I mean, who didn’t see this coming?
Pitt has distributed between 2,000 and 3,000 tickets, athletics department spokesman E.J. Borghetti said. Borghetti declined to say how many have been sold and how many are allocated for free, such as to staff members, band members, cheerleaders and players’ families.
Kentucky media relations director Tony Neely reported the school’s ticket sales at 4,000. He also did not elaborate on the number sold compared to distributed.
Both teams had disappointing seasons. Kentucky has suspended their senior starting QB for the game. Pitt is in a coaching turnover, and fired/reassigned/resigned Coach Wannstedt still has not decided if he is coaching this team. (Wannstedt is starting to piss me off about this. I get that he is still upset over everything, but he is screwing around with his own players by refusing to make a decision yet.)
Locally the BBVA Bowl officials are claiming record local sales. It’s not like the bowl will lose money. Kentucky and Pitt, however, are poised to take a bath. Well, Pitt is.
For example, if Pitt has only sold 2,000 tickets to its fans, then it’s currently looking at a $400,000 loss through ticket sales. That doesn’t factor in shared bowl revenue from the Big East.
“I recently spoke to a number of our football alumni who currently live in the south,” Borghetti said. “Because they aren’t able to make it to Pittsburgh on a regular basis, they are taking advantage of the BBVA Compass Bowl opportunity to plan some team reunions and functions. So we are very confident that Pitt will be well represented with a spirited fan base that is looking forward to the game and all that Birmingham has to offer.”
The SEC has a bowl revenue protection insurance plan for unsold tickets by its members. According to league bylaws, “the cost of unused tickets up to 3,000 tickets for games with a ticket guarantee under 15,000 tickets, and up to 4,000 tickets for games with a ticket guarantee of 15,000 tickets or above, shall be deducted prior to conference distribution.”
For instance, the Knoxville News-Sentinel reported that Tennessee would have lost more than $225,000 for not selling all of its tickets to the 2008 Outback Bowl if not for the $196,950 it received from the SEC insurance plan.
The ticket insurance sounds like a good idea, but considering the number of SEC teams that have no such problem selling tickets, the overall risk is significantly lower and the premiums would be feasible. For the Big East, given how few teams have shown the ability to consistently sell their allotment — and this year has been even worse — the premiums would probably make any possible savings minimal. Even WVU is struggling this year.
In a purely observational from the comfort of my couch, it has looked like most of the bowl games so far have had a lot of empty seats and I won’t be too surprised to see even more. While the condition of the economy is a convenient excuse, I don’t completely buy it. I think it has more to do with a lot more fans weary of the annual cost of the travel and less willing to shell out for such minor bowl games.
This is not a BCS/playoff rant. It just seems obvious that there are too many bowls at this point. They have started to devalue the worth for fans to make the trip. Why should a fan want to spend the money to go to anything but the conference’s best tie-in or BCS bid? The costs, the travel, etc. Instead it is far easier and potentially just as fun to stay and watch with a bunch of friends at someone’s house or at a bar.
It’s driven by the TV money for ESPN, anyways. They have control over a ton of the bowl games themselves. Not to mention the TV rights to all but two bowl games. They make money hand-over-fist on the telecasts. Which is the major reason for so many of them now.
I think many schools would love to decline the minor bowl bids if they could. The financial losses are painful, and skipping a year or two would realistically drive up demand by the fan base when they did accept a bid.
Coaches however would scream about missing out on extra practices. About denying the kids any reward for their season. Then there would be the backlash about the schools being cheap. So the whole thing keeps going.
The Big East schools tend to be far away from the bowl cities (especially compared to the ACC, SEC and Big XII), adding to the cost of attending.
Also, our schools just don’t have the fan bases of other colleges – fewer living alumni, and among those alumni, less interest in the football teams.
If we had some bowls in the North or Midwest, I bet more people will attend (even taking into account the cold). I imagine the Yankee stadium bowl will get a lot of Syracuse fans, and will likely get lots of fans for all of our teams in the future (except maybe USF). Put a bowl in Philly or DC, you might see the same impact.
