The Barn was the Barn again

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Props to the fans tonight. They sparked the team on multiple occasions and were louder than I have heard all year. Keep that effort going!
 

Student Section's back must hurt

Student section was solid, thought the rest of the crowd was pretty average, and that's being generous.
 

Section 210 was pretty lame this evening. Many an ass-sitter, even during the rouser. Multiple fans left at the timeout with ten seconds left. Seriously?
 

GopherNation said:
Props to the fans tonight. They sparked the team on multiple occasions and were louder than I have heard all year. Keep that effort going!
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The players and coach made it happen. When the players perform with high energy the crowd reacts and gets behind them. Tubby was engaged big time. You could tell this game was big to him. The only problem was the early start with the snow made it a late arriving crowd that didn't settle into the game for a little bit. Overall a great crowd that saw a great effort.
 

The crowd was embarrassing tonight.
I thought the student section was great.
I thought the people behind the other basket were good.
I thought the people on the sidelines should probably get their affairs in order, they looked comatose.
 


Crowd looked pretty bad on tv. It honestly looks like most of the lower level has been going to games since the Barn was constructed.
 

Take_It_To_The_Bank said:
Crowd looked pretty bad on tv. It honestly looks like most of the lower level has been going to games since the Barn was constructed.
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I do wish the crowd was louder and more energetic, but I also can't say how awesome it is to see people like the women during the break who had been a season ticket holder for 60 years. People like that who have shown support for so long are huge for the programs success. Would it be nice to have a louder, more standing, energetic crowd? Absolutely. But those long time holders are great for the program as well.
 


awag777 said:
Student section was solid, thought the rest of the crowd was pretty average, and that's being generous.
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I agree. I go crazy not being able to stand for more than a few seconds with the grown-ups. If you can't get pumped for this game, what can you get pumped for? Unfortunately, this game made me realize - this is all we're going to get unless they change things up.

Kudos to The Barnyard, you did a great job! You gave the boys the most home court advantage you could on your own.
 



I third or fourth the overwhelming opinion in this thread... the student section rocked... the rest of the crowd stunk... oldest crowd in town by a wide margin, in fact a handful of people in our section (116) left at a whistle w/ 2:08 remaining... no joke.
 

Doogie said:
in fact a handful of people in our section (116) left at a whistle w/ 2:08 remaining... no joke.
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Ok, that *is* ridiculous. Why even go at all if you are going to do that?

Hmmmmmm.........
 

This conversation reminds me of my favorite Tweet from the evening from @JLbluedevils

@NadineBabu Heard they had a promotion tonight giving away tennis balls for their walkers.
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The crowd sounded great on TV tonight, but it was clear most of the noise was coming from the student section. How about the dude with a sombrero, grey suit, maroon shirt, and gold tie in the student section? Pretty sweet. Hope he posts here.
 



This town is becoming so pro sports dominated that people don't feel compelled or inspired to cheer anymore. Everything is so corporate now, and the culture is so pro-sports dominated people expect to win and don't put any effort in to helping the home team.
 

That's actually sickening. Are they just at games out of habit at this point?

Doogie said:
I third or fourth the overwhelming opinion in this thread... the student section rocked... the rest of the crowd stunk... oldest crowd in town by a wide margin, in fact a handful of people in our section (116) left at a whistle w/ 2:08 remaining... no joke.
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EG#9 said:
The crowd sounded great on TV tonight, but it was clear most of the noise was coming from the student section. How about the dude with a sombrero, grey suit, maroon shirt, and gold tie in the student section? Pretty sweet. Hope he posts here.
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I do. Thanks for the shout out.
 


This is sad to see/hear. What can the do to 'change it up.' The simplest thing would be to increase the student section and give them ore seats in the lower level like Duke. Sadly, the re-seating thing they are planning is going to make this worse, not better, correct?
 

SonOfTheVarsity said:
I do. Thanks for the shout out.
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Props! Saw you as well. Thought you should've been a little more energetic...but the ESPN cams were lovin you.

On a side note. The barn has been like this for 4-5 years. All student section. Go to any game and you will know that.

