This year's sales at our Downtown HQ/shop have already surpassed our 2022 total, and that's with our four biggest months to go.
And the first big day of those four biggest months comes ... today.
True story: A few years ago, the late Dan Rooney told me that roughly 40% of the Steelers' season-ticket base lives nowhere near our region. And he didn't just mean Pittsburgh. He meant the entire tri-state area of Western Pennsylvania.
I found that stunning, almost difficult to believe. But not so much now that we're both living and working right here in the Golden Triangle, since we've gotten to see the migration patterns firsthand for every NFL weekend in town. They'll start arriving Friday afternoons, whether flying or driving, they'll pack all our hotels, they'll prompt the outrageous raising of all the rates to $300 or even $400 a night ...
Hotel rates for Downtown Pittsburgh, as of Friday night.
... they'll eat up the waiting lists for all our restaurants, they'll flood our stores and sidewalks and, of course, they'll make a lot of people here very happy.
It's been a big-time uplifting summer here. Downtown's back up to 100% of our usual visitor density, a great rarity any major city anywhere in the world, and that's before the coming NFL regular season and, remember, without any Stanley Cup playoffs this past spring. Hotel occupancy is back up to 91%, also a rarity. We're even back up to 63% of workers having returned to the office, the seventh-highest such figure in the United States. And now that Highmark's just joined the list of companies bringing employees back, that'll only add to all this data from the past month alone:
PITTSBURGH DOWNTOWN PARTNERSHIP
August 2023 data for Downtown Pittsburgh vitality.
All of which is welcome and wonderful for this small slice of our overall company.
But when it comes to our HQ/shop at 224 Fifth Avenue, there's no impact like the Steelers.
Fans come from all over and, as they're moving about Downtown, they see our huge sign out on Fifth and, even if they've never heard of us as a media company, they'll stop in to see what we've got. Many are from the D.C. region or New York or Philly, mostly products of the generation that was forced to leave with the mass closing of steel mills in the 1980s. Lots are from Canada. Lots are from California.
And my goodness, I'd be remiss if I didn't make special mention of the many, many fans who fly up from Mexico. I'm not sure we could come close to quantifying the amount of our sales that've come from Mexicans traveling up here, but it's been our single greatest surprise in this endeavor. They not only love the team but also the shop and the city. Nothing but good things.
(To all our Mexican readers, viewers and listeners: Know that we love you. And when the Steelers return the favor by playing in Mexico City within the next two seasons -- so I'm told -- I'll be buying from your independent businesses, too.)
In the meantime, we're ready for Year 2 and better prepared, as well. We've added Steelers clothing, caps, brand new Funko Pops of Kenny Pickett and T.J. Watt and, given the forecast for Sunday, black-and-gold ponchos. We don't pretend to be complete, but we're proud of the selection and quality that's offered.
Plus, we're happy to meet/see anyone who's been with us and supported us. Gives us a chance to say thanks.
Be sure to stop by!
FEEDS AREN'T READY
I'd told everyone a few weeks back that our deadline for installing the new feeds and comments would be the Steelers-49ers kickoff and, well, that won't happen. A good percentage of it's ready, but testing isn't done, and the last thing I'd want to allow is our app/site getting experimental when it's needed the most.
Know what I mean? Let's just get through a heavy traffic day Sunday, then get back to the build.
On the bright side, we do have custom emojis for all of our full-time staffers, plus a Lunatic Brick. These are amazing.
THOSE JUMPING ADS
I'll save everyone the complaints in the comments: When our ads refresh, they can make the text of an article jump. We're aware of that. So's our Vancouver-based ad server. But until a specific change is generated by BoomPress, there's nothing that can be done to stop the jumping. And we had BoomPress working on the feeds, the comments and a new payment platform instead.
We'll get there.
MILITARY DRIVE: 326
The quietest week yet for our annual Military Drive, aimed at connecting 1,000 veterans of our Armed Forces to a one-year subscription, in that we sold 13 to raise the total to 326. We're still in good shape toward the goal of getting it done by Veterans Day Nov. 11, but the pace will need to pick up soon for that.
Here's how it works: We sell a military subscription for $20, covering a full year for any veteran. That's one-third of the regular price. However many you'd wish to donate, even if it's just one, email me directly at DK@DKPittsburghSports.com, and Dali will do the processing.
BACK TO BUSINESS
• Our page-view numbers for the past week were 761,437, with 40,251 different users over the most recent full seven-day span. Our most-read original piece was Chris Halicke's preview of the 49ers, at 16,165. The Pirates were accounted for 23.1% of our views, the Steelers 20.6%, the Penguins 14.1%, Penn State 3.7%, and Pitt 2.4%.
• On the multimedia front, our podcast downloads for the past week were 140,690 and our YouTube video views for the past week were 157,279.
• Our company social media accounts are at 50,874 followers on X, 39,635 on Facebook, 24,380 on YouTube, 14,858 on Instagram ... and already 2,408 on the new Threads app!
• We make mistakes. If you see one, email: Typos@DKPittsburghSports.com
• We're often asked about our HQ/shop merch being available online, and yes, it's right here.
• Anything you need, email: Help@DKPittsburghSports.com