Sorry, but I’ve given up season tickets for next year. Poorly handled, mismanaged, lack of communication, etc… Anyone on here can call me pessimistic or whatever, but this is the worst failure for Pitt since I can remember. (I go back to about 1976, when Pitt was a machine, not a sub .500 team in a conference they should dominate in.
I hope in a few years when Petersen for all the good things he did, talks of his worst decision he made at Pitt…..destroying the football program for the next 5 years.
In the 70′s and 80′s when Pitt was considered a national power Pitt did not travel well to bowl games. I went to the January 1st 1977 Sugar Bowl and Georgia fans outnumbered Pitt fans 10 to 1.
I still have my game program from that day and hopefully I can get Tony Dorsett to autograph it one day.
Wanny was a bad hire from day 1, he has never been a winner, he was just lucky to be around Jimmy Johnson.
I think it would be great for schools to start turning down these meaningless bowls. It costs the University a ton of money to participate, and for what? As an alum and a fan, I don’t feel any pride that our Panthers are associated with something called the “BBVA Compass Bowl”; it’s actually a little embarrassing. Is getting some extra practice in for the team really worth the price? Pitt shouldn’t have to pay six figures to be a part of this, just so ESPN can fill a few hours of airtime.
Md is playing in the bowl in DC. They are losing their shirt as they can’t sell tickets either.
@Navy Panther,
Couldn’t agree more. There are so many bowls that the prestigue of going to a bowl is greatly reduced.
I drove on Christmas day to Charlotte last year. Besides the game there was nothing to do. It was no surprise that everything was shut down on the 25th but it was a ghost town on the 26th. The pre-game event was nothing more that a beer tent and a guy making funnel cakes in a muddy field. Why would I go back?
You have a good point. But there are fans like me, who traveled to the Sugar Bowl in ’82, Cotton Bowl in ’83, Bluebonnet Bowl in ’87, Sun Bowls in ’89 and ’08, who would make this trip. Birmingham is an 11 hour drive from Houston and the airfare from IAH is usually discounted by Continental. The game is on a Sunday – perfect time for weekend travelers. But I don’t like the way Wannstedt’s dismissal has been handled and I don’t like the fact that there is no coach. That doesn’t inspire confidence that the team will play to win. It’s a bowl game and for that fact alone it’s an important game. Could Pitt do more to discourage attendance??
I empathize with you. I’ve been a Pitt fan all my life going back to the pre-Majors era with John Micaelolsen, Bill Hart and Carl DePasqua. I don’t like how Wannstedt’s firing was handled either, considering the two previous years, he deserved better. Considereing who we got, I would have prefered keeping him.
We all know that we are going to be absolutely flat in this game. Getting kicked around by a 6-6 team is painful enough on TV — virtually torture after traveling to watch it.
ba-dum ba-dum ba-dum “thanks, I’ll be here all week!!!”
What I would like to know is if we were in the BCS game how many of us are paying the money to go to the game? As much as I want to I don’t think I could.
Let’s also blame the public for not buying Chevys and causing GM to go bankrupt. Let’s also attack movie fans for not supporting the last Indiana Jones movie.
It’s awfully inconvenient when paying customers decide what to do with their limited dollars.
Yes. Call me traditional or foolish but winning or losing a bowl game determines final end-of-season rankings and positions a team for the next season. I vividly remember the days when Pitt was 1-9 and Penn State played in the Orange Bowl ’68? Pitt was in a bowl game famine. I forgot to mention going to the ’73 Fiesta Bowl when Tony Dorsett was a freshman and the 1997 Liberty Bowl in frigid Memphis. Those were big deal games.
I’ll go with the flo and give Haywood all my support but doesn’t it seem like every move we’re making is in reverse? I was concerned that for all the work guys on this board we’re doing to end the Wannstedt era – which needed to end – Pederson would fuck everything up with the new hire – just like he did. I know there are Pederson supporters on this board but my feeling about him right now is the dude is the death wish for Pitt football.