You could make more noise than the "older sections" by bashing two pieces of loose leaf paper together. Just sayin...get the eff into the game or stop buying tickets. Our players thrive off our energy.
 

howeda7 said:
This is sad to see/hear. What can the do to 'change it up.' The simplest thing would be to increase the student section and give them ore seats in the lower level like Duke. Sadly, the re-seating thing they are planning is going to make this worse, not better, correct?[/QUOTE]

I'm afraid you may be right. A game like this 10-15 years ago, the place would have blown out your ear drums. My seats back then were in section 115 row 10(free throw line), all adults but very LOUD. I guess the times have changed.
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I think the new seating arrangement will actually help a lot in a few years. Most of the good seats are maintained by old timers. Now, I appreciate their devotion to Gopher Hoops and their longevity needs to be commended, but some of them are milking relatives tickets. The shake up will allow some real fans in, despite the donation requirements. Now, it won't solve the problem completely as the donation will shy away some good fans, but it cannot get worse.
 

Stuck up in the upper deck where I can't even see the scoreboard, much less most of the crowd. I honestly don't think it's that bad. This crowd reacts to the level of play like most places. Seemed pretty loud and people were on their feet at the right times. The Barn is never going to be real The Barn again. You've got several thousand fewer people in there. You've got a damn, prolonged timeout every four minutes that also just deadens the atmosphere IMO. Students are great, but come on, lot of it is the mugging for the cameras. Where I am it's pretty hard to stay excited watching somebody in street clothes clanking shots or watching cheerleaders throw little basketballs all the way up to the 6th row.

People get all worked up about those not standing or leaving two minutes early. It is what it is. Bitching about it here ain't going to help. Enjoy the moment. Those folks have no idea this site even exists so you're not going to change the culture. A few more games like last night will start to do that.
 

I know this suggestion will not sit well with some, but if the goal is create a home court edge that is intimidating and tough, then I think the sports marketing folks need to become more proactive in getting crowd noise to a level that is better. I'm sure they are hesitant to attempt it, because many of the things that help do this in other Big Ten venues are looked upon negatively by most Gopher fans it seems.

Coming out of timeouts after they do their silly contests and after the band has played their bit, they need to give a couple bars of LOUD arena rock music over the speakers, flash GET LOUD or NOISE METER or DEFENSE! something like that on the scoreboard (and something that fits the situation), and prompt people to rattle the cages. It would help if they added ribbon LED lighting around the ring of the upper deck and a new sound system where we could hear things more clearly. The sound systems at Kohl Center and Value City Arena will absolutely blow your ear drums out, but it helps force the issue with the audience. Check out a game at these venues, or the Breslin Center, and you'll see they are all doing this proactive stuff. And before you say we don't want to sound like that, its too NBAish, just remember that's what it takes nowadays. It ain't the good old days. The price of poker has gone up. You want the crowd to do something, you almost have to tell them what to do. You want them to stand? Play "Stand Up and Shout" LOUDLY and flash it in a fancy manner on the scoreboard and I promise you people will stand up and shout.

The other thing that, IMO, made the Barn what it was back in the day, was Clem. He'd incite the crowd. He'd throw his jacket, storm the sideline, yell at the refs, and literally lead the frothing mouthed crowd with pitch forks. While, I love Tubby, he rarely does any of that and the crowd follows that lead. How do you think the crowd would respond if Tubby threw his coat and stormed the ref along the sideline? They'd go nuts. That's not his style, though (and that's fine.)

I was disappointed in the crowd last night. Easily the biggest game of the year with the #8 team in town, and too many just idly watched. Even the student section (which was pretty good throughout) failed miserably when Jackson was shooting those late free throws. A few students waved their hands and made some noise, but nothing like it should have been and used to be in those situations. It is somewhat sad that the loudest the place got all night (except for the very last Purdue possession) was when the cheerleaders threw basketballs into the stands and when the dribbling/spinning kids from Alexandria finished their halftime show.

The crowd needs to be enticed and prompted. It works.
 

tjgopher said:
I know this suggestion will not sit well with some, but if the goal is create a home court edge that is intimidating and tough, then I think the sports marketing folks need to become more proactive in getting crowd noise to a level that is better. I'm sure they are hesitant to attempt it, because many of the things that help do this in other Big Ten venues are looked upon negatively by most Gopher fans it seems.

