There's been plenty of conversations the last month about the much maligned fan experience at our home games, and I'm going to throw in my 2c and ask for anyone interested to either repost their own thoughts here, or jump in with feedback, that I intend to start writing to the department about. Some people will say this stuff isn't important and all we need for a better atmosphere is to win but I don't believe that. No matter how much we win, we're not going to have our own version of Jump Around at Wisconsin without some planning and frankly- care for this.
I've worked in high-end hospitality settings for 20 years, I'm pretty savvy at creating experiences that people return for. I've been attending Rutgers games since 2002, so I was here when you could take a nap in the bleachers (I think I actually did my freshman year) and I was there for Louisville, the best fan experience ever, and every step in between.
To me, the underlying issue is that the gameday staff feels they must "manage" or manipulate the crowd instead of letting fans interact organically. All the other complaints- constant piped in sound, lousy music, too loud, overlapping sound bites, not enough band- are symptoms of this thinking about what the fan experience should be. The best fan moments are grassroots, when one man or a group inspire others to join in on something. As an example, here's tOSU's "O-H-I-O" spreading around the stadium in spite of a commercial for Coke. Obviously if there's an ad running, these fans aren't being led by a jumbotron, they are taking over the joint by themselves. That's much more exciting and makes fans feel like they're contributing to the effort by making the stadium louder and more intimidating. Before Rutgers games became more commercialized, you'd hear spontaneous chants and cheers constantly. When was the last time you heard the simple "Let's Go Rutgers!" cheer with claps to follow? That chant used to spread around so loud, during defensive gameplay, that the sound would echo in the place. Of course the R-U cheer has been bastardized for a decade now, that's probably toast unless they move the student section back to a sideline instead of an end zone. Although it was better when it was side to side, at least it still happened after most touchdowns until the last couple years. Now its instant commercial, and the volume is too loud to get anything started.
Apparently there is a guy with a megaphone to tells the student section how and when to cheer? That's lame. Students are the most raucous people in the house, they don't need guidance. If you train them to cheer when told to by the megaphone guy, they'll be less inclined to do anything spontaneous which is more exciting.
We need to forget about 7 Nation Army. That song belongs to Penn State. Nobody does it better IMO and they did it first, there's no reason we should be doing anything half-assed as our rival.
One scripted cheer that was cool and patently Rutgers was "first down touchdown go RU!" after a first down. Since Joe Nolan took over, he brought "and that is a Rutgerrrrrrrs First Down!" which he would do before the band would play. Now since we go hurry up more regularly, there frequently are times that there's only time for one or the other. Nolan isn't going to give his part up but he should. The band playing a piece of our fight song and giving our fans a chance to cheer along is much more exciting than copying what Nolan does, which he brought from the Jets games where he does the same 1st down and 3rd down calls at MetLife. Yesterday he would start his first down call and the band wasn't waiting for him to start or finish. So fans could either yell "First Down!" with Nolan or chant with the band cadence. Really, really dumb.
The worst though for me was all the crazy sound fx to leading up to our Metallica 3rd down song. Fans don't come to full throat on 3rd down until that song is over. It takes 4-5 seconds once the song is done before they're max volume and most disruptive to the opposing offense. So if the operator plays "MAKE SOME NOISE," and blows the train whistle, and plays that sound effect for Dolby or whatever (the one that used to get played at the beginning of a movie in the 80s or 90s) and then gets to the bell tolling and the guitar playing, then getting everyone yelling and making noise won't happen in time. Not only do you need a few seconds of silent stereo, but at several points yesterday the song clip didn't finish before it had to be cut off. This assumes we have to keep that song for 3rd down, we shouldn't because it doesn't inspire the crowd to yell, but to silently air guitar. Dumb.
I'm not as anti-train horn as others. I think since we have NJT and Amtrak running lines through town, and New Brunswick is the "Hub City" that something transit related as a stadium prop makes sense. On-brand, but grossly overused.
Music- as much as possible should be Jersey themed. Plenty of catalog to pull from, and it doesn't all have to be "hype." Phil Collins "In the Air" isn't the most obvious stadium song, but it works for the lyrics and the mood. Bruce, Bon Jovi, Gaslight Anthem...plenty of Jersey-raised hip hop artists too. Sopranos soundtrack.
Bottom line- very little of the gameday sound production is authentically Rutgers, the experience is just "generic, overproduced college football," and the fans aren't as engaged as they used to be, or as engaged as they should. The fans could be much more of a factor, and the place doesn't have to be 45k full for that to be the case. It's less fun than being a part of a game 10 years ago, and the actual result on the field has no bearing on the specific things I'm writing about.
