I've been going to Pitt games since the mid-70s. They never drew well. For whatever reason, Pitt alums just don't support the football program, either by going or financially, like a lot of schools do. It used to really bother me, but it's gotten to the point where I'm not going to let it ruin my game day experience. Pitt is the #4 team in Pittsburgh. And they are treated as such by the local media. A lot of it is on Pitt, for the last 35 years football has been pretty irrelevant. Throw in a prior administration that didn't know what the hell they were doing with athletics, and here you are. As a season ticket holder, I go no matter what. Pitt hasn't done much since '81 to draw fans in. I hate Heinz Field. It's way too big for Pitt. Like 25,000 too big. A 40-50k stadium is plenty big enough. The yellow seats are an eyesore. The atmosphere is meh at best. I like the new administration's plan for athletics. Chancellor Gallagher seems to know that athletics can be a great advertisement for the university.
I was there Thursday night. It was weird. At kickoff, there couldn't have been 20,000 in their seats. However, by the end of the first-quarter, I would say 30,000 is an accurate number. And then, after halftime, it seemed that people left.
The big problem also, especially in the lower bowl, is that those seats are all sold. The problem is that a lot of times people don't come. They think they're doing their duty by purchasing season tickets, but then those seats go unused. And those yellow seats look so bad on TV.
I've heard differing opinions on how much attendance matters to recruits. I'm sure it matters more to some than others. There are so many other factors that go into their decision.
It will be interesting to see what happens when the Steelers lease is up with Heinz Field. A lot of people seem to think they are going to move out of the city into a neighboring county with a new stadium. At that point, Pitt will be faced with a big decision to make.
