Loading ...On Michigan Stadium, Noise, and Keys
Is the student section too quiet? Hell yes. (Photo via MVictors)
I clicked over to the Michigan Daily’s sports page yesterday, and stumbled upon this doozy of a headline: Michigan student section could learn a lot from NASCAR. Chantel Jennings blasts the Michigan student section, and the fanbase as a whole, for being too quiet and for not caring enough. She points out that NASCAR fans routinely show up on a Wednesday to start tailgating for a Saturday race, and that Penn State students start camping out in “Paternoville” on Thursday to earn a good seat. This may seem over-the-top, but I agree with her overall points. This rings far too true for a Michigan student:
In 2007, Mike Hart pleaded with fans as he looked off the field and into the stands for the backing he and his team needed during games.
“That’s when you need the stadium,” Hart told The Wolverine in the 2007 Football Preview Issue. “That’s the one thing we really need to do this year as fans, as everyone — make it extra hard for teams coming in here. Show them it’s not the same Big House. It needs to be a lot crazier.”
But nothing has changed. We’re still quiet. We still show up late in a drunken stupor and leave early, stumbling home to nap before we leave for late-night adventures with the game out of sight and out of mind.
The student section is too quiet. There’s no two ways around it. I beg and plead for the fans in my section to put the keys away on third down and instead open up their mouths and scream themselves hoarse. I can say with all honesty that I haven’t left a Michigan game with my voice intact in my three years as a student. However, even in the student section I have happened upon more than one “fan” who thinks I’m crazy for yelling before every defensive snap. How do we rectify this? A couple ideas (none of which are very original, in all likelihood):
- General seating in the student section. Reward those who care enough to arrive early. This both puts the most dedicated fans towards the front, where their noise has the most impact on the game, and provides a unified band of students that the rest of the section can take after.
- Put the damn keys away. Seriously. Jingling your dorm key isn’t going to keep Penn State from hearing Darryl Clark’s signals.
- Have free water available in the aisles of the stadium. I know Michigan likes selling $3.00 bottles of water, but this small measure could help keep fans refreshed, more willing to stick out those muggy September games, and have their voices intact.
- Keep track of how many games students actually attend. They already check student ID’s at the gate — all you have to do now is devise a system to track how often a student actually shows up. If a student doesn’t show up to games, give their tickets to someone who will. Enough of these fair-weather (in more ways than one) fans.
- Get the band, cheerleaders, and scoreboard behind this. No more signs encouraging fans to take out their keys. The scoreboard and the cheerleaders should be telling fans to make noise. The band should be doing the same. “Let’s Go Blue” is not instilling the fear of God into opponents. Mix it up a little. Penn State had the best student section of any team I’ve ever seen personally — blasting “Seven Nation Army” as 30,000 students clad in white chanted along was way more intimidating than anything I’ve seen in the Big House. Wisconsin’s “Jump Around” tradition also brings it. Michigan needs an answer to that. Not every tradition has to be 100 years old.
The stadium renovations are going to help the noise level, but I think Michigan fans will still be disappointed in how loud Michigan Stadium is unless something extra is done. These are just a few ideas. Chantel Jennings has a point — we need to look to other teams (and even sports) and take a page out of their book. Michigan has a great tradition, but sometimes it hurts to stay stuck in those traditions. It’s time to bring the noise.
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Ace, is the student section seriously reserved seating? In early 90s at least while you had a seat assigned to you, the unwritten rule was that within the section it was a free for all. Occasionally some prick would demand his particular seat, but that was rare.
G MVictors.com
Yes Greg, it is unfortunately reserved. There is still some wiggle room in terms of moving around, but for the most part people are pretty serious about maintaining their assigned seat. Once you hit the front 30-or-so rows, there’s almost no way to move up without risking a beating. Also, the ushers will not allow you to enter into any section besides the one on your ticket. The unwritten rule seems to have gone the way of the helmet sticker.
Meh… if you’re crafty enough (and really, not that crafty) you can move up pretty easily. I remember moving up the front row in 2007 for the biggest game (and coldest) of the year and virtually no one likes to give up their seat for OSU.
With that said, Michigan stadium is pretty damn quiet. I can have a conversation with the person next to me without raising my voice. I used to think the stadium needed to be drunker, then I thought they needed to be more sober… now I’m convinced it has nothing to do with alcohol.
I doubt it has much to do with drunk students showing up late. Wisconsin’s student sections don’t fill in until well into the second quarter. Many are still at ‘pregame parties’ when the game starts. Seating is not reserved. The students do come ready to get into the game, though. “Jump Around” is just a small part of that…it last about three minutes at the beginning of the fourth quarter, but if the game it close, to pumps up the energy level in the stadium. When i lived in A2, I couldn’t figure out if it was the open stadium or quiet fans, but I’ve never seen 110,000 people make so little noise. Too bad. Michigan has such a great program and stadium. Too bad the atmosphere is more like Hill Auditorium than like Yost Ice Arena.