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Pirates Off To A Rough Start With Low Attendance, No Hot Dog Buns

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A double whammy for the Pittsburgh Pirates this week.

First, they run out of hot dog buns at "Buc Night" on Wednesday followed by near record low attendance at the game on Thursday.

"There was no one there. Like, the entire left field bleachers, there were maybe five people, all trying to catch balls," Kevin Horne, of Lawrenceville, said.

Horne was one of 8,500 fans at the Thursday night game, the worst attended game in a decade and the fifth worst in PNC Park history.

"It was sort of surreal being at a game like that," Horne told KDKA money editor Jon Delano on Friday.

Delano: "With only 8,000-plus fans?"
Horne: "It looked like fewer actually. That might have been paid attendance."

"My son was there, and he said you could hear your footsteps in the place," Louise Bradley, of McCandless, said.

Bradley was at the ballpark to buy tickets for the weekend.

"Well, I love baseball," she said.

Other fans just loved the $1 hot dogs at Buc Night.

"I had three before the game, two before the game, and then I had three right before the first inning started," Nathan Kanuch, of Robinson, said.

Kanuch was lucky as his dogs had buns, a problem for many later on when Aramark ran out of buns, prompting negative comments on social media and even a parody that takes off on the familiar appeal to help abandoned dogs.

Aramark apologized for the bun fiasco and promised to make amends at future Dollar Dog Nights, like Friday's game.

Good news for young Mitch Michalowski and his family from Detroit.

"I'm a big eater, so probably four," said Michalowski.

Delano: "Four hot dogs?"
Mitch: "Yeah."
Delano: "Would you eat them if they didn't have a bun?"
Mitch: "No. I just can't eat meat without anything on it."

That's not likely to be a problem for the few who make it to an April game.

Maybe it's no surprise that attendance is really poor in April at Pirates games. After all, the weather is really kind of miserable this month.

But if it helps to offer $1 hot dogs, hey, let's go for it.

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