Crowd Attendance

I'm sure concessions and souvenir sales suffer as well.... which would hurt the Rooneys.

Weather always sucks, Not only sitting in the rain, but walking to car, sitting wet in traffic..... all to see a team that had been putting up 10 offensive points a week. If I had tickets I would have gone.... but I'd say there are a large amount of corporate holders that only go in fair weather. Of course I've sat through some pretty big downpours as well as snow storms (ones that stick in my head.... RG III debut at Hines, remnants of a hurricane..... and a few years ago Chicago blizzard bowl in Bettis's farewell tour.)

 

That happens a lot in Green Bay, even among the residential season ticket holders. The wait list for season tickets is like at 80 years now, so most of the ticket holders are corporate or very old people that don't want to sit outside beyond early October, so most of the people in the stadium in the final half of the year are real diehards that get their tickets through the grapevine.

I wonder if cold weather teams have a better home record the second half of the season because of that? More diehard fans = more noise? May have more to do with Green Bay's ridiculous historical home playoff win streak than the cold weather effect on the other team.

 

This right here.
Fan support is average at best. I've been saying it and witnessing it for years. Steelers fans get a lot of credit because the games are always sold out. But when it comes to actually going, they're as fair weathered as the average NFL fan. In fact, I'd say more so.

As far as corporate types who do not show up, well most times those tickets are offered up for free or for very little. You would think that it would be a golden opportunity for those fans who cannot afford a regular priced ticket, but that's not the case. Even those people don't want to go when the weather is bad and the Steelers aren't competitive.

 

As a fan I drove 600 miles one way to watch the Steelers hand Tampa Bay the game. I will not drive that again till they are consistent. I agree with any Steeler fan who does not want to pay and see their team abused. Get better Steelers and they will show up again. Keep in mind the Steelers are sold out 5 years in advance

 

I missed something completely. On the game thread someone posted about the empty seats. Shortly after that I saw a scan of the seats and the place looked packed, so I posted such. Not long after that, it looked like 15,000 no shows.

 

My observations from the game - The announced attendance was 56k. I think Heinz seats 65,000. The upper end zone had a section with no one in it. The row I was in lower level near goal line, Row Q was half filled with some Texans fans. The Texans fans left after the implosion so it was less than half filled. The old guys behind me were talking about leaving at halftime due to the poor play until the TO's.

At halftime when I am in a hurry to get back for the kickoff there are plenty who are content to hang out in the concourse and watch the monitors.

It still bugs me when they get booed, especially early in the game.

I think the video boards help to create a passive environment since they are so loud up to close to the snap and take focus away from the field.

 

I've had those seats before and they are awesome. I could have never went in and watched from the couches. I was 26 rows off the field and tv couldn't have beaten that. It was still cool to be in the club though.

 

I agree a million percent about the home crowd. I've found our fans to be MUCH more enthusiastic on the road.

 

I'm pretty sure that vendors just rent space from them. So they've sorta already been paid for that too. I guess if a place becomes unprofitable they will just move out and someone else will move in right?

 

I found a 2004 article that talks about this subject. Apparently, empty seat when the team isn't good is the norm.

http://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsbu...-available-and-we-hear-th/Content?oid=1336418