E. 34,127.5
SMF thought you asked a serious question and has been running the numbers from the time of you post until now and has narrowed it down to a range 37k-38k.
Last edited:
ot: your reaction to the news the pirates are quitting pittsburgh
- Thread starter benchwarmer04
- Start date
E. 34,127.5
SMF thought you asked a serious question and has been running the numbers from the time of you post until now and has narrowed it down to a range 37k-38k.
I hope ESPN hires him to be ACCN's answer to SECN's Marty Smith.
Well, Paterno was. Loudly and hypocritically, because he was getting his ass handed to him by the likes of Sherrill. He was every bit as dirty if not much more so (including enabling child rape), as the world now knows, but squeaked like a rusty hinge. So his media minions here obeyed, and hacks like Smizik begin causing trouble, seeking for and publicizing Pitt liberty-taking or dirty laundry, real and imagined. Pitt admin panicked, and caved, and began crippling self- sanctioning that never has ended.
Last edited:
Well it is funny (I agree with what you mostly said by the way) but yeah....we were pretty good at it, beating PSU and OSU and schools like that at their own game. What I don't get about Smizik, he was a Pitt grad, hell didn't he coach one of the teams against Myron Cope in one of Pitt's spring games back then? I don't know what happened with Pitt and the local media. A lot of it was obviously PSU related, as they had a journalism school and Pitt really didn't. But man, don't know what happened? Even to this day, and we see on these boards, we seem more worried about what the Ron Cook's of the world will right rather than winning, however or whatever it takes.
Story i heard, piecing things ive heard from multiple guys involved in Pgh sports media over the years, it's a combo. And all hearsay, take what's worth. For one, Bruce Keidan was running the sports for those papers then, had a big dislike for Pitt. He didn't go to PSU but had spent a lot of time working at a philly paper and had gone to a military academy, both lending itself to being influenced by the PSU myth. So there is that. Also, Pitt had rather quickly gone from the outhouse to the penthouse of college football, and that meant more national exposure, which meant more national media, which apparently got first dibs in the cramped Pitt stadium press box and with star players and coaches. Locals like Bob felt shouldered out by that and subsequently bitter. Age wise they also identified with Paterno as well, a measure of "get offa my lawn" set in. Plus other reporters and columnists were not Pitt guy's and held contempt for Pitt, Bob got meetooitus. Also, Paterno and the Rooneys were tight. Disobey paterno at your peril, as John Clayton of ESPN fame found out when a reporter in Pgh. That all said, and this was emphasized, quite fairly i think, Pitt was indeed bumbling and incompetent and, yeah, dirty at times, and deserved a lot of the ripping. Of course so did PSU and many other schools, but things were kept quiet in those towns.
No, it doesn't. First of all, in most years it only happens twice MAXIMUM, not on average. Secondly, it only happens twice a year if you assume that every game that we play in September would be played at some other time if it wasn't for the Pirates. And anyone who pays any attention to what time our games start in October and November knows that that's wrong.
Based on what actually happens with game times, half the games that you assume would be at "better" times would actually start at noon anyway. Now that might change some going forward with the new network and probably a different set of time slots to fill, but I simply cannot believe that someone who pays as much attention to game times as you do could post something so obviously wrong about game times.
Pirates leaving Pittsburgh?
From the looks of those crowds, most must believe they already LEFT!!!
From the looks of those crowds, most must believe they already LEFT!!!
I remember an interview with Beano Cook and he told a story about one of the old tyme Post Gazette or Press editors commenting that there was only positive coverage for Penn State and WVU because they wanted to sell more Sunday papers in those areas.
37k - 38k.. We'd lose a few out of towners that come in and go home the same day but we'd get much more of the casual pitt fan that wants to go to a game on a Saturday afternoon and doesn't want to leave their house at 10:30am to do so.. lots of folks with kiddos playing fall sports on Saturday mornings that like their kids more than college football.
realistically, i'd say worst case, 3,000 more, optimistically, closer to 5k more..
we can debate this all day, not sure I can prove you wrong nor do I think you can prove me wrong. so we can either agree to disagree or just continue on thinking that we are right and the other is wrong.
I choose the latter..
We can look at attendance from start times
Short answer is my money on not Correlation between noon afternoon starts
Just curious...what happened between Clayton and Paterno? I never heard a story about those two.
If we had a program like Clemson's, the seats would be filled whether 8am or 8pm starts or anywhere in the middle.
I'll buy the "dedicated soccer parents" angle for holding down some of the attendance for noon games. Maybe in the vacuum of our sucky program, they're the difference between 32 and 36 thousand.
But there are plenty more front runner fans who don't have kids. They'd happily fill the gap and then some for noon games that the Parents of the Year candidates are dutifully turning down.
Sadly, Pitt football is simply too unappealing right now to attract much of anyone beyond the core.
tough task. I can point to last year's va tech game, 44k strong for an evening game where pitt wasn't exactly ranked. nice crowd, everyone was happy. game earlier in year was at 3:30pm, duke, weak crowd.. you can point to various reasons why.
all games in '17 were either noon or 1pm or the horrid thur night game. In '16, we got 34k for cuse coming off 2 wins for a noon game but had 45k for Marshall for a Saturday evening game. to easy to cherry pick games to be honest..
Only true way I think would be to pick an opener scrimmage against FCS opponents and compare but again, they are all usually nooners except for that FSU opener a few years back which was a night game but again, comparing Florida st vs old dominion or ysu isn't exactly apples to apples..
