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CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — The 2017 season was a rough one for Pitt football, with the Panthers finishing 5-7 and excluded from the playoffs for the first time in a decade.
It was also a tough year at the box office for the Panthers, with an average of 36,295 fans coming through the gates at Heinz Field, the second-lowest attendance in the stadium’s history.
While the on-field issues clearly fall under head coach Pat Narduzzi’s purview when it comes to making corrections for 2018, the attendance issues are a bit broader.
Overall, attendance at NCAA FBS games in 2017 fell 3% from 2016, the largest per-season decline in college football history and the third consecutive season of decline.
Pitt’s attendance dropped 21.2% between 2016 and 2017, although that likely had a lot more to do with the team’s declining fortunes and the lack of a marquee opponent like Penn State in 2016 than with a structural failure of the program.
Penn State, September 10, 2016 (Photo credit: David Hague)
It’s an issue that has affected most of the ACC’s 14 football teams, and one that has led to serious discussions about what can be done with ACC Commissioner John Swofford’s office.
“That’s one of the benefits of a conference is that schools can spend time together and share ideas and what works and what doesn’t, because we are in a period where the capacity of people watching a game is phenomenal, you know, whether it’s your phone or your living room, and it’s a quality experience, especially in your living room,” Swofford said Wednesday at the launch of the game. ACC.
One of the things the ACC keeps coming back to is game experience. For Pitt, this issue can be tricky. There’s not much the Panthers can do as part-time tenants of Heinz Field. But it appears many of the changes Pitt athletic director Heather Lyke made, including rearranging seating, moving the band and student section for 2018, were made with that goal in mind.
“I think what our schools are finding is sharing that kind of information about the stadium experience and also modernizing stadiums and upgrading them, so to speak, so that the experience in the game is as good as it can be, and that can start on the field with the product, and it can also start on the field pursuing the play,” Swofford said.
The other thing the conference is working toward is more within their control. Figuring that a younger generation will be more easily captivated by a product that comes in smaller packaging, Swofford and company hope to continue working to reduce the length of games.
“We are continually working to reduce the length of matches,” he said. “I stress this topic all the time with our officials in particular, so I’m happy to tell you that the ACC, in terms of conference games, we’ve had the shortest length of conference games of all of our peer conferences last year and I think the year before as well, if I’m not mistaken. And that’s a good thing.
“We continue to look at rule changes that could also shorten the game, because Major League Baseball is facing this problem right now, with attendance down and people complaining about the length of games and rule changes they attempt to make without taking away the soul of the game itself.
“But I think it’s a trend we need to watch.” You want to develop young fans. You want to turn students into fans while they’re there, because usually they’re the ones who keep going, and when they have success in life, they give back to our booster clubs and universities. So it’s an overall question that’s about the field, it’s about the total fan experience, from parking to concessions to restrooms to the comfort of their seat and the reception they can get on their mobile phone while they are in the stadium. You know, all these things come into play.
