Pregame Atmosphere
I know that this falls into the category of "inane" and "completely unrelated to actual important things like offensive scheming, recruiting, etc" but I thought I'd at least throw it out there and see if any of you had any take on it at all.
One of the time-honored gripes as we enter this time of year has always been the atmosphere at Michigan Stadium, it's practically a rite of Fall at this point. Having been fortunate enough to be a season ticket holder I've seen a steady (though not remarkable) improvement in the game-day atmosphere over the years, but there's definitely still work to be done.
Rather than going on some overarching diatribe regarding the age and general disposition of certain (ahem) segments of the crowd and their predilection to scream "sit down" much louder than they scream "Go Blue" I just wanted to point out one small change that I think would just sound cool... and better.
You know how right before the team comes out of the locker room and they put that somewhat off-kilter shot of the locker room doors up on the jumbotrons? Then the band and crowd start into the incredibly monotonous "Lets.... Go.... Blue...." that somewhat increases in tempo and volume as the team starts to gather in the tunnel? Not exactly the most rip-roaring way to greet the team onto the grid-iron. I have to say that I think they're missing on the intended effect of building a crescendo of excitement and volume in the crowd prior to the team running out under the banner.
This brings me to my suggestion/idea: How much better would it sound if the student section got the back and forth "GO" "BLUE" chant going during that time instead? The crowd participation is always better with that chant anyway, and it's a lot easier to pick up the pace so to speak. Plus, it simply sounds LOUDER.
That said, I have absolutely no idea how this would be implemented, etc, but regardless, I definitely think it'd sound better and contribute just that much more to the whole "atmosphere" thing we like to all wax poetic about.
August 5th, 2008 at 10:59 PM ^
August 6th, 2008 at 12:11 AM ^
August 6th, 2008 at 10:35 AM ^
except that that chant doesn't speed up. Although, I guess the cheerleaders could use their signs to speed it up.
Also, this year the band will be in the stands, not on the field, when the team comes out. They might still do the "Let's...Go...Blue" drum beat but fans won't be as synchronized as they were when the drum was in at the 50 yard line.
August 6th, 2008 at 10:13 AM ^
You have not been keeping up on your WLA posts.
We have informants. Everywhere.
August 6th, 2008 at 10:29 AM ^
I try - I really do - but the gimmicky communist shtick saturates otherwise informative posts with silly rhetoric that's not always worth parsing. Plus, I never know which links will lead to relevant stories and which are pictures of dogs making faces. You're all good writers; BGH (et al) has fantastic posts on mgoblog and there's no need to parade everyone around in ridiculous costumes.
August 6th, 2008 at 10:47 AM ^
August 6th, 2008 at 11:25 AM ^
August 6th, 2008 at 10:17 AM ^
I saw this within the past week on another Michigan blog. I think it was linked in the sidebar, but I haven't found it yet but I'll keep looking. The post talked about how Rodriguez changed the sequence of things so the band would exit before the players entered and would play the national anthem from the stands. It said this was the way things were done pre-9/11 under Carr.
August 6th, 2008 at 10:16 AM ^
August 6th, 2008 at 10:26 AM ^
August 6th, 2008 at 11:01 AM ^
I wonder why RichRod went this way. I thought the pregame change that included separating the block M and then having the team run out with the band on the field was one of the better adjustments to pregame over the last 20 years.
Not a big deal to me either way, but I'm just confused as to why this even came up as something that might need changing.
Oh well...
August 6th, 2008 at 10:31 AM ^
I still say the best way to increase the "atmosphere" for games is to:
1) start a student football group like the Maize Rage that all sit together and are the ones to start all cheers. They can then work with the band, cheerleaders, etc. to make sure no one is stepping on each other's toes. This group would all sit together in the stadium in a reserved block of seats. In order to make it somewhat exclusive so that cell phone talking sorority girls can't show up midway through the first quarter and claim they're part of this "Maize Rage", there has to be some sort of membership requirement like attending meetings, camping out overnight at the stadium, etc.
2) all other students will sit general admission on a first come, first served basis. If other schools can use vouchers and then assign seat numbers when you walk into the stadium, we should be able to as well. This keeps all the latecomers and people who only go to games because "it's the cool thing to do" up at the top of the stadium and the people who actually know what's going on more in the action.
Since the students are the loudest part of the stadium and the Athletic Department has done little besides the phony "student" t-shirt contest to reach out to them, I say that's the first thing that needs to happen in order to really improve the atmosphere.
P.S. why does this look like one long run-on sentence? I tried to make paragraphs! Ugh.
August 6th, 2008 at 10:39 AM ^
August 6th, 2008 at 11:29 AM ^
August 6th, 2008 at 12:01 PM ^
piped in music sucks. we should never emulate anything vtech does except maybe scoring on special teams.
also, the maize rage is so dorky it's painful. keep that crap in crisler
August 6th, 2008 at 12:02 PM ^
August 6th, 2008 at 12:03 PM ^
August 6th, 2008 at 12:14 PM ^
Sorry that the spacing disappeared, it was in paragraph form last night...
edit: tried to fix the formatting again and despite what I do, every time I submit it, everything gets bunched into one big mess...
August 11th, 2008 at 12:18 PM ^
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