Where Were all Those "Great" Steelers Fans?
Written by B-Dub, Wednesday February 04 2009
If you throw a Super Bowl Championship Parade and nobody shows up, does it even count?
That's the question that needs to be asked of all these so-called "great" Steelers fans. It seems that the city of Pittsburgh, which was oh so cleverly renamed "Sixburgh" on the day of the parade for their sixth Super Bowl Championship, could hardly muster up a big enough crowd to exceed the fire code in a nightclub.
Apparently only an estimated 300,000 people showed up for the Steelers Championship parade in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. How can a fanbase like the Steelers be considered "great" when only 300,000 people show up for a Super Bowl parade? The answer is that they can't. Or at least that they shouldn't be considered "great". I always thought that the Steelers fans were rabid for their football team. I thought that Pittsburgh was a football town and that's why they couldn't sell out any playoff games for the Pirates during their great runs in the 70s. I guess I mistaken huh?
The small band of real Steelers fans, who braved the bitter cold weather to cheer on their team's accomplishments, should be commended. Those are the hard-core fans. The ones who deserve to root for a winner. The problem is that having only 300,000 of a team's fans show up for a parade is pathetic. And using the cold weather as an excuse for the low turnout is just lame. The Philadelphia Phillies just had a World "Phucking" Championship parade through the heart of Philadelphia and an estimated 2 Million fans showed up. Now that's a fanbase. The fans in "Bitchsburgh" should take notes. 300,000? There are literally more people than that on the waiting list for season tickets for the Philadelphia Eagles. Really. If the Eagles ever won a Super Bowl, I guarantee there would be over 3 Million at that parade. Note: The Eagles will never win a Super as long and Andy Reid is "running" (pun intended) the team and Donovan McNabb is "leading" (another pun intended) the team at QB.
One could make the point that maybe the Steelers fans are bored with parades, since this was their unprecedented sixth Super Bowl Championship. Too bad that's not the case. Sure the Steelers won the Super Bowl just 3 years earlier, but that parade only attracted 250,000 fans. What the hell is wrong with these fans? I understand that things are tough in Pittsburgh with the collapse of the steel industry, but if all those former steel-mill workers are unemployed wouldn't that mean that they have plenty of free time to attend a parade? Yeah, yeah, I know. Send the hate mail. I can take it.
Maybe the reason that Pittsburgh teams can't attract fans isn't because of the teams' performances. The media always points to the losing ways of the Pittsburgh Pirates to explain why they never attract any fans. While it's true that they are about to break the record of 16 straight losing seasons set by the Philadelphia Phillies from 1933-1948, maybe it has more to do with the fans themselves. The Pirates won in the 70's and nobody went. The Steelers win and nobody goes to the parade. The Pittsburgh Pisces won a title behind Moses Guthrie and the movie tanked at the box office. It just doesn't add up.
Maybe it's not about bad teams in Pittsburgh, maybe it's about bad fans in Pittsburgh. Again, these Steelers fans are what the national media describes as a "great" fanbase? I think not. If you want to see true fans, you need to look further East in the great state of Pennsylvania. You might even still find a bit of confetti in the streets of Philadelphia from the last parade where 2 Million real fans showed up to celebrate a Championship team with a victory parade. 2 Million fans at a parade. Can you imagine that? The "fans" in Pittsburgh sure as hell can't.
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20 comments
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Dan, when a city like Philadelphia, who's fans are actually great, can get 2 Million for a parade, then yeah 300,000 is pathetic. Hopper, you're just a Jackass like me. But that's a good thing. At least we're honest.
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Is 300K not a lot of people? That seems like a lot of people.
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Which one am I?
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Trenton, the closest you'll ever come to "tits" is when you type that screen name of yours. That's pretty impressive in how SAD it is. I'll take the "Jackass" comment as a compliment. In sports writing you're either a "Jackass" or a "Kissass".
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Boozehag, all I was doing was responding to all the "great" Steelers fans who calimed that "Steeler Nation" was everywhere. THAT is the most illogical agruement I've ever heard when compared to the FACTS. No matter how you defend it, only 300,00 for a Championship parade is LAME. Why don't you go quote me a few more incorrect numbers to back up your ridiculous arguemnt. I now blame you for all that is wrong with the Eagles, since you are obviously one of those dopes who defends McNabb and Reid.
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I totally agree with you, yet you're still a jackass. That's pretty impressive.
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Wow! Was that a challenege to the all-mighty B-Dub?
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This is by far one of the dumbest commentaries I have read in a long time. The population of Philadelphia and its immediate suburbs is around 5 million people. The population of all of Allegheny County (this includes the City of Pittsburgh) is less than 1.3 million. Pittsburgh City itself only has about 300,000 residents, so I'd say that a crowd estimated at 350,000 is a pretty effing good turnout, wouldn't you? So unless people flew in from all over the country, there is no physical way to achieve a parade of over 1 million attendees as they did for the Phillies parade. And before you jump to any conclusions, I am an EAGLES fan first and foremost (much to my chagrin), I am simply pointing out the illogical argument you pose here.
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Steelers 6, that is easily the LAMEST excuse I have EVER heard. You sir, are a complete Douchebag. And you are also delusional. 300,000 is a joke. You should be ashamed. And you can have the people in France, because there is no way any of those Cheese-eating Surrender Monkeys in France would be accepted as an Eagles fan. We have standards in Philadelphia.
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Jealousy is truly terrible thing. We do not need Steeler Nation to fly in from all over the world (after having just spend a small fortune to fill the stadium so the Steelers would feel like they were right at home!) to know that we have the largest, greatest fan base in all the sports world. The Steelers have fans in every state in this nation and on on every continent on this planet. While many of us hold positions that did permit us to attend the all day festivities, our hearts were still beating in tune with the music as the black and gold blood pulsed through our veins and we watched online, or caught updates on the news! We do live in a modern age where technology keeps us all connected, Mr. B-Dub. I have news for you. People from Brazil, France, and all over the world participated in the parade from their living rooms.
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SeanO, you poor, misguided fool. So what if the population of Pittsburgh is less than Philadelphia? Do you think all 2 MILLION fans at the Phillies parade were from the city of Philadelphia? Of course they weren't. Hell I think I was stuck with over 1 Million of them on the trains out of the city, going back to the surrounding suburbs. And the Steelers Super Bowl parade 3 years ago only drew 250,000 and that was after almost a 30 year wait since their last Super Bowl win. Maybe if you stopped reading a rag like the Wall Street Journal and read my insightful articles more closely you would sound smarter.
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Man Jay I thought I was tough on the "fans" of Pittsburgh. Nice.
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Pittsburgh is a MUCH smaller town than Philly, and losing population everyday. In fact, I just read in the Wall Street Journal that the population of Pittsburgh is now less than the population of TOLEDO. 300,000 actually sounds pretty impressive when you consider that. And the Pittsburgh fan base doesn't have to wait a quarter century between parades like Philly does.
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Another great article from the Mayor of Philly, B-Dub! I'm so tired of Steelers Nation... The burg is a D-Level Town that can't even pull over 500K fans for their parade. That is pathetic!!!
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Only 300k fans in attendance for a Superbowl parade? That’s sad.....
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there will be a parade on broad st. a second phillies parade in 8 months
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Trophy envy...I can relate
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Great job, B-dub. Hopefully, one day in our lifetime. . . .
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can you see it. donovan leading the parade down broad street just like pat burrell. nah! me neither
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Congrats on a well-deserved feature. It was another great article from the great B-Dub!