Does Pederson watch what West Virginia is doing? Does anyone else on this board see how the Mounties have outmaneuvered Pederson? I mean put away your Pitt one-sidedness (just for a minute) and look at the potential WVU has with Holgorsen.
Like most of the guys on this board, I keep two eyes on the Mounties and one eye on Penn State (that’s because the Nits are very preoccupied with us – read blackshoediaries.com if you don’t believe me).
I read everything out there on Pitt football and from what I can see Pederson got deeply involved with football for two weeks – the two weeks it took to fire Wannstedt and hire Haywood.
Now he is in hiding again. And the one thing – the one really big thing Pederson could do to put the bowl game in its proper context and help set the tone for his new coach – is to get in front of the mic, tell fans why this bowl game counts, and appoint a freakin’ coach.
What dissuades me from going is to pay money to watch a listless team go through the motions with a coach who waited until the new year to decide to show up.
If anyone wants to tell me how wrong I am about Pederson I’m all ears. It’s that feeling in the pit of my stomach (no pun intended) that keeps me frothing at the mouth about all of this.
You know that feeling you have when you you’re coming out of REM sleep to make the coffee and all you can think is “I can’t believe how this happened”? Like parking your car in Oakland during the Christmas break with all your presents in the front seat and the doors wide open.
How much does OSU makes from the paraphenalia sells of these kids jersey etc?
How much does OSU make from the game proceeds and TV contract from the displaying the talent of these kids?
How much does the BIG TEN and NCAA profit from ticket sales, paraphenalia sales, media contracts etc?
Give me a break that you will even consider punishing a kid for selling something that is LEGALLY theirs to do with as they please. What a contradiction. I guess you don’t want them driving down the prices of those inflated replica’s that you sell while keeping all of the proceeds.
“I’m 100 percent in on trying to make this place just a little bit better,” Holgorsen said. “I never want to go to work and not have fun. I don’t want these kids to go out to practice or to a game and not have fun.”
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/college/s_714989.html
Bowl season sucks. What the hell kind of sport puts preseason/exhibition/meaningless games at the end?
The most difficult thing about all of this is that we now have to wait until next Fall to BEGIN to see how it turns out … probably much longer. That’s almost as bad as watching DW do his coaching thing, which was like Chinese water torture … slow and inevitably painful. I’m afraid it’s going to be a long trip for us. I’m hopeful, but no doubt that this guy better win next year or he will neither regain fan support nor have success recruiting.
About WVU …. I don’t know how/when WVU actually started the recruitment of Holgorsen … and what SP knew of it; but now that it’s over, WVU’s situation is almost more exciting to watch unfold than ours. It’s all love in Morgantown – for now, but by next year’s PITT-WVU all that could change. It’ll be fun to watch; maybe scary … but fun. After 43 yrs of watching PITT play – good & bad, this is just another fork in the road.
Merry Christmas and HTP.
Maybe broaden your horizons a little, that certainly would work for most of your parochial attitudes. And you talk about yinzers, classic.
Second, please give us some hope, tell us exactly what has transpired and will transpire to give us some optimism. I could use that.
Broaden our horizons, please. Right now mine are quite narrow.
There are way too many that complain but don’t show up … and even more that don’t even do that
What, just write Steve Pederson and Mark Nordenberg checks for the hell of it??? Hey, if they’re mediocre, whatever, if they lose, so what??
P.S. Most people on this board donate and go to the games, so go find another crowd to whine too.
Ha ha, I’ve been told it’s a 3 or 4 year program since Sherill left 30 years ago!! LMAO
http://www.lehighsports.com/sports/football/rosters/default.aspx
That being said, if Pitt made the Fiesta bowl, would anyone go?
If Pitt makes a Rose Bowl, does anyone go?
You mean to tell me 74-year old Morris Watts is a better hire than Hogorsen? 50 pts. per game vs. 27? Holgorsen gets a big raise and total control of the offense at WVU this coming season. He then gets $1.6 million per year – more than Haywood’s $1.1 million. You also mean to say more of the offense we’ve watched under Wannstedt’s pro-set power running game is going to fill up Heinz Field? Give me a break. One the many and contradictory statements Pederson has made was about making Pitt football more fan friendly. West Virginia totally won the PR war on this one – and it’s not even close.