Coming out of timeouts after they do their silly contests and after the band has played their bit, they need to give a couple bars of LOUD arena rock music over the speakers, flash GET LOUD or NOISE METER or DEFENSE! something like that on the scoreboard (and something that fits the situation), and prompt people to rattle the cages. It would help if they added ribbon LED lighting around the ring of the upper deck and a new sound system where we could hear things more clearly. The sound systems at Kohl Center and Value City Arena will absolutely blow your ear drums out, but it helps force the issue with the audience. Check out a game at these venues, or the Breslin Center, and you'll see they are all doing this proactive stuff. And before you say we don't want to sound like that, its too NBAish, just remember that's what it takes nowadays. It ain't the good old days. The price of poker has gone up. You want the crowd to do something, you almost have to tell them what to do. You want them to stand? Play "Stand Up and Shout" LOUDLY and flash it in a fancy manner on the scoreboard and I promise you people will stand up and shout.

The other thing that, IMO, made the Barn what it was back in the day, was Clem. He'd incite the crowd. He'd throw his jacket, storm the sideline, yell at the refs, and literally lead the frothing mouthed crowd with pitch forks. While, I love Tubby, he rarely does any of that and the crowd follows that lead. How do you think the crowd would respond if Tubby threw his coat and stormed the ref along the sideline? They'd go nuts. That's not his style, though (and that's fine.)

I was disappointed in the crowd last night. Easily the biggest game of the year with the #8 team in town, and too many just idly watched. Even the student section (which was pretty good throughout) failed miserably when Jackson was shooting those late free throws. A few students waved their hands and made some noise, but nothing like it should have been and used to be in those situations. It is somewhat sad that the loudest the place got all night (except for the very last Purdue possession) was when the cheerleaders threw basketballs into the stands and when the dribbling/spinning kids from Alexandria finished their halftime show.

The crowd needs to be enticed and prompted. It works.
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They even do the proactive stuff at Duke. If they have to do it there, they have to do it everywhere.
 

The crowd was fine last night. Kudos to all, students, season-ticket holders & walk-ups alike. I was quite surprised to come on here this morning to find that we have people complaining about the crowd. The atmosphere was there last night, not its rocking best, but certainly a big improvement. Perhaps it had a lot to do with the level of the opponent and the way the Gophers played?
 


SelectionSunday said:
The crowd was fine last night.
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Fine is the right word. Just fine. Not rocking. Not intimidating. Not hostile. Not above and beyond. It was just fine.

To me, in that building, with the No. 8 team in the nation on that floor, fine is not fine. If this team wants the same home court edge that Michigan State and Wisconsin and Ohio State and Illinois and Purdue get at their gyms, then fine isn't enough.

Being a fan that helps create that environment takes work. It isn't sitting back and watching. It is yelling, whistling, clapping, screaming, maybe god forbid even standing, when there are key points of the game. I am literally serious on this...it was louder when the cheerleaders threw balls into the stands than it was at all but 1 or 2 points in the game. That's terrible.

I wish some of our fans could go to games at some of these other places (MSU, PU, ILL, OSU) and really hear how it should sound. I think they'd have a huge eye opener watching a game at Mackey Arena or either Assembly Hall. I think our fans think "well, its the Barn, it rocks." Well, comparitively speaking, in 2011, it doesn't. We can change that, but again, it takes work as a fan.
 

The crowd had impact, so that was positive. And it seemed really loud of TV. But yeah, when you visually looked, there wasn't a lot of movement outside of the student section it seemed (whom are really not in the picture a lot because of their placement). Even in your seats though, you can make noise. It's not like you HAVE to stand in order to cheer loudly or put your hands together. It may help the sound travel better, but even a sit down cheer helps, for those who aren't inclined to stand.
 

I think it was at a game last year where you could clearly hear the students chanting, "Stand up, old people." I loved that. We need more things like that.

There seems to be something about our local culture in that nobody wants to be the first one in their section to stand up or make noise. Anything that can be done to break this trend should be tried, including things as "corny" as prompts on the scoreboard, announcers pleading for noise and perhaps even doing the wave during a time out. Once people realize that standing and cheering makes for a better experience they will be more likely to do it on their own, IMHO.
 

josh087 said:
This town is becoming so pro sports dominated that people don't feel compelled or inspired to cheer anymore. Everything is so corporate now, and the culture is so pro-sports dominated people expect to win and don't put any effort in to helping the home team.
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Yeah it's the Vikings fault. :rolleyes:
 

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