WHAT HAPPENS TO PITT FANS WHEN THEY GRADUATE?

I watch a lot of Pitt games and always have, almost without fail, the same question every year:  What happens to Pitt fans when they graduate?  It started when my sister was attending Penn State and I was complaining that Pitt could not fill their stadium, but Penn State always did.  She looked at me and stated a fact.  “It’s not the student section, they always show up.  It’s the alumni.”  She’s right.  Take a look at this video…not many shots of the crowd, besides the student section. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI_XfofBTuc

When I lived a little closer in Washington, DC, I purchased season tickets for a few years and noticed that she was right.  It was never more evident to me than in the 2009 season.  The 6-1 Pitt Panthers took on South Florida in late October and ran them off the field, 41-14…and the game was not that close.  It was a noon kickoff (we’ll get to that later) and I told my father I wanted to get there early to soak in some of the atmosphere.  Why do I do that to myself?  I’ll never know.  We came across the Ft. Pitt Bridge before 11AM and as we passed the stadium it was completely empty….of course except for the Pitt student section, who were not only there in full force, but giving it to the Bulls hard throughout warm ups.  I could see it from my seats across the field, as USF coach after coach was pulling players away from shouting matches with the students.

This seems to repeat itself game after game after game after game.  Of course, there are the exceptions…that usually occurs when Pitt plays Notre Dame, WVU, or another school with a passionate fan base that travels well.  The other exception is the rare of all rare games….a game with HUGE implications between two teams with high rankings, V-Tech versus Pitt comes to mind in the Walt Harris era, when Pitt came storming back….but again, the Hokies have a passionate fan base that travels.

The excuses are many.  That is one thing that Pitt fans have tons of….excuses.  Speaking to my friends and reading some other blogs (by the way, if you are not reading Pitt Script with twitter great @FearTheStache or Pitt Blather or the man, the myth, the legend, Paul Zeise of the Post-Gazette, you are missing out), every excuse has been heard.  Some of our favorites are as follows:

 -          Too much traffic on the north side on a Saturday (this makes DC, Philly, NYC, and pretty much every other major city laugh).

-          Noon games are too early to get up for (insert bad team here or a team not good enough for Pitt fans).
-          Gotta rest up for the Steelers game tomorrow.
-          It’s a pro-sports town, not a college town.  There is too much competition for the entertainment dollar.

The last reason is the ONLY one that holds water.  What someone does with their money is up to them, but this is Pittsburgh!  You know, “the drinking town with a football problem.”  Western PA is supposed to be able to have something to talk about when it comes to football.  Friday nights are pretty big and Sundays go without saying around there, but Saturdays….ehhhhhh. 

As mentioned before, the Pitt student section shows up strong the majority of the time, but the alumni and other casual fans do not.  When they do show up, Pitt hopes that they have the opponents backed up into the student section, because otherwise, they will have no problem hearing the signals, because most of the rest of the stadium is like this classroom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxPVyieptwA

I get some excuses….if you live 5 hours away or somewhere around there, I get it.   Money should not be an issue really…have you seen Pitt ticket prices???

Of course, there is the one issue….what if Pitt won and won big and did it on a consistent basis?  Well, they have been winning on a pretty consistent basis, but that is not enough for most Pitt fans.  They want that BCS game and they want it in 11-1 or 10-2 fashion….OH, and they want it exciting as well….oh and if the games can start later in the day and be against a big name opponent who is ranked high, and the weather needs to be nice, and…well, I think you get the point. 

With all of the excuses, the Pitt fan base will never be satisfied.

I am hoping things change this year.  There is a strong home schedule, Pitt is expected to contend for the Big East title, the offense will score points, and do it in exciting fashion.  Lastly, it does seem that Graham and his staff are picking up where Wanny’s staff left off, and that is with community and alumni relations.   I have moved over 5 hours away, so I will have to watch from afar, except when the Panthers travel to Rutgers on October 8^th.  Hopefully after my wedding next year, I can get back into the season ticket thing…in the meantime, I am secretly hoping that tickets are tougher to come by when I come back.