Sharp Decline in Steeler Viewership and Attendance Declining

[livingthrudying]

I think you have to take into consideration the newer generation doesn't watch much TV. They don't watch full games if at all. They want 90 second tik tok clip highlights. Then take into consideration the change across the pro sports landscape. YOu have too many players more worried about their "brand" or deciding to become quasi activists thru their sports notoriety. I don't mean just the national anthem. I think the average general public is tired of hearing about Aaron rodgers and his vaccine, or Lebron and whatever he is bitching about at the moment (without doing any proper research i might add). These are just the two examples i thought of at first (there's many more).

I just think more and more people are getting fed up with entitled athletes the their BS. I know i don't watch anywhere near as much as i used to.

 

[Tom Lynn-Zadeusch]

I heard on 93.7 The Fan this morning Ron Cook and Joe Starkey talking about local viewership for Steeler games has declined 10% and that attendance continues to go down as well. People calling in to the show were pretty much all universal on why the decline. The product is not the same as it had been in the past. Undisciplined, poorly prepared, not aggressive, not the tough physical team they once were. People just feel like its the same old same old so why invest any time and money.

I will add this and this is just my opinion to be clear. When attendance continues to dwindle and now they say viewership declines, this hits Art II in his pocketbook and that is what I think will bring change. And you add in interest in the team fading somewhat, that should get his attention.

So basically, TL;DR, Mike Tomlin is destroying the Steelers.

 

[diver]

I don't watch the Steelers nearly like I used to. But it is not because of entitled athletes, or the product on the field, or protests or whatever.

Before I was 21, I probably pushed the envelope with boozing more than I should have. When I turned 21, well, ****, I wasn't getting away with anything anymore, so a lot of the thrill was gone. I settled down a lot.

I am old enough to remember a lot of the 70s pretty well, especially from about '76. I always stated I wanted to see them win one as an adult. Well, they did that in '05 and '08, so that itch is kind of scratched. The edge is off. So now if it is a beautiful October afternoon, I'm on a trout stream.

I will say though the Ravens game this year I got intense like I used to. Ben's last game, the chance for the playoffs, it came back. It was kinda fun.

 

[Steelr4evr]

Oh yeah..that. Which brings up the question of will 7 ever be issued again...

Highly doubtful.

The Pittsburgh Steelers list of unofficially retired numbers

.

247sports.com

 

[MTC]

I don't watch the Steelers nearly like I used to. But it is not because of entitled athletes, or the product on the field, or protests or whatever.

Before I was 21, I probably pushed the envelope with boozing more than I should have. When I turned 21, well, ****, I wasn't getting away with anything anymore, so a lot of the thrill was gone. I settled down a lot.

I am old enough to remember a lot of the 70s pretty well, especially from about '76. I always stated I wanted to see them win one as an adult. Well, they did that in '05 and '08, so that itch is kind of scratched. The edge is off. So now if it is a beautiful October afternoon, I'm on a trout stream.

I will say though the Ravens game this year I got intense like I used to. Ben's last game, the chance for the playoffs, it came back. It was kinda fun.

I am in a similar situation like you. I’ve seen the Steelers win it twice, the Penguins win it 3 times in my lifetime. That said the team winning or losing has no real significant impact on my personal life. The teams give me an opportunity to come here and chat with fellow fans/community but as far as getting so emotionally invested to where it ruins your day or week. I think sports is the least of the worries at that point lol.


I do think athletes are entitled and make a lot of money for a few months a year. So just putting myself in their shoes.
1. Knowing the health toll football leaves on the body/mind. I’d be trying to cash out as much as I could in my career. I don’t blame them for seeking the bigger contract. Fans take it to heart more than the player.
2. Yeah a super bowl sounds nice and all and leaves the potential open for players who participate to market, but honestly, I don’t blame teams for not wanting to keep playing in January/February when you can be relaxing in cancun, miami beach, etc. All the chest pounding is more the fans/entertainment. The players are just doing their jobs. Legacy doesn’t pay the bills. The infatuation with some wanting to be remembered. We all end up six feet under anyways. We’re all dust after. Screw legacy. I just want to make life easy for me while I can. All the rest is just ego/novelty/instant gratification


So just in a very shallow nutshell. These players make a lot, and I don’t blame them one bit for seeking the next contract.

For me, I realize they’re entertainers. If they win they win, if they lose they lose. Life goes on.

 

[MTC]

Another Steeler QB wearing the #12...

Eh. It’s just a jersey number

 

[JMM]

Eh. It’s just a jersey number

He said it again!

 

[Gildong Sack]

Highly doubtful.

The Pittsburgh Steelers list of unofficially retired numbers

.

247sports.com

It sounds like a dumb question, but only Stautner and Joe Greene have their numbers officially retired, so they could bring back any of the other numbers.