Also, was surprised that the band didn't play "Loyal Sons" on the field at the end of the game as the crowd departed. Does that not happen anymore?
I've worked in high-end hospitality settings for 20 years, I'm pretty savvy at creating experiences that people return for. I've been attending Rutgers games since 2002, so I was here when you could take a nap in the bleachers (I think I actually did my freshman year) and I was there for Louisville, the best fan experience ever, and every step in between.
To me, the underlying issue is that the gameday staff feels they must "manage" or manipulate the crowd instead of letting fans interact organically. All the other complaints- constant piped in sound, lousy music, too loud, overlapping sound bites, not enough band- are symptoms of this thinking about what the fan experience should be. The best fan moments are grassroots, when one man or a group inspire others to join in on something. As an example, here's tOSU's "O-H-I-O" spreading around the stadium in spite of a commercial for Coke. Obviously if there's an ad running, these fans aren't being led by a jumbotron, they are taking over the joint by themselves. That's much more exciting and makes fans feel like they're contributing to the effort by making the stadium louder and more intimidating. Before Rutgers games became more commercialized, you'd hear spontaneous chants and cheers constantly. When was the last time you heard the simple "Let's Go Rutgers!" cheer with claps to follow? That chant used to spread around so loud, during defensive gameplay, that the sound would echo in the place. Of course the R-U cheer has been bastardized for a decade now, that's probably toast unless they move the student section back to a sideline instead of an end zone. Although it was better when it was side to side, at least it still happened after most touchdowns until the last couple years. Now its instant commercial, and the volume is too loud to get anything started.
Apparently there is a guy with a megaphone to tells the student section how and when to cheer? That's lame. Students are the most raucous people in the house, they don't need guidance. If you train them to cheer when told to by the megaphone guy, they'll be less inclined to do anything spontaneous which is more exciting.
We need to forget about 7 Nation Army. That song belongs to Penn State. Nobody does it better IMO and they did it first, there's no reason we should be doing anything half-assed as our rival.
One scripted cheer that was cool and patently Rutgers was "first down touchdown go RU!" after a first down. Since Joe Nolan took over, he brought "and that is a Rutgerrrrrrrs First Down!" which he would do before the band would play. Now since we go hurry up more regularly, there frequently are times that there's only time for one or the other. Nolan isn't going to give his part up but he should. The band playing a piece of our fight song and giving our fans a chance to cheer along is much more exciting than copying what Nolan does, which he brought from the Jets games where he does the same 1st down and 3rd down calls at MetLife. Yesterday he would start his first down call and the band wasn't waiting for him to start or finish. So fans could either yell "First Down!" with Nolan or chant with the band cadence. Really, really dumb.
The worst though for me was all the crazy sound fx to leading up to our Metallica 3rd down song. Fans don't come to full throat on 3rd down until that song is over. It takes 4-5 seconds once the song is done before they're max volume and most disruptive to the opposing offense. So if the operator plays "MAKE SOME NOISE," and blows the train whistle, and plays that sound effect for Dolby or whatever (the one that used to get played at the beginning of a movie in the 80s or 90s) and then gets to the bell tolling and the guitar playing, then getting everyone yelling and making noise won't happen in time. Not only do you need a few seconds of silent stereo, but at several points yesterday the song clip didn't finish before it had to be cut off. This assumes we have to keep that song for 3rd down, we shouldn't because it doesn't inspire the crowd to yell, but to silently air guitar. Dumb.
I'm not as anti-train horn as others. I think since we have NJT and Amtrak running lines through town, and New Brunswick is the "Hub City" that something transit related as a stadium prop makes sense. On-brand, but grossly overused.
Music- as much as possible should be Jersey themed. Plenty of catalog to pull from, and it doesn't all have to be "hype." Phil Collins "In the Air" isn't the most obvious stadium song, but it works for the lyrics and the mood. Bruce, Bon Jovi, Gaslight Anthem...plenty of Jersey-raised hip hop artists too. Sopranos soundtrack.
Bottom line- very little of the gameday sound production is authentically Rutgers, the experience is just "generic, overproduced college football," and the fans aren't as engaged as they used to be, or as engaged as they should. The fans could be much more of a factor, and the place doesn't have to be 45k full for that to be the case. It's less fun than being a part of a game 10 years ago, and the actual result on the field has no bearing on the specific things I'm writing about.
Also, was surprised that the band didn't play "Loyal Sons" on the field at the end of the game as the crowd departed. Does that not happen anymore?