I was watching CNN yesterday where they actually did a story on this subject. They said that Virginia Tech lost over $1.7 million on their BCS game because they only sold a fraction of the thousands of tickets they were alloted at $125 a piece.
The whole bowl system is a money grab and a big joke.
I would assume there’s a local Alabama kid or two that would like to go to a football game, regardless who’s playing…?
I think that sucked, but I have no beef if that’s the way they want to operate. Just don’t expect me to blindly throw my money towards them, if they’re blind to me other than my “Panther Points” aka dollars contributed.
Best part about Panther points I’ve been telling them for years reward the fan buying bowl tickets through Pitt with additional panther points, likewise for buying season football tickets. Give to the fan some priority seating in the Pete for all the other support throughout the year.
Prima donnas go only to the Pete and ignore support for Pitt football.
I’m a global traveler for work…Birmingham is hardly going to open up my mind. I’ve been there, it’s a dumpy version of Buffalo. Good news– as long as the players aren’t into Meth…budweiser and STDs will be the only catalyst to a problem in Birmingham.
Blind Faith and Show Support? Really? Really?
The past 15 years of my life, tens of thousands of dollars, multiple attendance at Bowl Games…to watch meaningless, horribly played, and overpriced non-entertainment– been there and done that…no thank you. Season tickets cancelled until Nordy is serious about football.
Helps our brand on TV? Really? Really? We had a few of those chances this year…how’d that turn out for us? Nobody loses more gloriosuly on national TV than Pitt football.
Extends the opportunity to coach players? Really? Really? From the past six years, I’m not sure giving Wanny another 6 weeks to “coach” these players will provide any value. For the sake of player development, we should forfeit this game to limit their exposure to Wanny.
Selling this terd and next year is Slippery’s Steve job…not people on this board…let’s keep the discussion to other more interesting topics.
Now I think that DH was the best candidate to win but I was also the guy who thought that Keith Benjamin and Tyrell Biggs were destined for stardom. And if you want to argue that Pitt’s hire wasn’t completely based on winning and that cost/off-field issues were part of it, I would agree.
I’m not pumped with how the process went down but I’m not upset that Pitt didn’t make a sexy hire either.
I like the analogy. I’m a sox fan, and when I think of the 2004 team, except for Manny and Pedro, the roster wasn’t filled with splashy names. Bill Mueller played third, Kevin Millar first. And Terry Francona was considered a loser. It just goes to show you. Until the games begin, you never know.
WTF…a lot of people are down on SP for not getting Holgorsen. Potential is what you haven’t done yet. Let’s see what this guy does for the hoopies before we get upset.
Why would anyone want to to Birmingham to see 2 mediocre teams?? If you think we’re assholes for not supporting Pitt think again. I’ll watch you on tv.
Give Haywood a chance. He could surprise us. If he doesn’t, at least we have Hoops season. HTP!
If I ran the Pitt world nothing would have been been done until after LOI day in February. Then, if a coach I wanted was available I would have made a hange at that point. If no one of interest was available then I would have kept DW for 1 more year and lost nothing in terms of potential because overall roster talent wasn’t regressing.
However, because the change wasn’t handled smoothly and professionally by SP and a good February 201l recruiting class is now likely impossible it is now absolutely necessary that MH win big immediately to attract high quality recruits for 2012 and avoid the program regressing talent wise and going backwards 2-3 years from now.
Unlike when DW took over Pitt hasn’t been experienced 2-3 years of declining roster talent due to weak recruiting and retention of recruits. Thus, unlike DW’s initial situation, MH can have no slack while we wait for a talent-depleted roster to be restocked.
Click on “Rivals Radio: Mike Haywood” on the right side @
Let’s give the new staff a chance to reset the tone and to end the country club atmosphere which seems to have pervaded the Panther locker room.
The Stillers have a “young” defensive coordinator who just went into The Hall of Fame in Canton.
The “young” DC has to coach under the constant pressure of the play for pay daily grind.
