Pitt Men's Basketball Struggles With Attendance As AD, New Coach Try To Rejuvenate Program

The first five Pitt men's basketball home games this season have "accounted for five of the 11 lowest-attended regular-season games" in the Petersen Events Center's 14-year history, with the "pockets of empty seats and relatively stale atmosphere standing in stark contrast to how it was even five or six years ago," according to Craig Meyer of the PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE. With new coach Kevin Stallings and several renovations made to the arena, the "glaring dip is puzzling and seems to hint at a deeper, more fundamental problem that faces the program." Pitt AD Scott Barnes earlier this month said, "This isn’t about one year; this is about a gradual decrease of our season-ticket base for three-plus years. It’s obviously something we’re dealing with, but I’ll tell you, it’s not unlike what a lot of my colleagues and even when I was a member of the men’s basketball committee talk a lot about." Meyer noted Pitt's "relatively weak home non-conference schedule" likely will "pale in comparison" to what it will draw for ACC games. However, the move to bring in Stallings to replace Jamie Dixon after he left for TCU was "met with, at best, a lukewarm reception, something that likely mitigated the excitement that generally carries over with coaching hires." Barnes and the Pitt athletic department have "made it a priority to re-engage the school’s fan base, in men’s basketball and in other sports." In an attempt to broaden Pitt's customer base, Barnes "emphasized mini-plans that offered tickets to a handful of games instead of the entire season, an area in which he said there was growth in sales" (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 12/17).

NOTES: * = Includes one home game in the postseason National Invitation Tournament. ** = First season in the ACC. *** = Includes four home games in the College Basketball Invitational tournament. ^ = School-record.