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Pitt/Stub Hub

Panther Al

Walk-on
Aug 31, 2008
73
61
18
Hard to tell on TV whether the attendance was anywhere between 40,000 to 50,000, however rather than complain that I want an on campus stadium which I think will eventually happen with the Gallagher/Barnes duo, my biggest complaint is why doesn't Pitt put its extra or lousy seats on Stub Hub? The bottom line is there is no denying atmosphere/full stadium helps get 4 and 5 star players which is what we need. We average about 2 or 3 a year and that's certainly not good enough to compete for championships so here's my suggestion.

To improve the atmosphere and sell more seats, (as mentioned yesterday), the athletic dept. needs to start dumping the lousy seats on Stub Hub. Stub hub showed barely any seats available for the YSU and if the attendance was 50,000 to be fair, that means 17,000 to 20,000 weren't sold and makes zero sense. In today's world, most fans who need seats buy off Stub Hub or ticket exchange NOT at the Pitt ticket window. I'm a former season ticket holder for the NY Jets and they dump on Stub hub and sell the seats all day long with success. The reason I know is who sells a row of seats 1-30 on Stub Hub. Last season, they were 4-12 and had 95% capacity or more at every game which is pretty good for a team that everyone knew was going to lousy. Keep in mind this was a team that had an 11 year waiting list for season tickets and blew through it when they introduced the PSL's for Metlife Stadium and lost many of their season ticket holders including me due to the PSL's costing $15,000 to $20,000 a seat or actual game tickets that got out of control. I still go to six games a year (no preseason which is a waste) and buy every game on Stub Hub.

The bottom line is Pitt tickets aren't expensive and if they put the bad seats on Stub Hub, there is no doubt they would sell them. Try the upper end zone which are always empty. If anything, they should be putting ALL of the extra tickets on Stub Hub especially when they play unattractive teams such as YSU or mid majors. If they go for a $ 1 a piece than so be it as those fans will buy more stuff inside the building rather than having an empty seat with the hope of possibly get them back for future games. Virginia isn't a bad team however people aren't flocking to see them. Try it for that game as well. We need juice in the building. Not aerial shots of empty yellow seats on ESPN. Recruiting is the name of the game in the college football. H2P!
 
I sold my pair for $100. Profit of over 90. You can't beat that return.
 
Glad you made money however I'm sure season ticket holders go because they are loyal fans and ultimately want a better environment which helps recruiting and gives us a chance to compete for championships. Again, nobody buys tickets through a ticket office. Fans purchase through Stub Hub
 
Again, nobody buys tickets through a ticket office. Fans purchase through Stub Hub

You know, no matter how many times you continue to say this it doesn't make it right. I mean you do realize that of the 49,900 tickets sold on Saturday (let's go with Pitt's number in this instance) that only 49,900 of them were sold through the ticket office and that at most probably a couple hundred, maybe 1,000 at most, were sold through StubHub, don't you?

At just about every sporting event or concert or anything like that tickets only get to StubHub AFTER someone bought them through the ticket office. The only exceptions are when the ticket office uses StubHub to try to essentially paper the house by allowing them to sell tickets for close to nothing, and even then vastly more tickets are typically sold through the ticket office than StubHub.

Again, tickets were available through the ticket office for $14. How much cheaper do you think they'd have to make them on StubHub, especially considering the fees that StubHub charges, for it to have made any sort of real difference in the number of people who bought tickets? Even if they were giving them away for free on StubHub (which of course would never happen because StubHub wouldn't make any money if they were free) how many more people do you think would have actually gone to the game? Not how many people may have downloaded a free ticket, how many of them do you think would have actually gone to the game?
 
I sold my pair for $100. Profit of over 90. You can't beat that return.
Wait, you sold two tickets for $100.. You made "over $90" your words, which means that you bought two tickets for $4.99 or less and someone paid $50. You are telling us someone paid $50 for a ticket that cost you $4.99? I am calling horse sh*t on that one.
 
