David_Hilliard
Loves Spam
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2007
- Posts
- 464
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/seate/s_543263.html
I don't know many young black men who dig classic rock, but I spotted several dancing to the stuff this past weekend.
No, I hadn't entered a warp in the space-time continuum where WDVE played Kanye West and 50 Cent opened for Bruce Springsteen at Mellon Arena. I just ventured to a Steelers game, where the culture of the people watching the game and the culture of those playing it could not be more different.
I first heard about this from black readers who attended professional football games.
They returned complaining about country music blaring out of the Heinz Field public address system and a dearth of black faces in the bleachers. Their observations rang true on Sunday, as I watched a mostly black Steelers team play before a crowd that was whiter than Christmas dinner at Ann Coulter's crib.
Though 70 percent of National Football League players are black, according to the league, I saw few blacks in the stands. Well, at least few who weren't pounding the stairs selling $6 beers and $4 Cokes.
I heard an Anglo selection of songs over the stadium speakers, including The Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up," Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train," and a heavy metal anthem by Australian rockers AC/DC.
The overall effect was disconcerting. Kind of like if you attended a rodeo where most of the cowpokes competing in the event were genuine, WASP bronco busters -- but the audience was made up almost entirely of Cantonese extraction. They munched on moo shu chicken, sipped rice wine and rejoiced to the sound of gongs banging each time a bull was ridden.
Of course, your average Steelers fan, judging from the folks I saw at Sunday's game, might not see things in such black-and-white terms.
Expensive game tickets and personal seat licenses sold to season ticketholders at Heinz Field are open to anyone. But with the per capita income for blacks in Allegheny County amounting to only 54 percent of the income earned by whites, according to a University of Pittsburgh economic benchmarks report, it's easy to understand why the Steelers team colors may be black and gold, but its audience is monochromatic.
I couldn't get anyone from the Steelers organization to talk about this, but I suspect the problem has something to do with money. The personal seat licenses necessary to own season tickets cost between $250 and $2,700, but they exchange hands so many times that when owners decide to resell they cost much more. And the $60 or so it costs to land a ticket might not seem like a lot of money, but it's a lot more than most black families I know can afford.
So just because we're not visible in the stands doesn't mean black Pittsburghers don't enjoy the Steelers. It just means many of us can't afford to enjoy them in person.
I don't know many young black men who dig classic rock, but I spotted several dancing to the stuff this past weekend.
No, I hadn't entered a warp in the space-time continuum where WDVE played Kanye West and 50 Cent opened for Bruce Springsteen at Mellon Arena. I just ventured to a Steelers game, where the culture of the people watching the game and the culture of those playing it could not be more different.
I first heard about this from black readers who attended professional football games.
They returned complaining about country music blaring out of the Heinz Field public address system and a dearth of black faces in the bleachers. Their observations rang true on Sunday, as I watched a mostly black Steelers team play before a crowd that was whiter than Christmas dinner at Ann Coulter's crib.
Though 70 percent of National Football League players are black, according to the league, I saw few blacks in the stands. Well, at least few who weren't pounding the stairs selling $6 beers and $4 Cokes.
I heard an Anglo selection of songs over the stadium speakers, including The Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up," Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train," and a heavy metal anthem by Australian rockers AC/DC.
The overall effect was disconcerting. Kind of like if you attended a rodeo where most of the cowpokes competing in the event were genuine, WASP bronco busters -- but the audience was made up almost entirely of Cantonese extraction. They munched on moo shu chicken, sipped rice wine and rejoiced to the sound of gongs banging each time a bull was ridden.
Of course, your average Steelers fan, judging from the folks I saw at Sunday's game, might not see things in such black-and-white terms.
Expensive game tickets and personal seat licenses sold to season ticketholders at Heinz Field are open to anyone. But with the per capita income for blacks in Allegheny County amounting to only 54 percent of the income earned by whites, according to a University of Pittsburgh economic benchmarks report, it's easy to understand why the Steelers team colors may be black and gold, but its audience is monochromatic.
I couldn't get anyone from the Steelers organization to talk about this, but I suspect the problem has something to do with money. The personal seat licenses necessary to own season tickets cost between $250 and $2,700, but they exchange hands so many times that when owners decide to resell they cost much more. And the $60 or so it costs to land a ticket might not seem like a lot of money, but it's a lot more than most black families I know can afford.
So just because we're not visible in the stands doesn't mean black Pittsburghers don't enjoy the Steelers. It just means many of us can't afford to enjoy them in person.
