I never heard an attendance figure yesterday but the upper stands were nicely filled in for a Holiday weekend against an FCS opponent. 55,000,50,000......whatever but people arrived earlier and stayed later.
The Beer was a huge success with zero problems by my estimate. I sure saw about 35% of the crowd with one or two beers, it generated revenue to pay for the scholarships, there were no fights. I saw a few happy drunks that seemed a tad more enthusiastic on borderline nice plays. It was a financial and non-event success. Getting a beer was seemless as there were a ton of registers open. Their serving methods for drafts where it's filled from the bottom with a needle for "no head, ice cold" was great.
Field looked great. Dark Green with a perfect simple Logo at mid--field.
Simple thing but all the ushers in Pitt Logos was a nice touch. Little things like tat make one feel at home and not a visitor. Same with entry ways. Workers more friendly than I ever remember.
Tailgating to my eye looked much more involved than I remember in past years. My test in a Gold lot is how fast it fills up compared to game time. We are usually the first 10% that show up and we kept our usual schedule and were feeling late to the party yesterday in a good way. This might be a soft measurement for people's mood of the program but I would give it an A+. More tables, food, games being played and the mood of the fan base was fun and optimistic.
I sat next to a Villanova fan who happens to be a businessman who travels all over and has been to all kinds of College Football Events. He loved Heinz Field and thought it might be one of the nicest fields he has ever been to. I really pushed back on this one to measure him just trying to make me feel better. He noted the view was second to none. The seats were really comfortable. The technology and video was incredible for college. The newer fields ( for pros) makes one feel like they are walking into an aquarium or exhibit and Heinz found the balance of still feeling like you were outside and it pushed the limits of just watching raw football with having all the creature comforts.he went on and on that it's a shame we didn't have a warmer climate because the Hotel Situation was near perfect to accomadate huge events and so walkable from downtown. He was a no BS type of guy and went on about how we would be nuts to not want to play at Heinz. Coincidentally, he was doing business with UPMC this week, spent a lot of time in Oakland ( many visits over the years ) and said we might be overestimating a home field advantage on-campus. I gave him 10 reasons to be on-campus and he refuted every single one with why downtown. Interesting perspective.
One thing is so shockingly obvious. We can't have kid friendly games in front of Heinz. The music and BBQ sure makes it feel big time and not Chucky Cheese. I sure hope there is some food, entertainment, beer garden to meet friends in the weeks to come. Removing all the kid stuff is a must and I want to emphasize I'm a parent and our my friends all have kids.
Yesterday was a success. Really had a fun time with all the non-football things.
The Beer was a huge success with zero problems by my estimate. I sure saw about 35% of the crowd with one or two beers, it generated revenue to pay for the scholarships, there were no fights. I saw a few happy drunks that seemed a tad more enthusiastic on borderline nice plays. It was a financial and non-event success. Getting a beer was seemless as there were a ton of registers open. Their serving methods for drafts where it's filled from the bottom with a needle for "no head, ice cold" was great.
Field looked great. Dark Green with a perfect simple Logo at mid--field.
Simple thing but all the ushers in Pitt Logos was a nice touch. Little things like tat make one feel at home and not a visitor. Same with entry ways. Workers more friendly than I ever remember.
Tailgating to my eye looked much more involved than I remember in past years. My test in a Gold lot is how fast it fills up compared to game time. We are usually the first 10% that show up and we kept our usual schedule and were feeling late to the party yesterday in a good way. This might be a soft measurement for people's mood of the program but I would give it an A+. More tables, food, games being played and the mood of the fan base was fun and optimistic.
I sat next to a Villanova fan who happens to be a businessman who travels all over and has been to all kinds of College Football Events. He loved Heinz Field and thought it might be one of the nicest fields he has ever been to. I really pushed back on this one to measure him just trying to make me feel better. He noted the view was second to none. The seats were really comfortable. The technology and video was incredible for college. The newer fields ( for pros) makes one feel like they are walking into an aquarium or exhibit and Heinz found the balance of still feeling like you were outside and it pushed the limits of just watching raw football with having all the creature comforts.he went on and on that it's a shame we didn't have a warmer climate because the Hotel Situation was near perfect to accomadate huge events and so walkable from downtown. He was a no BS type of guy and went on about how we would be nuts to not want to play at Heinz. Coincidentally, he was doing business with UPMC this week, spent a lot of time in Oakland ( many visits over the years ) and said we might be overestimating a home field advantage on-campus. I gave him 10 reasons to be on-campus and he refuted every single one with why downtown. Interesting perspective.
One thing is so shockingly obvious. We can't have kid friendly games in front of Heinz. The music and BBQ sure makes it feel big time and not Chucky Cheese. I sure hope there is some food, entertainment, beer garden to meet friends in the weeks to come. Removing all the kid stuff is a must and I want to emphasize I'm a parent and our my friends all have kids.
Yesterday was a success. Really had a fun time with all the non-football things.
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