I think that we should give Haywood a little breathing room because he obviously has faith in Morris. Come to think of it if Pitt averages 4 more points a game in 2011 we will have made major strides over the genius, Cignetti!!!
It’s been a brutal Fall for all of us and though we disagree on matters, let’s keep in mind the only thing we all want to see is for Pitt to have successful athletic programs and be the best we can be. The New Year starts at the Pete Monday evening. See you there.
Comment by Rieur1114 12.24.10 @ 10:10 am
Rieur1114- yes, the number is on the web site. Call the ticket office and they will set it up. The charitable organization will send you a receipt.
Hail to Pitt.
Merry Christmas fellow Pitt enthusiasts.
Yes, PITT has been sticking to their practice schedule with the coaches they have under contract until after Jan 9th – that is Wannstedt as the HC, Bennett as the DC, etc… Apparently Hafley and Cignetti are the only coaches who were granted permission to leave before the Bowl. All were ‘fired’ when DW was, as in future contracts not offered, but exercising the right to keep them on staff for the Bowl game… at least that’s how I understand the situation as reported.
Wannstedt is still nominally the HC until the day after the Bowl and, if needed, PITT could actually hold him to his last contract that paid him through the game. PITT has left it up to DW as to whether he’ll coach the game or not at this point. No official word as yet to what will transpire.
A point to understand – the new coaching staff does not assume their duties as far as actual coaching on the field until Jan 9th as has been reported… Haywood has called a first full Team Meeting for Jan 12th. They are able to do limited recruiting and lots of public relations duties – the NCAA limits the number of coaches that can currently be under contract and on staff to (I think) nine when recruiting – so PITT has to juggle that.
Also, it has been reported on TOS that PITT requested an exemption from the NCAA to allow Haywood an opportunity to recruit in person during the “Quiet” and “Dead” times the NCAA has in their recruiting calendar…It’s somewhat convoluted and sets aside time for HS students not to be bothered during Finals and the Holidays.
http://collegefootball.about.com/od/rulesofthegame/a/rec-calendar.htm
No official word on whether or not that was granted. TOS also reports that Haywood has called some recruits (a coaching staff is allowed one call to each recruit in the Quiet Periods) and so far the ones he’s spoken to have re-committed… but that was a limited number.
Anyway – reports are that Haywood has been busy travelling and doing PR stuff… apparently he visited local HS coaches which is a good thing I guess – he’s allowed to meet with coaches but not students during the above restriction times.
That’s what I’ve been led to understand on the subject – someone will correct me if the facts are wrong…
Sorry for all the posts -
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-gary-patterson-tcu-20101225,0,5931654.story?page=1
1) Yawn
2) Tulsa lost to all the “decent” schools they played. (lost by 6 touchdowns to Oklahoma State)
3) Tulsa put big up big numbers against the likes of Memphis (1-11), Central Arkansas, Bowling Green (2-10) and Rice (4-8). Whoo hooo! Coaching mastermind. What a horrible mistake we made!
my comments were kind of tongue in cheek
Oh, and beat UCONN!
Dana reminds me of Paul Hacket, an offensive genius but the transition to being a head coach is a long journey.
Pitt hired the right guy.
Please get Spellcheck for your computer. Also, I prefer Haywood’s potential (first place in MAC; coach of the year in MAC) over Wanny’s proven inability to win the Big East.
You are hereby banned from this forum and from all interpersonal discourse for the rest of your life. (When did you say you graduated from WVU ?)
Except for Louisville and Syracuse, all BE bowl teams will likely lose money in the bowl games … and TCU will bring in more money for the Rose Bowl than possibly the entire BE conference combined (although I’m not sure about the financial ramifications of the Fiesta Bowl even with UConn’s poor attendance.)
Note that this is the reason why the BE has such a poor allotment of bowl games (it’s not so much the poor quality of play as it is the poor attendance at bowl games).. and sadly, Pitt has the worst reputation as a travel team.
The implementation of the new bowl at Yankee Stadium is actually a big plus since it is actaully a destination that most BE schools may go to.