Yesterday, the Pittsburgh Pirates, in conjunction with Point Park University, hosted “Point Park Night” at PNC Park as part of the franchise’s University Nights promotion.
The Pirates brought back University Nights in 2017 to celebrate local universities and allow networking between students and alumni, while providing an affordable way for college attendees to watch baseball at the ballpark.
Point Park students enrolled in the university’s Sports PR and Advertising and Sports Marketing courses planned and promoted the event over a span of several weeks, including hosting a tabling event where students, as well as the Pirate Parrot and Point Park’s Black Diamond II, handed out flyers, Point Park-themed ball caps and water bottles to their peers interested in attending the game and celebrating their Pioneer pride.
Students packed Village Park and Lawrence Hall to see the Pirates and Point Park mascots and claim some Point Park-themed Pirates gear.
“I first heard about Point Park Night at PNC at a table of Lawrence Hall,” freshman business management major Liam Hein said. “I decided to come because my friends and I all planned to go together.”
There was also a photo event where several students had the opportunity to head over to PNC Park and participate in a photo-op with Black Diamond II.
Pirates play-by-play commentator and Point Park alum Greg Brown even got in on the promotion, sharing a video with the Sports PR and Advertisement-created Point Park Night at PNC social media accounts urging fellow Pioneers to come out to the game and expressing that “this is a great chance to celebrate the Pioneer community.”
Students enrolled in both courses employed different strategies in order to achieve the same goal of driving ticket sales. The students in the Sports PR and Advertising course were all assigned different roles to market and promote the event to the campus community, while students in the Sports Marketing course essentially competed against each other to sell the most tickets by displaying marketing skills acquired through the course to convince students to make the purchase.
Sports PR and Advertisement professor Alex Moser has a decorated history in marketing, working as a marketing manager and the director of marketing for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Seven Springs before working at Wigle Whiskey as chief operating officer.
“I’ve been very impressed with the class’s ability to execute our PR and advertising plan,” Moser said. “The proof is in the sales, an all time record…There are 12 students in this class that would be fantastic additions to any professional team’s marketing departments.”
The event represented an opportunity for students, alumni, faculty, and friends to promote the university and show off their Pioneer pride, as well as the campus community coming together to enjoy a night of baseball at one of the most beautiful ballparks in America.
As of Monday morning, 236 tickets were sold to students, the most in the history of the event.
