Can We Talk About The Home Crowd / Lack Of Home Field Advantage?

I couldn't agree more. When you go to a game you have to be either very wealthy and sit in your luxury boxes and usually well behaved so that you don't make an ass out of yourself in front of your corporate partners. Or middle class willing to part with a sizable disposable income. How much you spend is up to you though. I'm not even gonna talk about a family of 4 to go because that isn't the case anymore. It's either husband and wife or father and son as far as a family is concerned. Or it's a group of buddies. Sure you can play it safe and not spend anything more than the price of a ticket, parking along with lunch or dinner. That still will set 2 people back about $200.

My wife and I usually take in one game a year but when we do we like to have a lot of fun. It's usually an away game and by the time it's all said and done we're talking $400 minimum. Nothing I can't afford but it's not something I'm willing to do 8 times a season. Maybe that's why their taking England seriously. People will go out of their way to travel, see the city, take in the culture, have a good meal, drink alcohol, be responsible by taking a cab and getting a hotel. We have done this for years and have a great time but it is only one game every year about an hour away.

While that is a fun experience it doesn't compare to the quality of the product that you get in your own living room. I also don't have to worry about protesters interrupting my experience.

Now if those Clowns are willing to dangle themselves from the upper deck to hang a 100' foot wide Terrible Towel then I'm all for it. I wouldn't agree with their technique but at least I would understand it more.

 

Heinz Field certainly isn't the loud rocking place 3 Rivers was.

 

Bring us home a win and yell loud!

 

Sitting in the front row since 1991, I can tell you its loud. Not as loud as TRS, but with the additional seats in the "open end", I actually heard a here we go steelers here we go chant for about 5 seconds Sunday before they started blasting some BS song over the loud speakers, killing the crowd. IMO the steelers organization has taken a lot out of the fans hands and voices with bad timing for public service announcements and the like over the sound system. The old chants don't work well at Heinz but we will never know if they will now with the additional seats because the crap they play. They started this "another steelers first down" cheer in the last couple of years. the first time I heard that was when we were in Miami killing the Fish and those moron fans were still cheering "another first down", I said to the dolphin fan next to me that we in Pittsburgh only cheer touchdowns. Sure if there is a drive extending play, cheer for the first down but every fn first down?? how many games have we lost when all we needed was 1 or 2 or 3 more "first downs" those are the first downs to go nuts over (when we make em). Encouraging a loud cheer with every first down leads to cheering when we should be quiet esp in hurry up mode. And yes there are a lot of fans who are screaming when we have the ball some people just don't get it, I usually join in but Im yelling shut the f up. As for renegade, it does get the crowd fired up but I swear if we went back in time to see if that fired up the crowd enough for there not to be a scoring drive, Ill bet its 50/50. Not withstanding Troys pick over Flacko in the playoffs a couple years ago. They started this drum line to entertain between some plays and that kills some crowd spontaneity and whats up with the flag waivers (4) on the field, is this college or Dallas, cut that crap out. All this distracts the crowd. And Sunday was the 40th anniversary of the Terrible Towel which is great, I own tons of them, but the Steelers have a 50/50 raffle at each game with the proceeds going to a charity (a great idea). Usually about $60k is the winners and charity's half (120k total). well Sunday the proceeds went to the Steelers Youth Football Program. Why not the Allegheny Valley School, the benefactor of proceeds from the sale of the Terrible Towel, WTF

The bathroom lines and food concession are too slow at half time and that's why it looks half empty at the beginning of the third. I don't understand folks leaving early at the end of the game other than you have to park a couple miles away to avoid up to $60 in parking fees. And the wait for the T can be long. There are a couple $20 lots by the casino, other than that its $40+. The only game I left early was in Cleveland 100 years ago when Eric Metcalf ran back like 4 kicks against us.

Its Tuesday and I'm just getting my voice back.

 

Yes...

 

I will say again, that THE CROWD DID GET TO DALTON in the second half when the D was making all those plays.

I agree Heinz isn't a very scary place to play compared to other stadiums. First off, Heinz Field is in middle of pack of total capacity even with the additions. Secondly, it still has an open end, if you go to a big bowl stadium like M&T it gets really loud... its not that Steelers fans aren't into it.

 

I think the marketing suits are being allowed to get a little too carried away with the "fan experience" stuff. Put a good product on the field in a competent stadium, and that's all the experience most fans will ever need. No need for artificial chants, excessive trendy "pump-up" songs, cheerleaders, throw-the-football-into-the-truck-window halftime games, or any other gibberish that takes away from the game.

IMO, they should remove some of the bleachers/seats near the endzones and make it standing room only, like in college with the student sections. That way you can give people an option to either stand in a section where you can be yourself and let loose, or stay in the regular seats and be relegated to yells of "down in front" (or be the person who yells that).

At Lambeau all they have are those cold-ass aluminum bleachers, yet people still sit down on those things all the time. I don't get it. You go to bars in town when the game is on and people are always standing around. But at the actual game? "Oh, let's sit down!"

