You've Broken Me: Begging the Rooney's to Let Pitt Tarp for Home Games

[RHS14]

The Seattle Sounders MLS team play at 67,000 capacity Century Link Field. Saw some games on TV -- it is LOUD and Raucous. It is a SICK home atmposphere and the Tarps look Slick. If Pitt homes games had a home atmosphere like that it would be totally awesome.

Guess their average attendance? YUP, 40,000 people in a 67,000 person Stadium. It looks freagin' great on TV too. PLUS, for high demand games they do take off the tarps for more seats, so they have experience making it work!

Maybe Heather Lyke can contact the Seattle Sounders and learn about how they do it all. They are a top-class organization who of course would help out a University and help a Brother Out lol.

A beautiful Pitt Script perfectly covering the North Endzone would get the stadium down to 55,000 right? Unfortunately the Rooney's would want more $$ and for our Athletic Director and Admin to Kiss the Ring.

 

[maxxwell]

Why do you think the Rooneys or Steelers would object?

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

The Seattle Sounders MLS team play at 67,000 capacity Century Link Field. Saw some games on TV -- it is LOUD and Raucous. It is a SICK home atmposphere and the Tarps look Slick. If Pitt homes games had a home atmosphere like that it would be totally awesome.

Guess their average attendance? YUP, 40,000 people in a 67,000 person Stadium. It looks freagin' great on TV too. PLUS, for high demand games they do take off the tarps for more seats, so they have experience making it work!

Maybe Heather Lyke can contact the Seattle Sounders and learn about how they do it all. They are a top-class organization who of course would help out a University and help a Brother Out lol.

A beautiful Pitt Script perfectly covering the North Endzone would get the stadium down to 55,000 right? Unfortunately the Rooney's would want more $$ and for our Athletic Director and Admin to Kiss the Ring.

The atmosphere at Sounders games is one of the best in all of American sports, and its due largely to having 40K people sitting next to each other instead of scattered throughout a 70K seat stadium. And their tarp actually adds to the atmosphere because its actually really cool looking.

I think there's a faction of people who will never tarp because they think its giving up, like if we can just become Ohio State, we can get 70K every week. We need to stop trying to be Ohio State and Alabama and try to be TCU, GT, Stanford, Minnesota, etc and only have 40K-50K seats available

 

[OhioValleyPanther]

That would be nice, but I assume instead of a Pitt logo on the tarps you would see gigantic Bud Light, 84 Lumber, and Xfinity logos stretched from end zone to end zone across the upper levels. Just look at our scoreboard. You can't find the tiny score on it, but the sponsor logos are as big as tractor-trailers.

 

[DiehardPanther]

That would be nice, but I assume instead of a Pitt logo on the tarps you would see gigantic Bud Light, 84 Lumber, and Xfinity logos stretched from end zone to end zone across the upper levels. Just look at our scoreboard. You can't find the tiny score on it, but the sponsor logos are as big as tractor-trailers.

Whatever brings in the most money.

 

[Burgh15]

That would be nice, but I assume instead of a Pitt logo on the tarps you would see gigantic Bud Light, 84 Lumber, and Xfinity logos stretched from end zone to end zone across the upper levels. Just look at our scoreboard. You can't find the tiny score on it, but the sponsor logos are as big as tractor-trailers.

It's very easy to find the score on it.

The tarped off stadium would make for a better atmosphere and I would like to see Pitt explore this option at least on a small scale at first. It is way too easy not to cheer when you're sitting alone in a section.

 

[RaleighPittFan]

The only thing Pitt should have ever tarped would have been the dirt walls inside, along the walkway in Pitt Stadium.

 

[pitt-girl]

I too am coming around to the tarping idea. However I have no idea exactly how many seats are actually sold vs. no shows and what that would mean going forward. Meaning that you look at the empty seats - are they not sold or just no shows? And if they some of those are sold, what is the loss of revenue annually from blocking them vs. the cost of the tarps, maintenance, etc.

 

[Hailpitt]

You guys lost me at " the tarp looks really cool." Seriously? Sometimes I watch Oakland Raiders games and see the tarted upper deck. Do I think it is cool? No I think it is sad that a team has to resort to tarting off a large portion of the stadium.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

You guys lost me at " the tarp looks really cool." Seriously? Sometimes I watch Oakland Raiders games and see the tarted upper deck. Do I think it is cool? No I think it is sad that a team has to resort to tarting off a large portion of the stadium.

Do empty seats look better to the eye than a tarp?

 

[Pitt79]

I want it to look really bad, so that they realize if they really want it fuller they need to win. If you have a team that loses 59-21 at home, I want them ridiculed and embarrassed, I want even more things, like empty seats so that there is more to pile on about. The ONLY solution that I care about is just WINNING, I don't want to make sure it looks good on TV when I'm losing 49-0 at the half, I want it to look how it should look down 49-0...empty.

