‘Sell the team, Bob’ chants at Pirates’ owner Bob Nutting repeatedly heard on U.S. Open broadcasts

Fan frustration aimed at team owners during games is nothing new. But hearing it spill over into a completely different sport? That’s far more unusual. Yet that’s exactly what’s happening at golf’s 2025 U.S. Open.

This year’s tournament is at Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh, and early-round broadcasts on Peacock have captured multiple chants of “Sell the team, Bob!” — directed at Pittsburgh Pirates owner Bob Nutting — ringing out right after golfers’ shots.

That particular video seems to be from a fan’s cellphone camera, but BroBible’s Jacob Elsey wrote Thursday that “Those listening along with the broadcast on Peacock heard the very loud request extremely clearly.” And, on Friday, a different occurrence of this was definitely heard on Peacock’s coverage of Scottie Scheffler’s tee shot on the 16th hole.

These are far from the first complaints against Nutting, the Pirates’ owner since 2007, and his team’s history of low payrolls and limited success. The chant “Sell the team, Bob!” has been heard repeatedly at PNC Park games, sometimes prompting broadcasters to mute the crowd audio. It even echoed at the Pirates’ FanFest this January.

This year, though, the criticism has gained new momentum. That’s been particularly evident around star pitcher Paul Skenes’ continued emergence and the team’s lack of moves to build a contender around him. In the media ranks alone, that’s sparked significant condemnation from everyone from Jeff Passan to Joe Posnanski, and from Bob Costas to Michael Kay. And the fan protests show no sign of slowing down, so much so that they’ve even spilled over onto broadcasts of an unrelated event happening nearby.