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I was not dragging my son to this game with the heat. We were not staying overnight in Pittsburgh so he would have just complained the whole game making it miserable for me. So Thursday night I put them on stub hub fully thinking I would sell them to a scalper for like 10 bucks. Within a half hour they were gone for $100. Since I have already paid my $1200 for season tickets, I made a nice profit, but if you want to play math wizard and subtract the cost of 1 game of 6 I basically made back the cost of the ticket at the value of 50 bucks a piece against the total cost of 300 for the season. But then you have to factor turnpike tolls and gas. Not sure of the total there plus factoring in the cost of my ticket. I will let you tell me what the overall profit or loss was
 
StubHub includes their fees in the price of their tickets. I'm 50, and pretty much a technological idiot, but I have the StubHub app on my phone, and am on it every day, checking prices for different events. I haven't bought Pirates tickets in a year or so from the ticket office, I just get them on StubHub. Pitt would be wise to release a significant amount to StubHub on Wednesday for a Saturday game, while keeping some on hand for sale at the gate. It's not a matter of "how much cheaper can you make them", it's a matter of making it as easy as possible for people to get them.
 
He probably meant more people buy individual game tickets on Stubhub than through the ticket office. That's almost definitely true.
 
Marty and Sean Miller get it. Most fans buy on Stub Hub regardless of the sport because its easy and the price is at market value. If the market was set at $40 or $50 a tix for the YSU game, then they would have sold that many more seats on Stub Hub than the Pitt ticket window at Heinz. Think about it, how many people want to go to a game without seats and buy through a scalper. Not me as I bought phony tickets once before at a Knick game and it's not fun losing $400. Stub Hub is easy and you get the best price so my point is that Pitt should dump 5000 or so cheap tix on the site and see what happens. If it works, expand it. I sent an email to the ticket office as a suggestion because I want the stadium full as we need four and five star recruits who are certainly looking at other top local schools with great game day environments. Trust me, I hate Heinz Field and it's already been proven to be a failure because nobody moves off campus however we should try something different in order to improve the mess that SP put in place. I think Barnes and company are doing a great job thus far. H2P
 
Marty and Sean Miller get it. Most fans buy on Stub Hub regardless of the sport because its easy and the price is at market value. If the market was set at $40 or $50 a tix for the YSU game, then they would have sold that many more seats on Stub Hub than the Pitt ticket window at Heinz

If I stood on a corner in the North Side with stacks of free tickets, I'd probably get a couple dozen people to take them. Pitt is better served by charging a premium price for those who buy season tickets than caring one iota what happens with the bleachers.
 
Pitt could literally give away thousands of tickets and the stadium won't be chill for most games..

Hint, it's not the cost keeping people away... It's not caring about Pitt football.
 
I was not dragging my son to this game with the heat. We were not staying overnight in Pittsburgh so he would have just complained the whole game making it miserable for me. So Thursday night I put them on stub hub fully thinking I would sell them to a scalper for like 10 bucks. Within a half hour they were gone for $100. Since I have already paid my $1200 for season tickets, I made a nice profit, but if you want to play math wizard and subtract the cost of 1 game of 6 I basically made back the cost of the ticket at the value of 50 bucks a piece against the total cost of 300 for the season. But then you have to factor turnpike tolls and gas. Not sure of the total there plus factoring in the cost of my ticket. I will let you tell me what the overall profit or loss was
nah, doesn't seem all that important now to be honest. Glad it worked out for you. I took my two little ones to the game and the sun beat the hell out of us. You sir, chose wisely. Glad you made a profit.
 
Pitt could literally give away thousands of tickets and the stadium won't be chill for most games..

Hint, it's not the cost keeping people away... It's not caring about Pitt football.
Very few times have I actually enjoyed the "atmosphere" at Heinz field. Something with that freakin nightmare of a venue. Been to many huge steeler games and pitt games and the place just flat out sucks. Cant explain it. I mean 3 rivers, the biggest cookie cutter stadium of all time, brought so much more atmosphere than Heinz. Maybe the semi-closing of the open end will help in this regards, sure cant do any worse.
 
