Generic stadium experience
Haven't had a chance to listen to current Ace podcast yet but I see that one of the topics is "the increasingly generic stadium experience"
I am anxious to here his take on this because I whole heartedly agree with this premise.
Sitting in Michigan Stadium is increasingly a pro stadium experience with the blasting music covering up every other sound that used to be there, stupid video board things like "Make Some Noise!" and a seeming deemphasis on the actual collegiate atmosphere (band, cheerleaders) that used to make a game at Michigan Stadium a pleasant and unique experience.
October 9th, 2019 at 12:18 PM ^
Fuck that. I always stand and cheer when Slippery Rock wins.
Slippery Rock is our little brother that we actually want to keep around.
October 9th, 2019 at 12:20 PM ^
Yeah, the Slippery Rock score announcement was fun when they just slipped it in among the top 25 scores. They've milked it way too much now, like a telegraphed joke.
October 9th, 2019 at 12:26 PM ^
This is actually a good point. When this "tradition" started, the announcer would give out of town scores at every opportunity. The Slippery Rock score would just be one of the scores mentioned, and people would smile and maybe laugh at the funny name.
We have reached the point where only one out of town score is read by the PA announcer all game--the Slippery Rock score. And people are expected, I guess, to bark like trained seals when it is announced.
OK, so Slippery Rock won. All I can think now when I hear their score is that they are having a better season than Michigan.
October 9th, 2019 at 12:33 PM ^
Yeah, the decision-making doesn't make sense. Leave in the Slippery Rock score, and take out Hawaiian War Chant/Temptation.
October 9th, 2019 at 1:41 PM ^
A lot of it has to do with what’s happening on the field. My wife made the point that she was frustrated with the Slippery Rock score because they read it during a bit more tense moment of a 10-3 game with public opinion of Harbaugh the whole future of the program hanging in the balance. If it were Hawaii and Michigan is up 63-3 we all laugh and say, “oh Slippery Rock!”
To her point: I have fond memories of cheers and waves and stadium idiosyncrasies but not from big games. I don’t remember anything about the half-time show of the 1997 M vs OSU game. I can’t tell you if the cheerleaders rammed the Buckeye into the goal post in 1991.
The fact that Michigan is playing many more tight games and the fan base is both disgruntled and on edge has a lot to do with how we experience the atmosphere.
October 9th, 2019 at 2:07 PM ^
You're right about that. I wasn't exactly in the mood during the fourth quarter to hear about Slippery Rock's 45-14 win over Mercyhurst.
October 9th, 2019 at 12:15 PM ^
I'm a college student myself and I hate how loud the music is before the game (and how much music is played all the time before and during the game). I like that we have night games now, but the atmosphere five+ years ago was way better.
October 9th, 2019 at 2:40 PM ^
I haven't been to a game for over a decade now. I really miss it. But I also wonder how much of a shock it'd be going to a game now. Wouldn't be any gradual changes to me.
October 9th, 2019 at 12:17 PM ^
holy shit this post isn't about a QB change or the inept offense?
Also, I really miss the band playing more often. Some of the piped in music is OK but sometimes they just overdo it.
October 9th, 2019 at 12:17 PM ^
His point about the in-stadium experience being a non-stop assault on the senses is a good one. Granted, television and its commercial breaks has created vast swaths of dead time for stadium-goers, but it just feels like the athletic department has over-done the need to fill every single second of that time with cheap tricks and rock music.
October 9th, 2019 at 12:25 PM ^
I agree the television timeouts are really what have caused the issue. The break at the end of the 3rd quarter was nearly 4 minutes long. The band and cheerleaders can only do so much so it's either sit in silence or play music.
October 9th, 2019 at 2:00 PM ^
Yup. That's the biggest change and most infuriating aspect of being at the games - frequency and length of TV breaks.
So many of CFB's problems would be lessened if the powers that be had the courage to emphasize athletes, schools, alums, and fans at games over the demands of our TV overlords.
