Where are the Alumni?
- Thread starter Fredact
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I guarantee that 100% of Pitt fans know that basketball season tickets and single game tickets are available.
Literally, 100%.
The funny thing is that you have spent years bitching that Pitt charges way too much for basketball tickets, and now all of the sudden you think that tickets are so cheap that if only people knew about them they would be flocking to the Petersen Center in droves.
And yet the price of the tickets is basically the same.
No. Those upper deck tickets were around $500 for some really bad teams. They are now $250. And I guarantee very few Pitt fans know they are that cheap. Very few fans also know who we have at home. A marketing campaign saying you get Duke, UNC, Syr for as low as $250, people would buy that. Heck, some Yinzer Duke fans would buy that and go to some other Pitt games. Tickets were so expensive during the Dixon 2 and Stallings days that most people just said eff it and never came back. Now we have a good team, a good schedule and cheap tickets and no marketing.
They do plenty of marking to people who pay attention. No matter how much you think otherwise, you can't make people buy tickets that they don't want.
But hey, I got my Pitt women's season ticket this year for $35. Now that is at something of a discount for returning season ticket holders, but you could buy a new season ticket for $50. If only Pitt had marketed those tickets properly they'd have to beat the fans back with a stick.
Or at least I assume they would if I thought the way that you do.
I mean we just played an SEC team and everyone knows that tickets are available, and there were still only a couple thousand people actually in the building. Better than the women's game crowd of a couple hundred, but the principle is the same. Everyone, literally everyone, knows that tickets are available. They just don't have any interest in buying them.
Yes
And every single alumni who ever pays attention knows they are available
Stop doubling down on stupid for a change
Cant compare with women's basketball. It has no fanbase at all. Similar to soccer or softball or baseball. Actually probably less than those sports. Pitt basketball has a big fanbase in that there are 50K or so people within an hour of Pittsburgh who will turn on the TV and root for them. They need to sell to those people and let them know the value. Jimmy from Wexford might be a Pitt grad and might take his son to 1-2 games per year but had he been marketed to know and realized tickets were dirt cheap for Duke and UNC, he may have bought them
If Jimmie from Wexford was a Pitt grad and he takes his kids to 1-2 games per season he has been offered the chance to buy Pitt season tickets literally dozens of times since the summer.
It's like sometimes when you post you have no idea that what you are posting is actually a point in favor of the person you are arguing against.
That guy is too busy to care to look up how much tickets are. When he was at the Pitt/FSU football game, they should have been shoving tickets down his throat and running constant adds. "Duke, UNC, Syr and 15 other games" for $250. You arent poor so go see Billy at Gate A and buy them."
So he's too busy to take 30 seconds to see how much tickets cost, but he's not too busy to spend four hours on a random weeknight going to a basketball game.
Like I said, sometimes you have no idea that what you are saying is actually a point in favor of what you are arguing against.
Single game tickets are available for Season Ticket Holders and Panther Club Members. I have a promo code that I’d be happy to share with anyone that is looking for tickets. FYI - Duke and UNC are coming up in about 5 weeks.
Yep, yet another email to those who have shown a willingness to buy tickets
But, SMF thinks if we simply announced it at the football games - where folks also don’t show up -so they would have bought tickets on a whim .
Because he’s detached from reality
Or TV commericals. Internet ads, billboards? We have done NOTHING. People get hundreds of emails a day. I open maybe 10% of them. People need to know its 250 for Duke and UNC
They run television commercials all the time. In fact someone pointed out to you earlier that they've been running them during Penguins games since the beginning of the season and they ran ads (although mostly for football tickets) during Pirate games all summer long.
But yeah, if they just had a few more billboards around town they'd be selling basketball tickets like hot cakes.
By the way, what was the last thing that you purchased because you saw it on a billboard?
And I guarantee you that whatever ads these were didnt say "Duke, UNC and others for $250." You cant get into to HS games that cheap for a season
This is a pointless commercial
Need to tell fans they get Duke, UNC, and Syr for $250. That is eye-poppingly cheap.
Need to tell fans they get Duke, UNC, and Syr for $250. That is eye-poppingly cheap.
Great, aim the marketing towards the Walmart wannabe Duke and NC fans. I'd rather have the Pete half empty than half full of those clowns. Can't wait to have some slob in a cheap Duke t shirt tell me I'm in his seat, even though I've been sitting in the same seats nearly every game for the past eight years. There's usually about four actual Duke alumni there. They are easy to spot in their khakis and penny loafers, with a pastel sweater draped over their shoulders and Joe Kennedy horn rimmed glasses.
No. You are aiming it to casual Pitt basketball fans who may go to a couple games per year or are too busy to find season tickets valuable. For $250, they may think, heck I get Duke and UNC and will go to 5-6 other games and then give away the rest....or go....or sell on Stubhub....or whatever. Its a tremendous value.
Idiots and casual fans. Give you an example. Me and a friend of mine used to get season tickets together pre-kids. But he fell off the wagon a bit during Stallings and with kids its tough to get to all the games. I told him a few weeks ago he should buy season tickets because they are cheap. He had no idea they were so cheap. Seriously considered it but felt he couldn't make enough games and wouldn't be able to sell them for enough to make it worth it. So he'll watch on TV. This story doesn't have a happy ending but its an example of a "Glory Days" season ticket holder who didnt know tickets were so cheap. He didnt care enough to look it up.
I’m with SMF on this one. That commercial he shared is a great example of when you let creative folks put together something visually pleasing that doesn’t drive anyone to action.
