The Pitt fan is great, the team has not reciprocated
- Thread starter Saboteur
- Start date
you're saying college teams in pro-towns draw as well as college teams that are located in rural areas and/or away from pro-towns? If so, this has been refuted many times with data
I’m saying our crowds aren’t a function of so many other things to do in pittsburgh.
It’s a function of apathy towards Pitt athletics from locals
The same locals who may have a vested interest in , say penn state and will travel a couple hours to watch them live .
It’s a choice they are making to leave their pro cities to watch college football.
It’s a lazy argument to say “there’s nothing else to
Do”
I loathe the Bob Nutting theory of business economics. Pitt football is a business. The onus is and rightfully should be on the business to produce a product that drives sales without gimmicks like 'high octane', especially since the city environment is one where a dollar can be spent elseware on any given weekend, or merely saved for something like a family vacation or christmas presents. It is never the consumer's fault if a product is crap, except if the consumer continues to feed money into a crappy product.
PS has a bunch of branch campuses in Western PA and PS alumni are going to support PS. You also have to factor in WV grads living in Western PA. Those 2 groups are never going to support Pitt no matter how many games we win. The people living in Pittsburgh who are football fans, but have no affiliation to a University are the ones that we need to get on board.
Absolutely true, at the level Pitt chooses to position their program. If winning shouldn't matter to get support, then don't be in a P5 conference, or even any FBS (or FCS for that matter). Go Div 3. Ah, but then there is no money for the foo-foo sports that academics feel good about having.
They want the free money from being an ACC member. Just like Bob Nutting wants the free money for owning an MLB team.
And it's this rational from Pitt fans that build a roadblock from Pitt moving forward.
Again, Pitt definitely has a hand in it, but so do the fans with this attitude. Not all businesses are a one size fits all if you want to use that analogy. Support, fans in the seats, and donations play a big part in getting recruits to come to your school to improve the on the field product. They aren't buying free agents, like other sports.
Yes but there are plenty of Pitt grads and branch campus folks in the region
Non-afffiliated football fans aren’t the target.
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You can't discount the "fake news" brought to you by the Pittsburgh media who has bashed Pitt football for 40+ years.
I'll never forget when I was in college and bought a newspaper after Pitt had defeated Syracuse in '78 w/ a sports front page "opinion" column - though not labeled as "opinion" - by Smizik ranting on how Pitt football was now finally dead after its 6 years of glory after a 1-point win against a hapless Syracuse team - even featuring a big picture of Trocano on his back.
When the average fan who doesn't know any better listens to guys like Cook, Smizik and others taking their rants as "truths" - what do you expect?? 45k fans at the 1979 Syracuse game in Pitt Stadium and 45k fans for VTech in 2018.