Money isn't everything, and if schools/NCAA had the cajones to stand up to the networks and take control over their product, it's not like TV would stop broadcasting games - networks can only show so many reruns of "Modern Family".
October 9th, 2019 at 3:19 PM ^
I don't think the powers that be are limiting the definition of their product to the live stadium experience- seems like less of a cajones question and much more of a $'s question.
Not necessarily that it's always driven by money-hungriness (although there has to be plenty of that going on), but when they weigh the two ROI's of catering to live experiences vs easy checkbox tv revenue on a spreadsheet, there's no comparison. Too easy, too profitable.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if there are actual internal conversations frequently evaluating how much stadiums can bend to allow for more tv revenue but still preserve enough of a sliver of the live experience & traditions that people won't completely bail on buying tickets.
I don't think this will ever reverse course- always and forever more there will be a burning need to increase revenue, which means there are a million young Dave Brandon's out there that AD's and owners all over the country are actively searching for.
October 9th, 2019 at 12:32 PM ^
It's kind of interesting how programmed the commercial breaks are. "Okay, here's the fourth commercial break of the third quarter, now they play the 'The Team' speech and have the students hold up a banner begging for donations to the athletic department."
Every one of the 16 commercial breaks (18, counting the quarter breaks) seems to have a programmed thing attached to it. I guess I don't blame them, the breaks are predictable in number and I suppose you have to do something.
But could maybe 1 break per quarter be just to hear the band play? That's not too much to ask.
October 9th, 2019 at 12:58 PM ^
Rock music? It’s mostly today’s hits that are played and most of those songs aren’t rock music.
They're playing rap and pop stuff the students know. I’ve heard songs from Weeknd to Camila Cabello to Lizzo before games.
The females in the student section go apeshit when that one Lizzo song is played. Watch them, it’s pretty hilarious seeing them bouncing around during it.
October 9th, 2019 at 2:09 PM ^
I stood behind the student section once last year and I noticed the kids were dancing and having fun with the contemporary music being played. Not only did the choice of music not bother me, but I realized that the students are who all of this is really for. It is their classmates on the field. It's their time. I had my time back when Harbaugh played, and holy shit do I miss those times. Greatest time of my life.
October 9th, 2019 at 2:49 PM ^
If it's all for them, maybe they should show up on time? Or show up at all?
October 9th, 2019 at 3:38 PM ^
I'm mostly with you. But that said, I do believe that the team, the experience, and this particular time does belong to the current students.
It really is a chicken/egg situation. Maybe the students would be more likely to be on time and stay engaged if the overall stadium experience had something significant to offer over watching on TV.
I really struggle with the whole thing. I continue to buy tickets and attend games because of the feeling I'm trying to recreate which started when I was a student and a member of the band. The gameday experience has always been special for me and I'm willing to both pay a premium in dollars and realize an inferior viewing experience to try to recreate it.
There have been many words written about not creating college fans by not having some of those people become fans when they were young children because so many families have been priced out of the experience. Then it follows that there won't be as many alumni fans because there aren't as many college fans.
I'm also in a weird place because I think my brain is addicted to trying to recreate that feeling, so I'm not as deeply emotionally invested in the outcome of one particular game. HOWEVER, the thing my brain wants to recreate was forged at a time when the team went to 3 Rose Bowls in 4 years and was regularly winning Big Ten Championships.
Maybe the big takeaway is that a lot of this discussion would be different if the team was doing better...
October 9th, 2019 at 10:26 PM ^
THEY DO!
October 9th, 2019 at 4:15 PM ^
Have to disagree. There has been old rock. Kiss- Rock and roll all night two games in a row (seriously), Seger, AC/DC, some 50s and 60s stuff just off the top of my head. My main issue is its pretty much the same damn songs all the time.
October 9th, 2019 at 1:43 PM ^
Sometimes Cheap Trick is the rock music!