 

[Slick Manager of Champs]

I want it to look really bad, so that they realize if they really want it fuller they need to win. If you have a team that loses 59-21 at home, I want them ridiculed and embarrassed, I want even more things, like empty seats so that there is more to pile on about. The ONLY solution that I care about is just WINNING, I don't want to make sure it looks good on TV when I'm losing 49-0 at the half, I want it to look how it should look down 49-0...empty.

so you care about winning but prefer to watch your daughter rather than actually attending games. Biggest wacko on rivals....

 

[Pitt79]

so you care about winning but prefer to watch your daughter rather than actually attending games. Biggest wacko on rivals....

Absolutely, nothing whacko about it. Like the guy last week who skipped the PSU game to watch his 8 year old play soccer, THAT'S NORMAL, YOU are NOT normal. I've been a Pitt fan since the '70s, so I have this period, when my only child is playing sports and I want to watch it, so what? That's what a NORMAL father would do, and would want to do. Actually I was at the OK St. game... I wish my daughter would have had a game that day so wouldn't have gone LOL.

 

[Slick Manager of Champs]

Absolutely, nothing whacko about it. Like the guy last week who skipped the PSU game to watch his 8 year old play soccer, THAT'S NORMAL, YOU are NOT normal. I've been a Pitt fan since the '70s, so I have this period, when my only child is playing sports and I want to watch it, so what? That's what a NORMAL father would do, and would want to do. Actually I was at the OK St. game... I wish my daughter would have had a game that day so wouldn't have gone LOL.

Congrats, should have said something would have gladly bought you a beer or three to commiserate at that game!

 

[tetonpanther]

Mr Ruiney coulkd not give a crap about pitt. their donatiuon level is crude.

 

[rmf05]

We're talking about Pitt. They'd probably print up a tarp that looked like empty seats.

 

[Pitt79]

Congrats, should have said something would have gladly bought you a beer or three to commiserate at that game!

I might go to another one, maybe VA or Miami, not sure yet.

 

[Burgh15]

You guys lost me at " the tarp looks really cool." Seriously? Sometimes I watch Oakland Raiders games and see the tarted upper deck. Do I think it is cool? No I think it is sad that a team has to resort to tarting off a large portion of the stadium.

Never understood any fan from any team that believes Pitt should fill a 68,000+ seat stadium. The top team in the area doesn't even fill it up on a weekly basis with usually at least 2,000 no shows.

 

[bwh05]

It's very easy to find the score on it.

The tarped off stadium would make for a better atmosphere and I would like to see Pitt explore this option at least on a small scale at first. It is way too easy not to cheer when you're sitting alone in a section.

There's absolutely no reason to sell season tickets in the endzone upper deck so I'd start with tarping there. It's like $100 for a season ticket there right now, and If we sell out and need them like when PSU comes to town for example, charge $100 for the single game ticket we're breaking even anyway.

 

[Pittx9]

Before they even go about tarping it, they could just not sell season tickets in the upper deck. Before worrying about tarping, or even what goes on at all with those seats, worry about filling up the lower bowl.

 

[sibleyfan91]

Before they even go about tarping it, they could just not sell season tickets in the upper deck. Before worrying about tarping, or even what goes on at all with those seats, worry about filling up the lower bowl.

Agreed. Simply don't offer season tickets for sale in those levels. Sell them for big games individually. First offer goes to panther club members. Then alumni. Then students. Then the public.

 

[TD_istheman]

Didn't take Charlie Strong no time to win at South Florida and they have like 20g there , excuses ? They have always had worse attendance than us

 

[BFo8]

Didn't take Charlie Strong no time to win at South Florida and they have like 20g there , excuses ? They have always had worse attendance than us

Strong winning with Willie Taggart's players, he's not nearly as good a coach.

Their attendance has always been lousy and I expect it always will be.

 

[bwh05]

Strong winning with Willie Taggart's players, he's not nearly as good a coach.

Their attendance has always been lousy and I expect it always will be.

They're also in the early stages of building an on campus stadium

 

[Pitt79]

There's absolutely no reason to sell season tickets in the endzone upper deck so I'd start with tarping there. It's like $100 for a season ticket there right now, and If we sell out and need them like when PSU comes to town for example, charge $100 for the single game ticket we're breaking even anyway.

Why not just close it off then? Why WASTE MONEY on tarps? I'd rather spend that money to feed the homeless or something that matters, not spend thousands of dollars for the perception of random TV viewers.

 

[BFo8]

Why not just close it off then? Why WASTE MONEY on tarps? I'd rather spend that money to feed the homeless or something that matters, not spend thousands of dollars for the perception of random TV viewers.

Because this is (or is supposed to be) big boy football. The amount of money that tarping would cost should be incidental in trying to build a program.

Perception is still very important in college football. I would hate for Pitt to have a miracle season and go undefeated and still get left out of the playoffs because they aren't viewed the same as the other contenders.