I think they care, considering recent performance. They drew what top 20 Ga Tech got after a monster year and similiar to Minn vs #2 TCU. The stadium is too big and they miscalculated in 2000 and didn't figure out a way to contract it from day one and now its too late to try. Everyone who knew anything about Pitt fb new Heinz was too large when they moved. Pitt was already taking a beating perception wise for Pitt stadium being half empty. If dumping them on stub hub creates a bigger avenue to pretty much 'donate' them. I'm for checking it.
 
Marty and Sean Miller get it. Most fans buy on Stub Hub regardless of the sport because its easy and the price is at market value. If the market was set at $40 or $50 a tix for the YSU game, then they would have sold that many more seats on Stub Hub than the Pitt ticket window at Heinz. Think about it, how many people want to go to a game without seats and buy through a scalper. Not me as I bought phony tickets once before at a Knick game and it's not fun losing $400. Stub Hub is easy and you get the best price so my point is that Pitt should dump 5000 or so cheap tix on the site and see what happens. If it works, expand it. I sent an email to the ticket office as a suggestion because I want the stadium full as we need four and five star recruits who are certainly looking at other top local schools with great game day environments. Trust me, I hate Heinz Field and it's already been proven to be a failure because nobody moves off campus however we should try something different in order to improve the mess that SP put in place. I think Barnes and company are doing a great job thus far. H2P

I don't get your logic, there is no demand for Pitt vs. Youngstown State football on Labor Day weekend so Pitt would have put 5,000 tickets on Stubhub and by kickoff there would have been 4,990 or so left on Stubhub. Pitt could have had someone walking around ribfest selling tickets and they still would have had the same amount of people in the stadium Saturday.

Also a majority of fans will only buy through the secondary markets(Stubhub & Ticketmaster Exchange) after shopping on the team website and seeing it's sold out and then are directed to the secondary site who is affiliated with the team.
 
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I don't get your logic, there is no demand for Pitt vs. Youngstown State football on Labor Day weekend so Pitt would have put 5,000 tickets on Stubhub and by kickoff there would have been 4,990 or so left on Stubhub. Pitt could have had someone walking around ribfest selling tickets and they still would have had the same amount of people in the stadium Saturday.

Also a majority of fans will only buy through the secondary markets(Stubhub & Ticketmaster Exchange) after shopping on the team website and seeing it's sold out and then are directed to the secondary site who is affiliated with the team.
Gets it.
 
Ok guys. There are currently roughly 8000 tickets on stub hub and 5000 on ticket exchange for the Jet/Browns game. Check at 12:45 pm on Sunday and talk to me then. If I'm wrong, I'll gladly admit it however I've been watching ticket activity for a while on Stub Hub and believe in the fact this is how most tickets are purchased in today's world. If I recall, Pitt had 1500 seats at this time prior to the game. If Pitt had 6500 available, maybe they would have moved them or better yet another 4000 seats. 13,000 is a big difference and the Jets are coming off a 4-12 campaign. h2p.
 
Panther al. Somewhat flawed argument though I am n ot completely dismissing your premise. In my case if I wouldn't have been able to sell my tickets off stubhub I would have pulled them off and attempted to sell them at the game
 
Ok guys. There are currently roughly 8000 tickets on stub hub and 5000 on ticket exchange for the Jet/Browns game. Check at 12:45 pm on Sunday and talk to me then. If I'm wrong, I'll gladly admit it however I've been watching ticket activity for a while on Stub Hub and believe in the fact this is how most tickets are purchased in today's world. If I recall, Pitt had 1500 seats at this time prior to the game. If Pitt had 6500 available, maybe they would have moved them or better yet another 4000 seats. 13,000 is a big difference and the Jets are coming off a 4-12 campaign. h2p.


So your "proof" that everyone buys tickets off of StubHub and not at the ticket office is that after the Jets sold 83,000 tickets through their ticket office there are somewhere between 8,000 and 13,000 tickets available, not sold, but available for purchase on the secondary market? And you still don't get how absolutely ridiculous your argument is yet?
 
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Ok guys. There are currently roughly 8000 tickets on stub hub and 5000 on ticket exchange for the Jet/Browns game. Check at 12:45 pm on Sunday and talk to me then. If I'm wrong, I'll gladly admit it however I've been watching ticket activity for a while on Stub Hub and believe in the fact this is how most tickets are purchased in today's world. If I recall, Pitt had 1500 seats at this time prior to the game. If Pitt had 6500 available, maybe they would have moved them or better yet another 4000 seats. 13,000 is a big difference and the Jets are coming off a 4-12 campaign. h2p.

First off the 8,000 stub hub tickets and 5,000 ticket exchange tickets overlap since a lot of sellers post them on both sites. Second the tickets being sold for the Jets/Browns are not unsold tickets, they're season tickets or partial season tickets that are being resold because no one wants to watch that game. Third you can't compare a NFL team like the Jets who sell 90% of their capacity via season tickets and 3 or 4 game partial season ticket packages with a college football team who sells 50%ish of their capacity via season tickets and partial packages.The Jets have a very limited number of single game tickets for sale so their fans will gravitate to Stub Hub or the NFL's ticket exchange since that's really the only way to get them.

I'm sorry to say there's not 6,500 savvy Stub Hub users in the Pittsburgh metro area who while searching the app and/or site see that there's Pitt vs. YSU tickets on the cheap and decide to goto the game.

You know what will solve attendance issues? Winning games and especially games that matter, like the Cincy game a few years ago.
 
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Nope because when those tickets are gone at 12:45 pm on Sunday you will apologize to me. Put 5000 tix out there and see what happens. U have nothing to lose. SP sat on 20,000 plus tix a game and never tried anything new. The bottom line is I want more fans in the building so we have a better atmosphere which hopefully will attract a number of 4 and 5 star players per class. Without them, we can't compete for championships.
 
Do you really think that if there are, say, 1,000 tickets on StubHub at 12:45 on Sunday that that will mean that 7,000 tickets were sold on StubHub? Because if so then your understanding of the way StubHub works is seriously lacking.

Which, given your thoughts on this whole topic is anything other than surprising.
 
Joe,

I've been a jet season ticket holder 35 years and we gave up our tickets three years ago because of the PSL. Instead, we buy on stub hub. I go to six or seven games a year so I know the market. The numbers don't lie and the building is full when the tix are gone on stub hub and tix exchange. I'm there and see it every week. What's your point?

Are you suggesting that more sports fans buy at the ticket window than stub hub? If so, you're nuts. Are you also in favor of an empty building which is embarrassing to Pitt on ESPN? It's a stub hub world and Pitt needs to try something different because it makes no sense to sit on 20,000 seats a game.
 
Pitt has dumped tickets on stubhub.
It didn't improve attendance.

Why?'because it's not the price of the tickets keeping people away.
It's because they do not care to go to a Pitt football game.
 
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Tarp the visitors side upper deck, and the upper deck in the end zone. End of story. 65,000 is reduced to 45,000-50,000, the lower bowls are fool and look a helluva lot better than it has in years.
 
I think they care, considering recent performance. They drew what top 20 Ga Tech got after a monster year and similiar to Minn vs #2 TCU. The stadium is too big and they miscalculated in 2000 and didn't figure out a way to contract it from day one and now its too late to try. Everyone who knew anything about Pitt fb new Heinz was too large when they moved. Pitt was already taking a beating perception wise for Pitt stadium being half empty. If dumping them on stub hub creates a bigger avenue to pretty much 'donate' them. I'm for checking it.
But we heard from kool-aid types that HF would produce constant sellouts, we'd have more fans than we ever got to PItt Stadium. How many years at that Rooney cheapo have we averaged over 52K??
 
Are you suggesting that more sports fans buy at the ticket window than stub hub? If so, you're nuts.

You keep bringing up your experience with the Jets. Do you not understand that the Jets SOLD 83,000 TICKETS AT THE TICKET OFFICE FOR THIS WEEKENDS GAME? If every single ticket that is available on StubHub right now sells for the game on Sunday that would mean that 75,000 MORE TICKETS WERE SOLD AT THE TICKET OFFICE THAN THROUGH STUBHUB. Do you not understand that 83,000 is greater than 8,000?