If there's a drizzle, if its to cold, or to hot, or just sunny, windy, more rain than a drizzle cut those numbers back 12.56%
the best comparison I can see, with little variances is dating back to 2015, L'ville at home late in season, 3:30 pm kickoff and we get 42.1k. next week, coming off a win, against The U, noon kickoff time (you'd imagine a bigger crowd right?), we get 40.1k. 2,000 less to a bigger game, against a bigger opponent and I remember that game, it was sunny, a tad cooler but a real nice day for late November in Pittsburgh, unordinarily nice..
but again, easy to cherry pick games to support your argument. I admit this..
but again, easy to cherry pick games to support your argument. I admit this..
Pitt football just isn't a priority for anyone but a small core of fans. A lot of those "die hards" are even quick to pass if the weather is anything but optimal. Other than Albany, I think it rained for every home game last year. So no surprise that the attendance sucked. PSU and VT were the only games to draw north of 40k.
you know what, looking at last year's va tech game, that was cold as hell and we actually got a nice crowd for that game. 44k for a game where we were coming in at 5-4 against a terrible va tech game? That game was real cold cause I remember having to bring a blanket in for my two little kids and my niece (not for me, I promise, im a bad ass, I don't need a blanket).
And looking at a lot of our fcs scrimmage openers on labor day when the sun was 25' over Heinz and it was 235% humidity, I see some really nice crowds over the last few years.. So your point is kind of wrong. Pitt nation comes out in the sun and the cold.
the rain keeps us away, i'll give you that one. in '17, we played virginia at home, rainy day (miserable cold rain too). they said 30k showed up but in reality, there were134 people total, I could count them. I was there and I was questioning that decision.
yeah, we had bad luck with mother nature last year and I reluctantly admit, yinzer nation doesn't like rain, at all. Cuse game was rain, think the duke game was miserable.
pitt vs ga tech game was nice weather. no excuse for only getting 35k for that game. maybe the thrashing the week before against Tickle Monster U dampened our spirits..
pittdan77
Athletic Director
Honestly, I'd feel bad for whoever eventually gets stuck with the Pirates.
If the Pirates were to leave town, Zambeli would have to lay off 1/4 of their staff.
Pittsburgh sucks as a sports town unless you win.
Wait until the PENS and Steelers slide more and watch how many loyal fan show up?
I hate them but atleast the Philly fans showed up when their team su-ked to boo them!
Wait until the PENS and Steelers slide more and watch how many loyal fan show up?
I hate them but atleast the Philly fans showed up when their team su-ked to boo them!
I wouldn't have even thought that you'd believe something that obviously false, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
You're clueless on every topic you boviate about...you're the great boviator....keep boviating....we're all laughing at you.
Never let it be said that you weren't willing to stand up for someone posting something so obviously wrong simply because you think it helps make your point.
Boviator 2....Soulfood
Why do some of you guys get so angry at such posts? Of course they're bunk. My posts calling for Pitt to act like the successful sports schools as well. Of course none of this will ever happen. Pitt couldn't give a flying f***. Just let us have our fun fantasizing, and be quietly smug in your deluded self-assurance that perennial clean losing in sports turns your "P-I-T-T" degrees into "Y-A-L-E" degrees. You'll never be convinced otherwise, but you won, we suck and always will, congrats.
Not angry at all in fact lol at SMF and his ridiculously funny posts...
It was complete bunk
Yeah, of course they are, mine too, we're Pitt fans so it's all futile, we're all just on here until the coffee finishes brewing, or the parkway traffic starts moving again or whatever. I never understand the vitriol over some, especially by the posters on the side of the Pitt admin... those guys won. Of course, "winning" means Pitt is a loser, but these days it's more important to win the internet I guess.
Nothing SmF, or other posters who simply would like to see Pitt football or hoops have one glorious day in the sun in the remainder of our lifetimes, will ever happen. And if any random portion ever did, you can bet it was accident and not design, and Pitt will shortly F it up (like we did with Jamie and basketball).
I thought they've been gone for at least 25 years. How does that team manage to stay in business?? The $15 beers?
We had a program like that once. The seats weren't filled.
Billionaire playboy owners from the other teams want their teams to win, so pay the Nuttings to stink.
That was a generation ago when the Steelers won 4 of 6 super bowls, and the region was in economic death throes, people generally didn't have or spend as much on discretionary money for entertainment, and sports was only a niche entertainment option anyway for most.
All those things have changed now, especially (winning) sports becoming the central point of mainstream entertainment.
This region goes gaga over winning sports like never before. The Pens or Steelers (and the Pirates, every 30 years) simply making the playoffs puts the region on high alert. The TV news, newspapers and other media literally stop everything else to breathlessly follow and hype it. Each newscast ... not the sports segment but the main news ... begins with dramatic music and a screen graphic of "Run to The Cup!" Or "Road to Super Bowl XYZ!" And whatever 'breaking news' can be conjured to get people jazzed. "Here's a live shot of the Pens equipment managers loading Evgeni Malkin's sticks for the bus to the airport!"
That would be Pitt as well, if in the college football playoff or NCAA final four.
These are all irrefutable facts, but since these things will never happen, thanks to Pitt having zero interest in them happening, posters who want to win the internet can smugly call it bunk.
Last edited:
