vrabel agrees: the state of the crowd at gillette

[roman_maroney]

Some of us who spent a lot of time at Sullivan during the 80's, 90's and early part of this century have said the crowd has lost its edge (not in all cases, last week was off the hook, but it takes an afc championship game to get everyone standing on 3rd down). Be it the cost, the fact that half of the people show up with muffy from the country club because they landed the big account, or the complacency brought by winning, there has been a noticable change in the aura and edge of the crowd at home games. I attended the browns game this year, and was dumbfounded. Now, some agree, some disagree. Mike Vrabel tells it like it is....


“We were excited to go out on the field and see everybody – 15,000 or 20,000 – and those people were excited. We need to get those people at the games. Those are the type of fans that we need to get back into our stadium. I think that they deserve to experience this just as much as the people who can afford to come out here and to buy our season tickets. Those are the people who I think sometimes get left out with the cost of this game, to watch it, to travel. Those are the ones I'd like to see experience this."


I thought it was interesting that he said "*back* at the games"

thoughts? agree? disagree?

 

[oldskool138]

http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/showthread.php?t=76125

 

[roman_maroney]

My fault. please disregard!

GO PATS!

 

[shmessy]

Some of us who spent a lot of time at Sullivan during the 80's, 90's and early part of this century have said the crowd has lost its edge (not in all cases, last week was off the hook, but it takes an afc championship game to get everyone standing on 3rd down). Be it the cost, the fact that half of the people show up with muffy from the country club because they landed the big account, or the complacency brought by winning, there has been a noticable change in the aura and edge of the crowd at home games. I attended the browns game this year, and was dumbfounded. Now, some agree, some disagree. Mike Vrabel tells it like it is....


“We were excited to go out on the field and see everybody – 15,000 or 20,000 – and those people were excited. We need to get those people at the games. Those are the type of fans that we need to get back into our stadium. I think that they deserve to experience this just as much as the people who can afford to come out here and to buy our season tickets. Those are the people who I think sometimes get left out with the cost of this game, to watch it, to travel. Those are the ones I'd like to see experience this."


I thought it was interesting that he said "*back* at the games"

thoughts? agree? disagree?

Agree. But the blame isn't just on Muffy and family.

The tailgating experience is fabulous. Perhaps too fabulous. The regular Joes and Josephines now tailgate like nothing before in the NE Harness Raceway Parking Lot in the 70's-90's. Like Brady saying about the SB that too many players blow their steam before the game, so it is true of the complex and intricate tailgating experience by the fans at Gillette.

So much is consumed, drunk and put forth, it's like the goddam Food Network out there. I'm not saying it's not great, fun and I enjoy being a part of that. Just that the fans aren't exactly like starving lions by game time.

 

[Rob0729]

Some of us who spent a lot of time at Sullivan during the 80's, 90's and early part of this century have said the crowd has lost its edge (not in all cases, last week was off the hook, but it takes an afc championship game to get everyone standing on 3rd down). Be it the cost, the fact that half of the people show up with muffy from the country club because they landed the big account, or the complacency brought by winning, there has been a noticable change in the aura and edge of the crowd at home games. I attended the browns game this year, and was dumbfounded. Now, some agree, some disagree. Mike Vrabel tells it like it is....


“We were excited to go out on the field and see everybody – 15,000 or 20,000 – and those people were excited. We need to get those people at the games. Those are the type of fans that we need to get back into our stadium. I think that they deserve to experience this just as much as the people who can afford to come out here and to buy our season tickets. Those are the people who I think sometimes get left out with the cost of this game, to watch it, to travel. Those are the ones I'd like to see experience this."


I thought it was interesting that he said "*back* at the games"

thoughts? agree? disagree?

It is no coincidence that the crowd noise dwindled dramatically when we switched stadiums. Sorry, but there is little we can do about the crowd because two of the biggest problem is where the 200 section and the first part of the 300 section used to be in the old stadium is made up of club seats and luxary boxes and the stands (most particularly the 300 section) are a lot farther away from the field than in Foxboro stadium.

The Krafts built one of the best stadiums in the league. One thing they either didn't account for or just were willing to sacrifice, was how the design was going to affect the crowd noise. The Pats aren't the only team that has sacrificed crowd noise in new state of the art stadiums. The old 3 mile high stadium used to literally shake with crowd noise, but the new stadium suffers from the same problems.

