University of Pittsburgh athletic director Allen Greene announced Wednesday that Acrisure Stadium will not be seating fans in the upper East and West sides of the venue during the Panthers' 2026 home football games, reducing the stadium's capacity by nearly 17,000 seats.
As reported by Mitchell Corcoran of Sports Illustrated, even though the upper North end zone section will remain open, the capacity change moves Acrisure Stadium from the second-largest venue in the Atlantic Coast Conference to the 10th-largest. "It's even smaller than the old Pitt Stadium, which had 56,500 seats," Corcoran wrote.
"Our priority is to create the best student-athlete and fan experience for Pitt and that's exactly what we're doing," Greene said in a statement, as reported by SI. "This approach will deliver a more intimate, electric game day experience for our fans and an incredible atmosphere for our student-athletes to compete in."
In his statement, Greene contends that closing the upper East and West seating levels will push fans from those sections into the lower bowl, making it feel more crowded and louder at field level.
The 68,400-seat stadium is shared with the Pittsburgh Steelers, who averaged near-capacity crowds in 2025-26. By comparison, Pitt averaged 51,845 fans per game for their seven home games at Acrisure Stadium during the 2025 season.
The change has been overdue, according to Corcoran. "When taking the median home attendance total for each of the last five seasons, the average capacity of those games never broke 80%," he wrote. "But when adjusted for the new stadium capacity, the median game in a given season would have the stadium at least 90% filled in all but one year.
"The only drawback is that many fans have lost their season ticket seats. However, Greene seemed adamant that there would be affordable options in the lower bowl and that those ticket holders would have priority when selecting their new seats."
