If there is any doubt about what fan base is the best in that National Football League and perhaps anywhere in the world, all one needed to do was witness the Pittsburgh Steelers versus the Las Vegas Raiders on October 13. The number of Black and Gold fans in Allegiant Stadium was simply insane.
Projections of 80%-20% may have been a bit exaggerated, but there is no doubt that Steelers fans outnumbered Raiders fans. This should come as no surprise to anyone. Watch any Pittsburgh Steelers road game and you will see the same scene. Pittsburgh faithful appear in away games in droves. Why?
You often hear that Steelers fans travel well, maybe better than any other fan base. Yes, they do travel. However, like myself, many fans are already living in other NFL cities. Some travel and some live there, so it becomes easy to attend a Steelers game. Due to the collapse of the steel industry in Pittsburgh that reached its peak in the 1980s, thousands of Pittsburghers moved to new homes in other cities.
When I moved to Jacksonville, I often listened to a local sports radio show with former Jaguars linebacker Tom McManus aa co-host and joined by Mike Dempsey. The Steelers were coming to Florida to play the Jags on Sunday, December 5 and Sunday night football. I called the McManus show and asked how many Steelers fans did he think would show in what was then Alltel Stadium.
Dempsey proceeded to say that he thought it would be about 5,000 fans. My response was, “are you crazy?” Come Sunday as opening kickoff was about to happen, I was standing at my seat and looked around finding myself simply amazed at the sight. Terrible Towels flying everywhere. In my estimation, we Steelers fans took up at least half the stadium.
With the official attendance at 76,877 my guess would be at least 30,000 fans. The next day I called the show again and Dempsey refused to acknowledge the real number of fans and would only say it was about 15,000. He then went on to say Steelers Nation is a myth. To prove him wrong, at that time I was President of the local Steelers fan club and had access to hundreds of emails. I sent out an email blast to that list and after one day, he was pleading to make it stop. His mailbox had received over 800 emails from Steelers faithful everywhere.
So, the next time you hear anyone disputing which fan is the best, just tune into a Steelers road game and the answer will come easy.