I am a season ticket holder and my section cheers just as loud as my section in the old stadium. The problem is the wine and cheese crowd in the club seats seem to be more interested in watching the game behind glass the second it gets cold than trying to create crowd noise.

 

[FrontSeven]

So much is consumed, drunk and put forth, it's like the goddam Food Network out there.

Overeating will dull you out. Pouring booze into a full stomach ain't gonna help.

The only time a lion won't attack a little pig is when the lion is stuffed, can't move, and has no motivation. That tells you one thing about overeating: It can take away the killer-instinct of a dominant predator in the wild.

 

[chunkypony]

http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/showthread.php?t=76125

 

[oldskool138]

http://www.patsfans.com/new-england-patriots/messageboard/showthread.php?t=76125

Yeah, I just linked to that one. It's the second post on this thread.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

It is no coincidence that the crowd noise dwindled dramatically when we switched stadiums. Sorry, but there is little we can do about the crowd because two of the biggest problem is where the 200 section and the first part of the 300 section used to be in the old stadium is made up of club seats and luxary boxes and the stands (most particularly the 300 section) are a lot farther away from the field than in Foxboro stadium.

The Krafts built one of the best stadiums in the league. One thing they either didn't account for or just were willing to sacrifice, was how the design was going to affect the crowd noise. The Pats aren't the only team that has sacrificed crowd noise in new state of the art stadiums. The old 3 mile high stadium used to literally shake with crowd noise, but the new stadium suffers from the same problems.

I am a season ticket holder and my section cheers just as loud as my section in the old stadium. The problem is the wine and cheese crowd in the club seats seem to be more interested in watching the game behind glass the second it gets cold than trying to create crowd noise.

Agreed about the stadium but the crowd in 110 never makes much noise. Most seats are corporate with fans arriving after the 1st QTR and never cheering the D.

 

[Marko]

It's a little bit confusing what he's talking about is it Gillette or is he talking about the superbowl! Even at the old stadium there were a bunch of season ticket holders who were old foagies and felt like they were entititled because they had those seats for years, that wanted everyone to sit in front of them etc. I was @Gillette on the day it opened and it was incredibly loud, but it has never reached that level again. There is something to be said about being the frontrunner that doesn't get the crowd pumped. Look at all the away games we played the other crowds were super pumped because they wanted to beat number one, and they got to see the Patriots game.

 

[nepatz11]

At the start of three games to glory II DVD the Colts play by play announcer says that Gillette is louder than arrowhead. I have heard Gillette get deafenignly loud too many times to blame the stadium. Granted its not a dome but if people make noise it will be loud

 

[wistahpatsfan]

Too much eating cuts into the drinking time available.

Also, more fans bring their girls and wives, who add to the reduced drinking and animalistic behavior.

So I think we should drink more beer....and that goes for everything we do - not just Gilette.:eat3: :eat2:

 

[FloridaPatsFan]

I really think some loss of crowd noise could be attributed to the simple fact that watching the Patriots this year has been the most entertaining of our lives. I believe we, as fans, have become so entertained watching the team this year that we yell a little less during a drive down the field and the expectation of scoring that soon follows.

Like a great movie....you can't move when your so drawn in.

 

[Rob0729]

At the start of three games to glory II DVD the Colts play by play announcer says that Gillette is louder than arrowhead. I have heard Gillette get deafenignly loud too many times to blame the stadium. Granted its not a dome but if people make noise it will be loud

The only time it is remotely loud is when the club seat fans actually stay and cheer. Otherwise, there are two huge empty sections in the heart of both sides of the field. That is part of the reason the stadium design is a problem. They keep the real fans as far away from the field as possible and all the corporate types are close to the field.

Being a season ticket holder since 1996, I can honestly say I have never ever heard Gillette remotely as loud as Foxboro Stadium used to get. The Colts announcer must just be closer to the field in Gillette than Arrowhead because there is no way Gillette is as loud as Arrowhead. I have been to every home Colts game since the stadium has been open too.

 

[fnordcircle]

At the start of three games to glory II DVD the Colts play by play announcer says that Gillette is louder than arrowhead. I have heard Gillette get deafenignly loud too many times to blame the stadium. Granted its not a dome but if people make noise it will be loud

Exactly. Everyone who keeps harping on the stadium design is either senile or conveniently forgetting just how loud and rabid the crowd at Gillette used to be.

