I wasn't there, but I'm calling this one. The Post-Gazette reports that "several hundred" people met at the rally on Federal Street, but if you watch footage on KDKA, it looks like a fairly small number. (However, police tried to keep people out of the street, which limited the amount of space the protesters had.)
On the game broadcast, FSN actually interviewed Bob Nutting and asked him about the protest, then showed footage of the protest after it returned from the commercial break after the third inning. They showed footage of some people walking toward the concourse wearing green shirts. It looked like an obviously-noticeable number, but not many, and when they panned over the ballpark, it didn't look like many people had left. The Trib reports that the number was about 1,000, which looked about right based on the footage I saw.
The most unfortunate aspect of the scene - and both FSN and the Post-Gazette reported this - was that many people actually booed the protesters.
I don't understand this; I just can't process it. Not only did only about 1,000 of the 22,000 or so in attendance walk out, but many people actually booed. Who the hell are these people? They can't all be members of the Nutting family. Maybe they didn't understand what the protest was for, but it was well covered in the local media, so that seems unlikely. As far as I can tell, the protesters only wanted to send a message that they were unhappy with all the losing and that they held the ownership responsible. I just don't see how anyone but a Nutting sycophant, a hopeless ignoramus or a complete moron could disagree with that message.
It therefore appears to me that there is a huge population - a majority, perhaps - of PNC attendees who either are so reactionary that they hate protests of any kind, or are happy to have the Pirates playing Class AAA baseball as long as major-league teams show up to play them and bobbleheads of past stars are distributed at the gates. Or maybe they honestly believe that the owners are honestly doing their best to turn things around, in which case they're just deluded beyond repair. Of course I knew that there were a lot of people like this, but I had no idea how many. It makes me very sad to be a Pirates fan and it makes me question what I'm doing here. If the people of Pittsburgh are content with 67 wins a year, then who am I to write angrily about every busted draft pick or stupid transaction? I mean, who cares, right?
What a stupid, pathetic scene this was. 1,000 people showing some guts and protesting, and 21,000 more paying $20 or so to collect a bobblehead and say, "Thank you, sir, can I have another?"