Edit: my response was to Nickel but I’m so far down now you probably don’t remember what his post said that I’m punning.
October 9th, 2019 at 12:21 PM ^
It's better than it was during peak (nadir?) Brandon. It will never go back to 1999. Time marches on.
October 9th, 2019 at 12:24 PM ^
Not sure I agree. My best game experiences were in those years(the Notre Dame games, the 2011 OSU game, etc). Since Harbaugh, the teams have been better, but the in-stadium experience has gone down a little bit in my opinion.
October 9th, 2019 at 12:30 PM ^
Haha, okay. ND and OSU 2011 games were fun games. That has nothing to do with the ear-splitting RAWK music that blared for 30 minutes before kickoff. The sound has been lessened, unless I just am going more deaf now (possible).
Also, nothing as lame as this "new tradition" they were trying to force has been on the jumbotron:
Update: And let us also not forget that was the era of Papa Roach [edit: Pop Evil...is there a difference?] being played in the stadium. It happened.
October 9th, 2019 at 1:00 PM ^
2011 we were having the same discussions on here except it was less focused on the “millennial” music and a lot more older stuff/rock music.
We also had In The Big House which was a huge hit here on this board.
October 9th, 2019 at 1:18 PM ^
Except for UTL when they played Dynamite by Taio Cruz no less than 3 times.
October 9th, 2019 at 1:57 PM ^
Pop Evil isn't necessarily a big name, but certainly big enough within their own sphere that people play their music unironically, and that's still jarring to me after that whole fiasco.
October 9th, 2019 at 12:24 PM ^
Get RID of the Fake Noise.
October 9th, 2019 at 12:27 PM ^
Yep, every break in action has something scheduled and is mostly over-produced. It feels like whoever is in charge is doing the band and cheerleaders a favor when they actually give them their time once each half.
October 9th, 2019 at 12:30 PM ^
I have been going to homecoming games (traveling from the west coast) every year since 1991. The experience has been getting worse every year. The canned music is not necessary when you have one of the greatest marching bands in the country. It is also overly loud and annoying, depending on your musical tastes. We are contemplating taking a break and not attending next year. It is expensive and frankly too generic for me and my wife.
October 9th, 2019 at 12:33 PM ^
Is the band mic'ed? I'm not a technician, so be gentle. About 10 years ago, I sat in the south endzone and couldn't hear the band at all.
October 9th, 2019 at 12:36 PM ^
Yes, they are mic'd now. That's new in the last 8(?) or so years--it wasn't possible to hear them in Section 20 (the SW corner of the Stadium) before that.
October 9th, 2019 at 1:14 PM ^
The problem is, that throws everything out of sync. The students can hear the band, so they're cheering in time with the actual music. Everybody else hears the speakers, and they're cheering in time with the delayed music. It makes it look like Michigan fans are the most rhythmically-challenged people on the planet.
October 9th, 2019 at 2:09 PM ^
Totally agree. And there's not a clear way to fix it.
If you don't do it, most of the stadium can't hear the band; if you do, you get the problem we have. I think another element is that the piped-in music is so loud, that's what everyone is expecting, so if the band isn't amplified, it doesn't register.
It also doesn't help that bands like Wisconsin, OSU, and MSU are louder than the MMB. I think the main reason for that is those bands have much larger brass sections (not sure about Wisconsin, but I think OSU and MSU are effectively drum and bugle corps with no woodwinds).
Part of why I have seats where I do (on the home side) is because being directly in front of the band is really the only way you can hear pregame and halftime clearly.
October 9th, 2019 at 2:44 PM ^
Eh, I'd rather be a little out of sync than not hear the band. Honestly, when I'm singing to the Victors I'm not really watching what people on the opposite side of the stadium are doing.
October 9th, 2019 at 12:40 PM ^
Hey, at least the 350 pounders are still showing up in full force making sure their flab spills over into my seating area.
October 9th, 2019 at 3:46 PM ^
Hey! I'm pushing 450!