With Bradshaw holding 4 rings I can see his stating unissued, but Ben only 2....1 of which he had a QB rating of 23 and didn't even matter much if he was in the game or not....well that's why I asked.

 

[MTC]

DITTO

When you have watched as much football as I have in the past as compared to current there is a huge drop off. I use to know the near entire NFL schedule for each week. I caught every game I could and highlights as well. Scores and more.

The product was a lot different then than it is now, for some they don't care as its all about stats / FF. Why the big advertisement push for "stat that" ???

Real football is gone and what's left is continuously watered down through player development / poor coaching / game manipulation / bravodo. Every divisional round game ended by last play of game, how is that even possible unless there is manipulation with-in the game?

So watching less and less nfl football is easy when you realize it isn't a game anymore but just entertainment and what story the league wants to write.



Salute the nation

Define real football. Football is a very trivial hobby in the grand scheme of things.

 

[MTC]

He said it again!

Yeah I said it. And?

 

[MTC]

He said it again!

I don’t look up to football players. I don’t care what Joe Greene or Jack Lambert would have to say. If another grown man is scared of another grown man because “oh he plays the foozball meaner” well is the scared man even a man to begin with?


Don’t get me wrong. I do have numbers that I like a lot that mean something to me. But who cares if they get re-issued at the pro sports level.

All the history/tradition behind it is all just novelty for the fan. Football teams are big investments now. As long as they meet financial quota they’ll keep chugging along the money train.

 

[JMM]

Yeah I said it. And?

And what?

 

[MTC]

And what?

And?…….












I’m messing with ya JMM

 

[JMM]

I don’t look up to football players. I don’t care what Joe Greene or Jack Lambert would have to say. If another grown man is scared of another grown man because “oh he plays the foozball meaner” well is the scared man even a man to begin with?


Don’t get me wrong. I do have numbers that I like a lot that mean something to me. But who cares if they get re-issued at the pro sports level.

All the history/tradition behind it is all just novelty for the fan. Football teams are big investments now. As long as they meet financial quota they’ll keep chugging along the money train.

I guess you and I see different on this and that is cool but I think the legends of their respective teams should have their numbers retired. I think it would be a disservice to 66 and 87 to have someone else have that number skating for the Pens. I make the same comparison to #12 for the Steelers and #8 for the Pirates but that's just my .02 and it is not worth that much.

 

[MTC]

I guess you and I see different on this and that is cool but I think the legends of their respective teams should have their numbers retired. I think it would be a disservice to 66 and 87 to have someone else have that number skating for the Pens. I make the same comparison to #12 for the Steelers and #8 for the Pirates but that's just my .02 and it is not worth that much.

Yeah we see different. But that’s only because we view pro sports different. I do get it however especially for players who actually retired with said team and did give their all. But that’s between them and the organization

 

[MTC]

None of our 2 cents is worth much JMM. Just find what you enjoy in life and actually enjoy it.

<If it brings you heartache, frustration, sense of living. Like pro sports do for some. Step back and re-evaluate priorities.
*I don’t mean you personally* lol>

 

[Steelr4evr]

None of our 2 cents is worth much JMM. Just find what you enjoy in life and actually enjoy it.

<If it brings you heartache, frustration, sense of living. Like pro sports do for some. Step back and re-evaluate priorities.
*I don’t mean you personally* lol>

This sums it up. It is just entertainment. It's great entertainment when your team goes all the way and beats everyone. The connection with old school fans from the 1970,s on is something completely different than what we have today. Many of us had to move away from the area and spread to every corner of the country, but the Steeler connection stayed. Which used to be blue collar physical style football,which was aggressive and nasty.Plus they had probably the greatest team in NFL history during those years.

It's more than just entertainment for a lot of folks. The fans you see taking over stadiums all around the country when the Steelers visit, are already there. The fathers bring their sons and daughters. It's their connection to back home before the mass exodus out of Western,PA that started with the steel mills closing.

Every single member of my extended family left. We'd been in the area since the early 1700's. All of them are still Steeler fans and it definitely irks the hell out of them to see the slow metamorphosis of the team to something they no longer recognize.

In probability another 20-30 years those old connections and teams will mostly be forgotten. The old school folks will be the Cowher/Big Ben/Tomlin years. The connection won't be the same though.

 

[MTC]

This sums it up. It is just entertainment. It's great entertainment when your team goes all the way and beats everyone. The connection with old school fans from the 1970,s on is something completely different than what we have today. Many of us had to move away from the area and spread to every corner of the country, but the Steeler connection stayed. Which used to be blue collar physical style football,which was aggressive and nasty.Plus they had probably the greatest team in NFL history during those years.

It's more than just entertainment for a lot of folks. The fans you see taking over stadiums all around the country when the Steelers visit, are already there. The fathers bring their sons and daughters. It's their connection to back home before the mass exodus out of Western,PA that started with the steel mills closing.