You only have 10 ACC home games but it wouldn’t be hard to create 10 different commercials to create excitement around each game. Hell, at least give a time and opponent.
And to your point about the WalMart Duke and UNC fans. Their checks cash too and chances are they come with a friend of family member that is at worst a neutral fan.
If someone thinks they might want to go to a Pitt basketball game, they'll look into it and see they can get a package for $ 250 and they might do it.
Or you can spend $100,000 or so in advertising to make sure everyone who couldn't care less about Pitt hoops knows about this. Maybe 3 or 4 dozen more people with a slight interest will buy them.
Or you can spend $100,000 or so in advertising to make sure everyone who couldn't care less about Pitt hoops knows about this. Maybe 3 or 4 dozen more people with a slight interest will buy them.
Typical Pitt fan "Spend $100K so MAYBE I might open my wallet and give you $5"
Other fans "TAKE MY MONEY PLEASE!!!!"
Other fans "TAKE MY MONEY PLEASE!!!!"
That commercial basically says "we have a basketball team." People know Pitt plays basketball. People know Pitt has basketball tickets. Its a waste of a commercial. We lost just about all of our basketball fanbase due to the self-imposed sanctions and then Covid didnt help. Pitt basketball fans aren't going to be flocking back because we had a Dixon 2 year. It was fun for us but this is a pro sports town. They needed a better marketing strategy. "Come see your NCAA Tournament team take on Duke, North Carolina, Syracuse, and others for as low as $250 for the season." That is eye-popping.
These people act like the "as low as" marketing strategy is some crazy off the wall idea. Almost no Pitt-affiliated people have clicked on the website to check ticket prices. They dont care enough. You have to tell them.
So to recap, all we need to do is to tell people that tickets are cheap and we will be selling them like hotcakes. As proof, you offer a Pitt fan, someone who used to have season tickets, who knows how cheap the tickets are, and yet still didn't buy them.
Once again, making the point of the people on the other side of the argument without ever realizing it.
My point was he didnt know. Nobody knows. And nobody knows our home schedule. We have a very casual fanbase for basketball now and that's not going to change unless we start competing for National Championships like we used to. But if you tell people they get Duke, UNC, and others for as low as $250, you'll sell them. Pitt is hiding how cheap the tickets are, maybe on purpose, which is stupid
And my point is that even when he did know, it didn't make one bit of difference.
Pitt could have sent him ten million emails, they could have run ten thousand television commercial, they could have sent someone to his house with toothpicks to pry his eyes open to make sure that he watched the commercials, they could have done just about anything at all, and yet when he knew how much tickets cost and he knew what teams he would get to see if he bought them, he still chose to not buy them.
Because no matter how much you might think otherwise, you can't make people buy tickets that they don't want to buy simply by telling them about them 200 times instead of 100 times.
They actually do have curtains that they can put down that close off the upper level. They use them all the time for the women's games, and they had them down last night for the volleyball games to force everyone to sit in the lower level.
The $250 made him seriously consider it. He didnt even care to look it up before I told him. And if not for kid activities, he probably would have bought them. The $250 + Duke & UNC is attention grabbing. A commercial saying "we play basketball" is not.
And yet he didn't buy them.
You understand that "considered but did not buy" and "didn't even consider buying" is, from Pitt's perspective, exactly the same thing, right?
You have the idea in your head that the correct marketing strategy can force people who do not want to buy tickets to buy tickets. It's actually one of your goofier ideas.
And that's saying a lot.
This isn’t about marketing to Pitt fans or even Pitt alumni. It’s about creating fans. Thinking the market is just alumni is very narrow thinking.
So no, most do not know that tickets are cheap. Most don’t know tickets are available. Most don’t even know when the games are played.
So no, most do not know that tickets are cheap. Most don’t know tickets are available. Most don’t even know when the games are played.
So-
Your solution is to sell the actual marquee games , which actually have high demand .
Aiming it fans of other schools in the area .
Brilliant stuff
Actually, if you think that Pitt only markets the tickets to alumni it would mean that you pay even less attention than SMF does.
But he didn’t -
Because he didn’t actually want to but they because of other priorities .
You effectively destroyed your own premise
An amazing self own
Because they have zero interest in buying tickets because they don’t care .
Holy shit , you guys keep making the opposite point of your intention .
I have 3 west club football season tickets and have had season tix since 2003 including 14 years living in North Carolina .
Why ? They are cheap , the weekly nature of games made travel more reasonable - and i cared enough to buy them . And even if I only use half - and give away the rest - the value was still there
I have never bought basketball tickets , because I knew I would never be able to actually use them. Even when I moved back to pittsburgh for the same reason . We do buy mini-packages occasionally , and single game tickets otherwise .
Why ? Because I know even if I offer up all my unusable season tickets - I won’t get any takers .
Get it ? i could not even give way tickets to people to make them
Go regularly .
Holy shit - you guys aren’t in reality .
You cannot sell something there is zero demand for
BTW, Pitt also needs to mention there is a Chik Fil A in the building. However, they have special event pricing. Even have a sign for it. A value meal cost me $15. Thanks Biden.
Yes it’s the sports marketing principle of game marketing because it’s easier to sell 5,000 extra tickets to your 5 biggest games than 500 tickets to your 5 least attractive.
By the way, I never said market to other fans. My point is who cares what the demographics are. Butts in seats are what matters. You’d rather leave 5,000 seats open because the people might wear another color? That’s brilliant
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