Saturday’s Pitt-Virginia game had a 12-minute stretch of fourth-quarter TV with nine minutes of commercials.
And you wonder why people hate going to games anymore.
Incidentally, the box score reports attendance at the game at just over 45,000. Um, no. The stadium holds 69,400. Every TV shot that showed the upper deck and the end zone opposite the student section had seas of empty yellow seats.
No way they were over 67 percent capacity. It wasn’t 50 percent.
I digress.
Back to the game interrupting your commercial breaks: Pitt called a timeout with 11:46 left, up 34-31, exciting game, key moments in time, with the Panthers threatening in UVA territory.
Three-minute commercial break.
Pitt runs two plays, and QB Kenny Pickett has to leave after taking a hit on the second one, leading to another three-minute commercial break.
A pass-interference penalty on Virginia on fourth down keeps the Pitt drive alive.
We get one more snap, then another injury timeout.
Another three-minute commercial break.
Eleven minutes of time, four plays from scrimmage, three three-minute commercial breaks.
It was interminably long having to sit through them at home. I can’t imagine how awful that had to have been in person, but then, not a lot of people had to endure that, at least.
ESPN and the ACC have to make their money, I get that.
But turning people away from the games in record numbers maybe isn’t good for business long-term.
Story by Chris Graham
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