Do you also not understand that there are lots of tickets for every event that are posted on StubHub that do not get sold for any given event? Part of the reason that there are fewer and fewer tickets left there as game time approaches is because tickets are removed from sale there, not because they all got sold. For instance if someone has the physical tickets rather than a season ticket holder who can use the download function, those tickets cannot be sold on StubHub once it gets to be a couple days before game time. When those tickets get removed it doesn't mean they've sold, it means that they can not physically be sold and delivered in the time remaining before the game starts. Or someone might change their mind and decide to go to the game so they remove the tickets from StubHub, in which case even though the tickets were posted there they didn't sell there. Or someone might find a friend or family member who wants the tickets so they remove them from StubHub and sell them "privately" (I done that before), in which case again even though the tickets were posted on StubHub they didn't sell there. And so on.

For someone who uses StubHub all the time you really don't seem to understand how it actually works.
 
I get how stub hub works and it sounds like you've been to a lot of jet games so I suppose I don't know what I'm talking about. Whether it's a fan or the jets selling the seats on stub hub, the bottom line is its about filling the stadium. The jets have been extremely successful doing it and to be honest it has zero affect on whether they sign free agents or not. It's the opposite w Pitt as game day atmosphere plays a role in landing 4 and 5 star players whether we like it or not. Btw, did you actually look at the jet/Browns game online? Did you see how many seats 1-16 or 1-25 seats were available? Do you think that's the average fan like u and I selling those? If so, you're crazy. I told you to check at 12:45 pm on Sunday because that's when nothing will be available. Yes, I know they take the tickets off at 1:00 pm and will gladly admit I'm wrong if there are tons of seats available which is why I said to check at 12:45 pm Sunday.

Your numbers mean nothing because my point all along is to get Heinz full/more people into the building. Clearly it hasn't worked and am tired of Heinz affecting our recruiting when we have to compete w top local schools such as OSU, PSU, ND, PSU, UM, etc who play to a strong environment. My goal is to make it easier for fans to buy tickets on stub hub vs walking up to the ticket office and more importantly purchase them at market value. In my opinion, it would work and think we could move more tix. Like I said, the fact that there were no tickets available on stub hub for the YSU game while the ticket office is sitting on 20,000 seats makes zero sense. Btw, are you a Steelers fan as well?
 
Very few times have I actually enjoyed the "atmosphere" at Heinz field. Something with that freakin nightmare of a venue. Been to many huge steeler games and pitt games and the place just flat out sucks. Cant explain it. I mean 3 rivers, the biggest cookie cutter stadium of all time, brought so much more atmosphere than Heinz. Maybe the semi-closing of the open end will help in this regards, sure cant do any worse.
Not sure what "Huge" games you've been too because when Heinz Field is pumpin, the Terrible Towels are wavin and Black n Yellow is blarin through the speakers there isn't a better venue or sight in professional sports.
 
Panther Al makes no sense. How can the Jets possibly be selling tickets on Stubhub when they have a reseller agreement with Ticketmaster? How about some logic to this argument and Panther AL is bringing none to this conversation
 
Pitt could literally give away thousands of tickets and the stadium won't be chill for most games..

Hint, it's not the cost keeping people away... It's not caring about Pitt football.

The sobering reality is if Scott Barnes held a press conference and announced tickets would no longer be collected and anybody can come to Pitt games for free and sit wherever they want, attendance would be roughly the same as it is now.

Ticket price is not keeping anybody from Pitt games. There just arent enough people who care enough about Pitt to go to their games, even if they were free. The best word to describes the local fanbase in Pgh is apathetic. Pitt football is #4 here. People, even Pitt alums and students just dont care.

The best way to increase attendance is to convince the 3 major pro teams to move to anothet city. The Pitt football and bball games will be packed. I dont think that's going to happen though.
 
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Not sure what "Huge" games you've been too because when Heinz Field is pumpin, the Terrible Towels are wavin and Black n Yellow is blarin through the speakers there isn't a better venue or sight in professional sports.
You think Heinz field is the best venue in professional sports? WOW, I don't even know how to respond. Let's just agree to disagree on that one.
 
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