is paid the big bucks to do that. Then, start kissing some a$$ for to the fans that continue to go to the games and get disappointed before they start to leave. Next, find out who the people were that were pissed and never came back. Find out what it takes to get them back and get a plan in place. Next, hit every big $$ donor to the university.
Tarping the stadium sticks a band aid on the real issue. She needs to fix the real issue.
Oh yeah, Nard and Gallagher(sp?) aren't off the hook either, but that is for another thread.
200 show but there are alot more who have season tickets who show up on and off. Thats why they buy those cheap North End Zone tickets because they go to some games not all of them!
Years back PITT sent letters to North End Zone ticket holders telling them they had to select other seats since North End Zone season tickets wont be sold.
We had North End Zone season tickets in addition to others and recieved the letter.
PITT North End Zone people put up a fight and PITT decided to scrap that plan so I think its more than 200 people who would be impacted.
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My group has 8 Club seats currently. We have had them for years. I can tell you right now that is they doubled or Tripled donation levels at this point in time, they would lose a number of people in my group of 8. I might still get my ticket because my dumb ass is a die hard fan and must like punishment but there is simply no way you can or should raise donation levels at this time on all seats.
Agree totally with the bolded underlined part. There are only about 3 teams that will cause Fans to come out and they are ND, Penn St and WVU. That's it. We had a Top 10 team coming in and we might have had 40K there. I was embarrassed as a fan prior to the game starting and then with the performance I was even more embarrassed.
Yeah, I don't think you are getting this.
1. Pitt has to make money. They are not going to pass up money because their fans might sell tickets on the secondary market.
2. Pitt can control the initial sales and who sale is available to.
3. If their season ticket holders and alumni groups, etc. don't pre-request extra tickets, they don't sell anymore tickets to lower level games.
4. If Pitt has the opportunity to sell 20k tickets to PSU, WVU, and ND fans, because Pitt fans won't buy those tickets, it would be irresponsible not to sell those tickets.
What happens now is those fanbases either buy season tickets to get better seats or they buy off the secondary market from our fans and season ticket holders, who are smart enough to request the tickets and then make money off the sale. There is no chance on Earth Pitt is going to pass up selling 10s of thousands of tickets. They just don't need to offer them for games like Rice, when we know there is absolutely 0 chance they get sold or filled in.
I have been saying this for years. Stacking wins is far, far more important than getting above average P5 opponents on home and homes and probably losing. Hell, what would beating Oklahoma State have even done for us either year? The kids we are recruiting don't even have OKSt on their radar. We aren't even remotely close to playoff consideration, so strength of schedule means nothing. It *maybe* draws another 6-8k fans than Akron. Of course, getting absolutely embarrassed costs you at least another few thousands fans the rest of the season. It is incredibly stupid.
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Have to say after what has been seen in recent years, if the ooc game can't be ND, WVU or PSU, may as well schedule the worst you can find to at least try to guarantee wins. The crowds will not be good either way so at least win the games.
pittdan77
Athletic Director
PSU has scheduled crap OOC games for years and brags that they are only playing FBS schools. It kept the program afloat through sanctions and nationally, nobody cares. Just see "double digit wins".
Just close upper decks except maybe the 50 yard line sections and open the rest up when there's actually demand for tickets . Some genius at Pitt can figure it out .
Attendance wise, fans really do need to take some blame. Simply, they don't show up. We see it on here, tons of excuses about why you can't make a game.
Remember last year after beating #2 Clemson, then getting 35k for the final two hole games after that?
Remember two years ago when pitt was 6-1 and 4-0 going into a huge ACC division game against UNC on a Thursday night, and we drew 43k?
2009, pitt was ranked 14th, was 7-1 and undefeated in conference and played Syracuse at home. 46k.
We have a crappy fanbase that generally can't be bothered to show up. Even if pitt was going undefeated, outside of nd, wvu, PSU and de facto championship games like the cincy game, pitt will average 40-45k at most.
Remember last year after beating #2 Clemson, then getting 35k for the final two hole games after that?
Remember two years ago when pitt was 6-1 and 4-0 going into a huge ACC division game against UNC on a Thursday night, and we drew 43k?
2009, pitt was ranked 14th, was 7-1 and undefeated in conference and played Syracuse at home. 46k.
We have a crappy fanbase that generally can't be bothered to show up. Even if pitt was going undefeated, outside of nd, wvu, PSU and de facto championship games like the cincy game, pitt will average 40-45k at most.
Pitt needs to cultivate its student base into their fans for the future . They've failed to do this , this isn't the fans fault this is Pitts fault . Stop blaming the customer because your business sucks , fix it or get out of that business if your not satisfied with the returns your getting .
Pitt athletics deserves the support they're getting , the fans of Pitt athletics are the ones getting a bad deal .
My point is that even when they don't suck, fans still don't show up.
Pitt doesn't have an extra 30K fans who are going to say, "Woah, we beat Clemson, let me buy tickets for the Duke and Syracuse games so I can watch the team at Heinz in 40 degree weather instead of my 55 inch HDTV."
Pitt has 30K diehards. Thats about it. If we become Alabama, we'll grow that fanbase. 8-4, 9-3, 7-5 doesn't move the needle a hundredth of an inch. Yinzers arent going to give up time and money to attend a Pitt game they can watch on TV. Become Alabama or Ohio State and maybe we can get 50K-60K to every home game and since thats not going to happen we need to figure a way for 30K-45K to look and feel better.
Well, as a ticket holder who sits on the 30 on the home side upper level, I can tell you I would be extremely unhappy if I was relocated to the lower level in a corner.
You also have to factor in some people go to a HS football game on Friday and then the Stillers game on Sunday. They need to have one day not consumed by footbaw. Also, if the Steelers sucked, maybe Pitt would get better attendance. In 2003 when Pitt had great attendance, the Steelers finished 6-10.
You can sit in the same place on the visitors side. Or you can buy good lower seats. Doesn't have to be lower corner. Having 70K seats is convenient for fans who dont care about atmosphere but you cant cater to fans who cry because they cant have an entire section for themselves.
1) Pitt had a good team coming back, led by a superstar (Fitzgerald).
2) A very good home schedule.
3) Steelers were down.
That is the formula Pitt needs.
They need to turn students into dieheart fans who become the future STH and obviously they've failed miserably over the yrs in doing so . Pitt has a large enough alumni base to easily fill up HF if Fb was really important to the university .
The Steelers and all the other pro teams represent WPa , Pitt represents its alumni just because you live in WPa doesn't mean it's your college team . It all starts with the students .
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