Comments on: Pirates, nearly .500, seeing boost in attendance at PNC Park

By: winkeroni

winkeroni — Mon, 23 May 2011 12:53:05 +0000

MLB teams need to start having the types of promotions the minor league squads have if they are struggling to get people into the park. If a team attracts 30-40k fans a game then they may not need promotions but if they attract less than 10k nothing will fill up the seats like cheap seats and $1 beers.

By: stairwayto7

stairwayto7 — Mon, 23 May 2011 03:08:26 +0000

PNC is the best ball park hands down! You can see the city, no dead ivy on the walls, no 3 foot wall then a 37 foot wall, no roof that is always closed when temp is over 75 degrees plus the scoreboard is accurate! They scow where the runners are at other games, not saying 2-1 bottom of 5th!

By: royhobbs39

royhobbs39 — Mon, 23 May 2011 00:08:29 +0000

They also have the Red Sox coming in for an interleague game in late June. They really lucked out with their home schedule. Too bad they do not put it back into their system.

By: nocryinginbaseball07

nocryinginbaseball07 — Sun, 22 May 2011 23:11:35 +0000

Not a Bucs fan, but I know the passion Pirates fans have always had. Great sports town; all they need is a little incentive to get them to the ballpark. Was in Pittsburgh this weekend; PNC truly is an amazing park, and the excitement in town was thick.

By: aceshigh11

aceshigh11 — Sun, 22 May 2011 20:58:02 +0000

Heheh.

By: florida76

florida76 — Sun, 22 May 2011 18:34:16 +0000

Sure, stadium location is important, but so is tradition. Tampa has very little baseball tradition of its own, and the issue of the location of Tropiciana Field was a minor one when the Rays were horrible. Having lived in the Tampa Bay area during those years, that is an indisputable fact. The organization, media, fan base, and political leaders all blamed the poor attendance to a bad team, rarely did the bad stadium and location enter the discussion.

Now that Tampa has a winning team, along with a huge population in that market, you can’t turn around and suddenly say the stadium quality/location is a big reason for the disappointing attendance.

By: jimbo1949

jimbo1949 — Sun, 22 May 2011 17:00:45 +0000

No wonder Leyland was upset about having to go back to Pittsburgh, err, uh, Interleague games. Yeah, Interleague games, that’s the ticket.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Sun, 22 May 2011 15:42:29 +0000

If they stuck PNC Park another fifteen or twenty miles up into the hills, connected it to town by the two or three most congested roads in the state and redesigned it so that it looked like an inverted concrete plantar’s wart, I assure you they could win sixty five percent of their games and draw no better than the Razed.

By: missthemexpos

missthemexpos — Sun, 22 May 2011 15:40:49 +0000

WINNING, DUH!

By: samu0034

samu0034 — Sun, 22 May 2011 15:07:17 +0000

It’s a beautiful ballpark, easily my favorite that I’ve been to. All people need is an excuse, the chance to see a team that they’re not embarrassed by.

By: wildinkc

wildinkc — Sun, 22 May 2011 15:06:12 +0000

Hold on wait, Do you mean to tell me that when a team is winning fans will actually show up(unless your Tampa bay) , and when a team is loosing no one will show up.

By: kingjoe1

kingjoe1 — Sun, 22 May 2011 14:44:59 +0000

Really??? I had no idea that a team worth watching would draw more fans. Amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!