The AFC Championship game was loud but it did not hit full throat until late in the game and even that was only up to what I was used to in the regular season in previous years. Stadium design has nothing to do with it. The Gillette crowd was louder in 2003/2004 than it is now, without a doubt. Players note it, fans note it, media analysts note it.

 

[upstater1]

Too much eating cuts into the drinking time available.

Also, more fans bring their girls and wives, who add to the reduced drinking and animalistic behavior.

So I think we should drink more beer....and that goes for everything we do - not just Gilette.:eat3: :eat2:

I'm actually thankful for more women at the game.

I can remember being packed in on those metal bleachers at Foxboro in a row of 25 250 pound guys. At least 4 or 5 would end up on the stairs.

 

[upstater1]

Exactly. Everyone who keeps harping on the stadium design is either senile or conveniently forgetting just how loud and rabid the crowd at Gillette used to be.

The AFC Championship game was loud but it did not hit full throat until late in the game and even that was only up to what I was used to in the regular season in previous years. Stadium design has nothing to do with it. The Gillette crowd was louder in 2003/2004 than it is now, without a doubt. Players note it, fans note it, media analysts note it.

I don't know what it is then because I looked around my section and the next one over. Everyone was blue collar type, hardy souls braving 5 degree wind chills. No one sat down. Everyone stood up. And we yelled as loud as we could.

Maybe someone is right that more women attend the games. I think this is true, because in the old days gameday was full of men. Brady and the Patriots bring more women to the game. I think that's actually a good thing.

But from what I can see, the crowd's demographics haven't changed that much except for the club seats.

 

[Rob0729]

Exactly. Everyone who keeps harping on the stadium design is either senile or conveniently forgetting just how loud and rabid the crowd at Gillette used to be.

The AFC Championship game was loud but it did not hit full throat until late in the game and even that was only up to what I was used to in the regular season in previous years. Stadium design has nothing to do with it. The Gillette crowd was louder in 2003/2004 than it is now, without a doubt. Players note it, fans note it, media analysts note it.

Of course the 300 section being pushed back about 30 rows and elevated about 30 feet higher off the the field has absolutely nothing to with the crowd noise. Logic and science tells you that when you move noise farther away that it is less audible, but what does logic or science have to do with crowd noise?

Anyone who doesn't think the design of the stadium doesn't affect the crowd noise must immediately report back to the 5th grade and learn about soundwaves again. The design of the stadium pushed the real fans way far back and put the wine and cheese crowd in the dead center of both sides of the field. How can that not affect the noise?

By the way, it was in the second year of the stadium being open that players were already complaining about the crowd noise. So how I remener that Gillette was never that loud and most players who were here would agree with me.

 

[Rob0729]

I don't know what it is then because I looked around my section and the next one over. Everyone was blue collar type, hardy souls braving 5 degree wind chills. No one sat down. Everyone stood up. And we yelled as loud as we could.

Maybe someone is right that more women attend the games. I think this is true, because in the old days gameday was full of men. Brady and the Patriots bring more women to the game. I think that's actually a good thing.

But from what I can see, the crowd's demographics haven't changed that much except for the club seats.

Everyone from my section from Foxboro stadium that I have kept in touch with still have their season tickets and go to the game virtually every home game. The same people who owned season tickets in my section of Gillette when it opened in 2002 still are there as far as I can see. I really don't think it is the crowd that has changed. It is that the true fans are farther away from the stadium.

I had club seats for the Colts game last year and virtually every time I got up to cheer, I was told to sit down. The rest of the stadium were up and cheering and most of the people in that section barely registered a pulse.

The thing is that my seats in the club section were almost exactly the same distance from the field than my 300 section seats in Foxboro stadium. My 200 level seats in Gillette are actually farther away from the field than my 300 section seats in Foxboro. I don't think that that is a coincidence about the crowd noise.

 

[fnordcircle]

But from what I can see, the crowd's demographics haven't changed that much except for the club seats.

Well it's impossible for us to really determine what has changed because we are only really able to get a small view of what the crowd is like based on those sitting around us.

Your section might be loud as hell but the sections I've been in people were screeched at to sit down by fat bored hags and one guy who would make noise stomping on the floor of the handicapped section got a bunch of evil stares.

Utlimately I think there are too many people saying things have changed between now and then 2003/2004 timeframe for it to be dismissed out of hand as negativity or an architectural issue when what is at issue here is the decline of crowd noise in the last 3 years.