I understand the need for some people to sit. But at least give an option of a place where you can be rowdy and you just fit in with the rest of the crowd.

 

Trust me, I know. I brought it up on another Steelers forum and got banned for it. So many excuses it's ridiculous. Guy tried to say everyone was watching from the ramp or getting beers. Apparently we are one of the few teams that have this issue. I think 86WardWay hit it on the head... It's the new stadium. Penguins games are having the same issue. The Igloo use to rock and now the Console is a morgue.

 

The Console is a horrible venue. I live in South Jersey so I am most accustomed to The Spectrum/Wells Fargo Center. I never went to the Igloo. That being said, the Console is just awful. I went there a couple of years ago for the Royal Rumble. The layout is just dumb. The way they filter everyone from 10 doors into a cattle chute up a flight of steps makes no sense. The fact that the main soda vendor is RC Cola is just weird. And the arena itself, while it can get pretty loud, it just isn't that good. The seats are too narrow and don't offer enough leg space. I'm only 6'1, and I couldn't sit properly without banging my knees into the seat in front of me.

 

Honestly, I've never been to a game. I came close last season- when we played the Saints, but things got messed up & we couldn't go.
I know people that go- some have season tickets. I know a woman who goes with her husband- and she could care less about the Steelers.
I'd do (almost) anything to go to a game & it drives me crazy to listen to them. One couple has season tickets & goes to 1 game. I think they only get the tickets to say they have them. Maybe that's one of the problems. It's just not a big deal to them & it certainly would be for me. Maybe some take going to games for granted because they go so much.

 

Nobody is denying it got loud after Renegade. Talking about how there's a half empty stadium at kickoff every game.. Never see this anywhere else is our time management that bad? Half empty stadium at the end of the game... I don't even want to hear about "traffic" How many stadiums in the league have a clipper that takes hundreds-thousands of people at a time to the other side of the city. That spreads the traffic out. It's ridiculous. 0 home advantage in Pittsburgh... Let the refs come in and job us against the Ravens. Penguins get home ice and can't win a big playoff game at home. Pirates get the 2nd best record in the league to play a WC at home and the stadium is dead as soon as they go down a run. Like the team that won the whole damn thing didn't have to comeback in almost every game they won.

 

Doesn't really spread the traffic out that much. You figure that you still have to get through one of the tunnels/bridges depending on where you're staying.

 

When you have yuppies/corporate type that don't give a ****
about football. You will continue to see MT seats and less spirit
at games. It is very hard for the avg. working person to shell out
400/game to see a non championship team. This may be their monthly
entertainment budget for just one 3 hour afternoon.

 

It's well documented that Steeler fans travel well to away games to support their team, it only stands to reason that they support their team in full force at home, and that is the facts, not some fans lone perceptions...

 

My wife and I are going for the first time, FINALLY!
We will be in there Sunday, yelling, and cheering, taking in the experience.
My wife, who was not a football fan AT ALL before marriage, will be screaming and waving that Towel! Priceless!
Thanks to our Season Ticket friends, who spread it around for those of us who can't always afford it.

 

I go to at least one home game each season. The fan support and tailgating has always been great. A couple things stand out though.
Takes well into the first quarter for the place to fill in same thing after the half.
In the 4th quarter if we're up big or more so when we're losing people pile out quick.
Now I don't think it's right, but I guess if you pay for your ticket you can do what you want.

I think the reason you see such a good showing at road games is because the fans only get to see the Steelers once in a while.
They don't take it for granted.

I went to a playoff game for the baseball Cardinals last year and the friends we went with asked if we were ready to leave in the top of the 8th to beat the traffic. i said if you're that worried about traffic that you can't give up another 15 or 20 minutes of your life maybe going to a sporting event or even leaving your house might not be a good idea. Some people kill me.

 

Never thought this would be a discussion in my lifetime. Empty seats at a Steelers' Game?!?!?!

Something's just not right.

 

It was talked about quite a bit here last season.

 

Since we already lost a game at home due to the wind conditions, facing the open end of the field in the 4th quarter on a windy day would not afford us of kicking a game-winning field goal. It costed us the Baltimore game. Almost every home game we always face the open end of the stadium in 4th quarters. I dare anyone to explain the logic of this. And why is the Steelers Organization so inept at not allowing this to happen??

 

You don't always have the choice.

 

Which would be "my lifetime" .

 

Was it just me or was the upper deck REALLY barren today? I don't know if it's the economy or injuries or what.

 

The facts are that at the Steelers/Ravens game a few weeks back, a ton of fans piled out late in the 4th quarter. Then in OT, fans continued to leave. Not 10 or 20, but hundreds and possibly thousands. It doesn't get closer than an OT game. That's embarrassing. Unfortunately I'm used to seeing it with my Maple Leafs, the king of bandwagon, fairweather fans.