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raining on the parade...

C

california

Guest
ok, i've been hearing the crowd estimates for the downtown celebrations being touted by tv and radio outlets.
phoooooey! if there were 375 thousand people for the parade on monday, then i am the spitting image of brad pitt!!!!!!!!! and the pope ain't catholic!!! i spent 20 plus years working in the downtown before moving to the coast for three and a half years. i've seen every celebration parade since the first steeler superbowl and numerous rallies and events, and there has never been a total anywhere near that high....a friend of mine analyzed anaerial photo and claims these estimates are grossly exagerated by city officials to impress the mayors of cleveland and buffalo. does anyone out there actually believe there were 375,000 people for that rally? prove me wrong........sally wiggen, channel 11 and eyewitness news can't handle the truth...it would break their hearts to find out a little over a hundred thousand people watched the penguins parade...please, prove me wrong...california
 
And were there over a Million at the Lakers parade yesterday and were there 100 Million at the Obama Inauguration?

How could you even count them. You couldn't use an aerial picture to see all the people that were in parking garages and other builduings.
 
so someone does believe there were 375,000 watching the pens celebration parade! wow, if your interested, i've got the proverbial swampland i can sell you at a great price. look, this really isn't a big deal. it's done all over the country by mayors, governors, candidates, labor organizers and sports teams. a few years ago i estimated the attendance at my kids graduation party to be about 73,000. nobody wants their event to appear to be a bust. but what is a little bothersome is how the media runs with this stuff as though it is fact. they were drooling over the numbers as though they were convinced of their validity. sorry, but it ain't so.
for some enlightening info on estimating crowd numbers just google "estimating crowd size." for humorous insights, check out the "IMPONDERABLE" books. the author's name is david feldman... california
 
Somebody's upset that the Pens' drew more for their celebration than the Lakers' did! ;D


However, I will tell you I agree with your statement. Often times news organizations will report "X Thousand People demonstrated/protested something today," and the number usually comes from the demonstrators themselves. The news organization just goes with it- no questions asked.

It happens a lot, and as a result the supposedly "objective" news media actually starts pushing an agenda by stating a movement is more popular than it actually is.

Regarding this, in 1991 the Penguins won the Stanley Cup and a reported 250,000 people crowded into Pt. State Park.

Myron Cope, who I love, played the sour puss on his radio show by stating there was no way that many people could physically fit into such an area.

A few days later it was reported the Bulls drew 1,000,000 people in Chicago to their celebration. Could it have been a response to the reported attendance in Point State Park?

Regardless, I remember thinking that if we couldn't have 250,000 in Pittsburgh for whatever reason, there was no way in hell there were 1,000,000 Bulls fans in Chicago.

And then I wondered if there was some sour puss on the radio in Chicago trying to say the same thing!

Incidentily, the next year, 1992, the Pens had their celebration in Three Rivers Stadium, which, assuming every seat in the place was filled, meant they had 59,000 fans show up, further showing the absurdity of these attendance figures for celebrations- be they in Pittsburgh or wherever.

However, let me also make this closing statement-

A- I don't know, for sure, how many people were in the Penguins' celebration(s).

B- You don't know either.

C- Ultimately, I'm not that upset that reports said 375,000 fans showed up for this celebration. In this particular instance, it's harmless.

But please, come back when there is a political, rather than a feel-good, demonstration.
 
california said:
it's done all over the country by mayors, governors, candidates, labor organizers and sports teams. a few years ago i estimated the attendance at my kids graduation party to be about 73,000. nobody wants their event to appear to be a bust.
Click to expand...

I'm sure the media used the same method to count these people as they did for the Obama inauguration and the April 15th protests.

I agree with Pratte's point C. What I'm saying is that using an aerial photo isn't going to paint the whole picture.

And I was at your kids graduation party. You needed more hot dogs.
 
they were part of the 950,000 who were there in Forbes Field to see Mazeroski hit that home run
 
Those crowd estimates come from either the police or someone in the public safety department. They don't put a lot of science or thought into them. "You want a number? Here's a number."
 
Lol, it doesn't do them any good to "under count". Wasn't there a big brew-ha-ha a few years ago about whether the Pgh St Patty's Day parade was bigger than the NYC one based on how the crowds were guestimated?
Anyway, if you were trying to ride a trolley in or out of Town during the Pen's parade, you can easily believe there were a ton of people down there.
 
Its nothing more than a guess by the police.

When you consider the number of people watching from parking garages and from their office window you might get closer to that number than you realize. I've been in football stadiums with 111,000 people and race tracks with more than 300,000 so I know a big crowd when I see it.....and last Monday there were a LOT of people downtown.
 
let's end this by just saying, "thousands of people attended the celebration parade in downtown pittsburgh." that's the way it was presented by the national outlets, and it works for me. as long as our guys won and everybody had a good time at the parade, who cares. i'm sorry i brought it up. california
 
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