All seats sold out for Pitt-WVU Backyard Brawl on Sept. 1
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The first Pitt game under the Acrisure Stadium name is a sellout.
Pitt’s athletic department announced Friday morning there are no seats remaining for the Backyard Brawl on Sept. 1 between the Panthers and West Virginia.
“When (sales) opened up, 15 minutes later it was sold out,” coach Pat Narduzzi said Friday morning. “We felt that was going to happen. We hope to break the (attendance) record.”
Narduzzi on the Brawl, pre-practice Friday morning. pic.twitter.com/ZcrR3kkqrJ
— Jerry DiPaola (@JDiPaola_Trib) August 5, 2022
The record attendance for a sporting event at the stadium formerly known as Heinz Field (excluding Garth Brooks and Kenny Chesney concerts) is 69,983 for the Penn State/Pitt game on Sept. 10, 2016. The Steelers’ record attendance is 68,574 for the New England Patriots game Dec. 17, 2017.
In an attempt to break its record, Pitt put a limited number of standing room only tickets on sale Friday morning. They are $125 each and only two per customer.
Athletic director Heather Lyke also announced that the defending ACC champions increased season-ticket sales by 45% while season ticket renewal is nearly 100%.
The game will be the first between two historic rivals since 2011 in Morgantown, W. Va. It will be televised by ESPN at 7 p.m., and Acrisure will be the site of the network’s popular “College GameDay” program.
Narduzzi said his players are thinking about the game, but not to the detriment of their basic training camp work. Nonetheless, the staff has been working toward the WVU game for a long time.
“Every day you’re working towards West Virginia,” he said. “But the first thing is you’re worried about Pitt. If we’re so worried about something way far in front of us, we got issues.
“Obviously, kids think about it. (Reporters) think about it. The (players’) focus is really on Pitt and what we’re doing to be better.
“But, as coaches, we’re older, more mature, we can kind of figure that out. We’ve done a lot of mental work, film work, all that stuff (on West Virginia). Now, we put that aside and we’re focusing on just getting better as a football team.”