October 9th, 2019 at 12:42 PM ^
It's more generic than it was. Needs to be less piped in music, more stuff from the band, obviously. More organic stuff. I'm shocked that they didn't do the usual alumni band program at homecoming this year.
But, speaking from experience attending a game this year for the first time in 15 seasons, it's still awesome and it's still a lot better than most other stadiums.
October 9th, 2019 at 12:44 PM ^
I was just at the game last Saturday (only go once a season) and I can tell you the thing that makes everything miserable is all the tv timeouts. I can deal with everything else and really have little opinion on it. The music is fine, the hype vids are fine but fuck those long ass breaks!
October 9th, 2019 at 3:03 PM ^
At least there is a timer this season, so we see how much longer we are sitting in TV time out.
October 9th, 2019 at 12:45 PM ^
Yeah, fuck the blasting music. Went to a UW Husky game a couple weeks ago- I enjoyed that the bands filled the endless ad timeouts instead of obnoxious piped in music.
Michigan Stadium is never going to be a great place to take in a football game; the seats are angled too low and there are no tiers to bring the back rows closer to the field. Seeing a game there is about the holistic experience of a fall day in Ann Arbor taking in a football game in the midst of 110,000 people. You want to focus on the game only, stay home and watch it in HD or 4k with cheaper beer, more comfortable seats, and easier bathroom access.
October 9th, 2019 at 12:56 PM ^
Late 80's through the 90's I believe was the most authentic experience. The Team was different, and so was the game back then. Maybe some sentimentality about it, who knows.
I do believe the same as most of you, less canned music, more COW BELL! errrr Band!
October 9th, 2019 at 12:56 PM ^
I think I'd actually be ok with the music if they changed it up more often. It feels like the last couple years is virtually the same track list over and over but played in different order each week.
And also the opening "best University in the World" thing is getting old tiresome, and frankly its been arrogant as hell since the first day. I'm to the point I'm embarrased by it.
Bo's speech is great, but we've turned into Notre Dame with Knute Rockne win one for the gipper stuff. 3 or 4 times a year is just fine., I bet we're near 50% of that stadium never saw Bo coach a single game now..
October 9th, 2019 at 1:18 PM ^
You have to educate new generations/new fans about the history of the program.
To me, they don’t do enough stuff like that. We had other great coaches besides Bo you know.
Those gigantic Blue boxes are blank and that’s always bothered me. We need to display our championships on them along with retired numbers.
October 9th, 2019 at 1:41 PM ^
I agree. We puff up our chest too much for a team that has not won the conference for 15 years. Sounds a little pathetic.
"And when we play as a team, when the old season is over, you and I know, it’s gonna be Michigan again, Michigan.” This rings a little hollow for football.
Do any of the players on the field even remember when we last won the conference in football? I don't think they know that "it's gonna be Michigan again".
Could we maybe switch it up a little and play that speech Bo made to the team in 1971 before the Iowa game that is played frequently on Brian's Sunday podcast?
"Listen up gentlemen I've got something to tell you. When we take the field we are going to win. We've got to win this game and there is no game on the remainder of our schedule more important than the one you're going down the tunnel to play today. Now let's go!"
Play that before the team takes the field. That would get the crowd fired up!
October 9th, 2019 at 2:30 PM ^
Would you be more comfortable hearing RR's "You Lift Me Up"?
October 9th, 2019 at 4:00 PM ^
There are literally no students who could possibly have remembered our last Big Ten Championship. There are 12 classes of Michigan football players who have left without a ring and that won't be changing soon.
October 9th, 2019 at 1:45 PM ^
I'm so over that stupid ass intro video. "We believe in...championship football". O Rly?
October 9th, 2019 at 2:54 PM ^
And while we're at it, does anyone need an intro video less than the MMB? "Ladies and Gentlemen..." speaks for itself.
October 9th, 2019 at 7:38 PM ^
Yeah it’s embarrassing now