Every single member of my extended family left. We'd been in the area since the early 1700's. All of them are still Steeler fans and it definitely irks the hell out of them to see the slow metamorphosis of the team to something they no longer recognize.

In probability another 20-30 years those old connections and teams will mostly be forgotten. The old school folks will be the Cowher/Big Ben/Tomlin years. The connection won't be the same though.

You and JMM grew up in that era. The connection runs deeper for you guys.

I grew up in an era where sports were more corporate. It’s hard for me to see it cause I didn’t live it. I do feel some emotional connection towards UGA. But being an alum, my oldest son being born there. That state has a place in my heart.


That said even if UGA loses. I’m more disappointed than mad

 

[Ike Kelly]

So basically, TL;DR, Mike Tomlin is destroying the Steelers.

Well Hello Bob! Welcome back.

 

[Black & Gold Bleeder]

Well Hello Bob! Welcome back.

Yep. Hey Coooolieeeeee ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, we got herpes again...

 

[diver]

This sums it up. It is just entertainment. It's great entertainment when your team goes all the way and beats everyone. The connection with old school fans from the 1970,s on is something completely different than what we have today. Many of us had to move away from the area and spread to every corner of the country, but the Steeler connection stayed. Which used to be blue collar physical style football,which was aggressive and nasty.Plus they had probably the greatest team in NFL history during those years.

It's more than just entertainment for a lot of folks. The fans you see taking over stadiums all around the country when the Steelers visit, are already there. The fathers bring their sons and daughters. It's their connection to back home before the mass exodus out of Western,PA that started with the steel mills closing.

Every single member of my extended family left. We'd been in the area since the early 1700's. All of them are still Steeler fans and it definitely irks the hell out of them to see the slow metamorphosis of the team to something they no longer recognize.

In probability another 20-30 years those old connections and teams will mostly be forgotten. The old school folks will be the Cowher/Big Ben/Tomlin years. The connection won't be the same though.

Those were some fun years, huh?

I think to the shame of the NFL they have tried to rid themselves of some of those fans. I think the corporate NFL is embarrassed by intense old school fans, so they price them out of the stadiums. And intense old school fans are different than fans who go just to be ********. The NFL has never quite figured out the difference.

I was at an Eagles game in the Vet many years ago. It was around that time they put the courtroom in after some ******* shot a flare across the stadium. Anyway, there was always crap going on around there. But at this game there was a guy there, probably in his 50s, just watching. He was demonstrative when something went right or wrong, but minding his own. A group of guys behind him were being obnoxious, and at some point he gets beer spilled on him. He had had enough, and he turns around and belts the guy. He got taken out by security and everyone in the section was yelling to let him alone, the other guys were the problem. But that kind of fan is the old school type, and gets lumped in with the ********.

 

[diver]

Yeah, it was '97, Steelers Eagles when they lost to Bobby Hoying.

And we lose our **** when Tomlin loses to bad teams with subpar QBs. Haha.

 

[MTC]

Those were some fun years, huh?

I think to the shame of the NFL they have tried to rid themselves of some of those fans. I think the corporate NFL is embarrassed by intense old school fans, so they price them out of the stadiums. And intense old school fans are different than fans who go just to be ********. The NFL has never quite figured out the difference.

I was at an Eagles game in the Vet many years ago. It was around that time they put the courtroom in after some ******* shot a flare across the stadium. Anyway, there was always crap going on around there. But at this game there was a guy there, probably in his 50s, just watching. He was demonstrative when something went right or wrong, but minding his own. A group of guys behind him were being obnoxious, and at some point he gets beer spilled on him. He had had enough, and he turns around and belts the guy. He got taken out by security and everyone in the section was yelling to let him alone, the other guys were the problem. But that kind of fan is the old school type, and gets lumped in with the ********.

See, how some people can let a spectating event that is meant for entertainment dictate their judgement like that - yes I know alcohol is included. But the older I get, the more silly it seems for grown men to subject to that type of behavior. I think sports tend to touch a tribal gene or something. Just a sense of belonging lol.

 

[FSF]

Eh, Steelers fans have high expectations and the madness would return after a few years of being at or near the bottom.

 

[Steelr4evr]

See, how some people can let a spectating event that is meant for entertainment dictate their judgement like that - yes I know alcohol is included. But the older I get, the more silly it seems for grown men to subject to that type of behavior. I think sports tend to touch a tribal gene or something. Just a sense of belonging lol.

Alcohol and sporting evenings don't mix. Drunk people are ******** in general. If you add in large groups of drunk ******** in the thousands, **** is going to happen. Rival team sporting events big time fights every single game.


Hell my father had his windows smashed out of his car attending a steeler game in Cleveland during the 70's just because he had Pennsylvania plates.