Fail to Pitt

Pitt wants you to support the program and buy season tickets… but they sell their tickets on Stubhub for less!  

Yes, I know that Pitt clearly posts on their ticket site that tickets purchased for resale may be canceled.  However, as a previous season ticket holder for football and men’s and women’s basketball, I have taken issue with this after Pitt abruptly labeled me as a broker and cancelled my football season tickets in 2020 without any type of warning or notice.  You see, I have been reselling my tickets on Pitt’s integrated secondary ticket exchange on Stubhub for years, even though I continue to buy additional tickets (above my season ticket number) and still attend most games.

I believe Pitt decided to no longer turn a blind eye when they realized they could potentially make more money by selling their unsold tickets on Stubhub.  Did you know that Pitt sells their unsold seats (and plenty of them) on Stubhub for less than face value (savings shown below) without the need to make a donation?  I have known this for the past 2 seasons and continued to pay a premium and support the program with my donation.  Well my support for men’s basketball and football ended in 2020!  They learned that they could control the secondary market by releasing new tickets when other tickets sold.  This may sound great to other season ticket holders that Pitt is trying to drive up the secondary market price for those of you who resell tickets… but keep in mind they do not want you to resell your tickets.

To be clear, I am a 2004 Pitt alum and a fan and supporter of Pitt Athletics.  However, Pitt has decided they do not want me as a season ticket holder any longer and have prohibited me from renewing my season tickets.  I will continue to attend games and tailgate, but I will simply buy my tickets off Stubhub and save a lot of money in the process.

The bottom line is, Pitt has an attendance problem and should be doing everything they can to get fans in their seats!  Pitt Athletics is aware of this web site and continues to monitor it from the PITT NET (CIDR – 136.142.0.0/16).  (Yes Pitt, I can see your computers and phones accessing this site from the Pitt network).

My background as a Pitt donor and season ticket holder…

I have been a donor for many years, with my more significant donations occurring between 2014-2019.  For the 2019 football season, I had 4 lower level tickets in section 111 that cost $252 each plus a $100 / seat donation.  I never sat in these seats, and in fact sold them all via Pitt’s integrated secondary ticket exchange program with Stubhub.  

I took a loss of $110 per ticket from what I recouped on my Stubhub sales but I kept my season tickets to support the program.  

Then, I would use the same site to purchase other seats and sit in different sections depending on the time of day and weather (east side for sun, west side for shade, in the club for rain protection, etc.).  

As an example, I purchased 9 club tickets for Boston College and 5 club tickets for UVA – a quantity greater than what I bought from Pitt (4) and sold on Stubhub.

Pitt labeled me a broker for selling my 4 tickets and will not sell me season tickets anymore.  I have had multiple conversations (phone, email, in-person at basketball games) with Pitt Athletics (athletic directors, ticketing, fundraising, etc.) and shared all of this knowledge directly with them.  

While it is clear that they would not sell season tickets to me anymore, nor would I renew, they still want me to donate to their programs!

Wait.. do you have proof Pitt sells on Stubhub for lower prices?

Stubhub Example #1:  Pitt vs Boston College on November 30, 2019

I purchased 9 club tickets and took friends/family to the game.  Non-Pitt fans, who would never have attended had I not asked them to attend to help fill some of the 30,000+ empty seats.

I purchased 9 club seats in section 207, row J for $35 each including Stubhub fees.  These same seats purchased from Pitt as a season ticket would cost about $880 ($500 seat donation and $380 for the tickets).  The face value on this ticket was around $60.  As a season ticket holder, you could purchase additional club tickets from Pitt Ticketing for around $80 each.  However, Pitt is selling these same tickets on Stubhub for $35.  Don’t be confused – Pitt is
selling these tickets.  They are not from an existing season ticket holder who decided they could not attend the game.  I confirmed this with Pitt during one of my phone calls and can tell these tickets are for sale today for the upcoming 2020 season and thus unsold in 2019.

Stubhub Example #2:  Pitt vs UCF on September 21, 2019

This game was probably expected to be one of the highest attendance games in 2019.  Yet Pitt only managed to sell 42,056 tickets for a Saturday afternoon game that was prime for tailgating.

I purchased 4 club seats in section 232, row G for $65 each.  I choose to sit on the west side to be out of the afternoon sun.  Tickets on the east side (including my season tickets in section 111) are brutal in the September sun.

Face value was again roughly $60, so I paid $5 over face value versus had I purchased season tickets tickets from Pitt.  But, I saved paying the $500 per seat donation and also was able to sit exactly where I wanted to in the stadium to avoid the sun.  Just like in my first example, these identical
seats are for sale today from Pitt as season tickets and were not sold in 2019.

Stubhub Example #3:  Pitt vs UVA on August 31, 2019

Pitt managed to sell 47,144 tickets for this nighttime season opener.  The season opener is usually one of the highest attendance due to Rib Fest, Labor Day Weekend, and the first game after a long off-season.

I purchased 5 club seats in section 205, row B.  I wanted to be near the north shore bars and close to the field while remaining in the club.  I paid a slight premium of $75 per ticket ($60 face value) with fees.  I could have paid $60 to sit further back in the club.  Again, no need to make the annual seat donation and these seats also were unsold in 2019 and available for sale in 2020 from Pitt ticketing.  

What will I do moving forward?

If Pitt wants to play games, I will play right back – and I encourage everyone else does as well.  Pitt will probably see an increased number of season tickets sold in 2020, only because Notre Dame is coming to Heinz Field.  Everyone knows the Notre Dame game will be “sold out” but there will be 30,000+ seats available for all of the other games.  The Stubhub market will be FLOODED in 2020 with great seats to all of the games in 2020 (even ND, but not nearly as many tickets as the other 6 home games).  This happened in 2016 and 2018 with Penn State and you could easily pickup tickets for any of the non-PSU games for more than half off face value on Stubhub.  Even Penn State tickets in 2018 were going for face value a few days prior to the game and under face value the day off (rain).

Pitt’s actions have shown they want to bring in as much revenue as possible – not a surprise – but they are doing this at the expense of their loyal donors and season ticket holders.  Pitt wants more season ticket holders but there is no incentive to donate and become a season ticket holder.  They have made it clear that they will sell you the same tickets on Stubhub for less.

Pitt integrates their ticketing platform with Stubhub to make it convenient and easy for season ticket holders to resell & transfer their tickets.  This gives them full visibility into your transactions.  They want fans in the seats but will label you a broker if you sell too many tickets (yet they enable it).  In my many discussions with Pitt, it did not matter that I was purchasing 4, 5, 9, etc. tickets from Stubhub and still attending the football games while I listed my 4 season tickets for a loss.  Pitt made it clear to me they do not want fans doing this.  I can only guess the reason behind this… so Pitt can decide what tickets get listed on Stubhub, when they are listed (to not flood the market), and at what price.

Again, Pitt turned a blind eye when attendance has been on a decline.  At the first sign of attendance increasing though, reselling tickets is all of a sudden a problem.

Why risk the headache of what Pitt may do with your account and just cancel your season tickets.  You will save money buying seats on Stubhub or Craiglist and get to sit exactly where you want.