Should the NFL take steps to reduce crowd noise in stadiums

Originally posted by zillabeast:

Originally posted by kray28:
It's ironic that people who use this are sometimes the least intelligent people of the board.

He's got a point though

Home Field Advantage is one of the drawing interests keeping people going to NFL games, and the NFL is all about selling all the tickets they can

Hamstring that advantage in the name of "fairness" and it's just icing on top of the many thousands of other reasons people would rather watch a game from the comfort of their own home

You would still have home field advantage. Footplayers play emotionally. Have 65k screaming fans cheering for you does have a positive effect in your performance. That is also why you see the home team in the Olympics do better than normal. It is not because the fans are preventing the opponents from playing their game. In fact, most football games don't have noisy stadiums that prevent the offense from operating normally, but it is still assumed that the home team has an advantage.

I would also like to address a "straw-man" argument on this board. I think most agree that the refs should not be telling the fans to be quieter (although I did include it as an option to see if it had any support). I think the most popular approach to reducing the impact of screaming fans was to put speakers in all helmets to help the offense to communicate. If that approach was taken, fans could still yell as much as they wanted. They would probably yell less, though, since they know that they won't be able to prevent the offense from communicating.

Originally posted by kray28:

Originally posted by redrathman:

It's ironic that people who use this are sometimes the least intelligent people of the board.

Yes, I agree. I would send this same exact video back to the poster who posted it.

Worst idea I've heard in years...

If u aint being loud N cheering for ur team why u at tha game just stay home N be quite on ur couch.. i watch every game my 49ers play in N cant believe how quite tha people are at tha games ... stop cryin over shehawks fans being so loud N get louder N show ur team luv....

If anything our crowd needs to learn how to become more intense/loud like Seattle.

yes they should and they should also look into seattle for pumping in noise through their speakers.

Originally posted by Frisco69ers:
If anything our crowd needs to learn how to become more intense/loud like Seattle.

They DO get loud, when the offense is on the field.

Originally posted by verb1der:
They DO get loud, when the offense is on the field.

i still hope that this is a joke

Originally posted by communist:

Originally posted by verb1der:
They DO get loud, when the offense is on the field.

i still hope that this is a joke

not joking, when we're on offense people start screaming "LETS GO NINERS! clap clap clap clap clap" like it's a baseball game. It's gotten to the point where they air video of Joe Staley giving fans instructions of "when to cheer and get loud". lol

I think it's the bandwagon Giants fans causing all this.

You've got to be kidding, what in the world do you go to a game for.

I've had someone tell me to sit down while our defense was trying to get off the field on 3rd down. :-

And it's true that at times we are louder when the offense is on the field than the defense.

The influx of bandwagon fans aren't helping.

Seattle and other teams are enhancing the noise artificially...and it should be banned. Cheering? Great! But enhancing it? Not so great. I don't go to Warriors games (and would love to see them) because they play loud obnoxious music all night long! That's not sports to me.

oh

so this thread is like, for reals

This thread cracks me up.

It's odd to me that everyone singles out Seattle for this. The Metrodome is only 5 or 6 false start penalties behind Seattle since 2007 and is very loud. What about Arrowhead Stadium? It's notoriously difficult to play there due to the crowd noise, and the intimidation factor of the complete sea of red.

If something is to be done about the noise, i'd also like to address the environmental factors.

Miami, Tampa Bay, Carolina, and Jacksonville are still awful in September, and they often force the visiting teams to wear their darker colors. This is not only unfair, but could be dangerous for visiting teams playing in the heat and humidity. While the home team is used to these temperatures.

New York, New England, Buffalo, Denver, Chicago, Green Bay, can be horrible places to play in December and January, and it's not fair for the visiting teams who aren't acclimated to the cold weather. Unfair advantage!

Wait a minute! Do you think that that's where the term "home field advantage" came from?

And in response to a few other posters, yes the Seattle fans actually are louder than other fans. I'm not claiming that other fans can't be as loud as the Seattle fans, I'm saying that they aren't as loud. Meaning the Seattle fans are ridiculous now with the 12th man thing, but the huge majority of them take it very seriously, and literally scream themselves hoarse at each home game. It was the same back in the Kingdome (which was much louder than the CLink by the way). It's also the same at Husky Stadium when they are playing good (as much as I hate them). The fans in this region just take it to another level. Which has really started to irritate me over the last couple years. It's now morphed into more about the fans than about the team for a lot of them! But I've been to games in San Diego, Dallas, Boston, New York, Baltimore, LA, Chicago, and Denver. So I've gotten to see a fair sampling of other teams stadiums, and none of them come close to the fans in Seattle. Like I said earlier, I'm not saying the they're super fans or anything, they just put a boat load of effort into it.

It's also pretty funny to see how many of you try to completely discredit Seattle as just being an average team with an unfair home field advantage.

Here are some of Seattles home records since Qwest field opened in 2002:

02': 3-5 at home 4-4 on the road.
04': 5-3 at home 4-4 on the road, and went to the playoffs.
06': 5-3 at home 4-4 on the road, and went to the playoffs.
08': 2-6 at home 2-6 on the road.
09': 4-4 at home 1-7 on the road.
10': 5-3 at home 2-6 on the road.
11': 4-4 at home 3-5 on the road, division champions!!! lol

If an average team could win out at home with Seattles unfair home field advantage, why have they been so.......average since the stadium opened? Perhaps the years that they are really tough at home might actually have more to do with the team than the crowd? Weird.

Originally posted by maltz88:
This thread cracks me up.

It's odd to me that everyone singles out Seattle for this. The Metrodome is only 5 or 6 false start penalties behind Seattle since 2007 and is very loud. What about Arrowhead Stadium? It's notoriously difficult to play there due to the crowd noise, and the intimidation factor of the complete sea of red.

If something is to be done about the noise, i'd also like to address the environmental factors.

Miami, Tampa Bay, Carolina, and Jacksonville are still awful in September, and they often force the visiting teams to wear their darker colors. This is not only unfair, but could be dangerous for visiting teams playing in the heat and humidity. While the home team is used to these temperatures.

New York, New England, Buffalo, Denver, Chicago, Green Bay, can be horrible places to play in December and January, and it's not fair for the visiting teams who aren't acclimated to the cold weather. Unfair advantage!

Since both teams have to play in the same conditions, I think it is fair. But when it comes to noise, the fans are intentionally noisy when the opponent's offense is on the field to try and disrupt them. The home team doesn't have to play in those same conditions. And of course, there isn't much we can do about the heat/cold, unless we want to mandate that every game be played in a dome.