Atmosphere in the stadium.
by Domer84 (2019-09-22 19:20:23)
Edited on 2019-09-23 08:52:09
Post Reply Return to Rock's House

We were at the Georgia game and tailgated on campus for about eight hours before kick off. As has been acknowledged, everyone we met at the tailgaters was gracious and welcoming.

I’m curious what other people thought of the atmosphere inside the stadium. I was impressed that entire student section seem to be in place 45 minutes before kick off. The stadium was at least 90% full before the teams left to go to the locker room after warm-ups. The pregame was fairly straightforward. And then they started using the Jumbotron.

Impressively, I did not see much in the way of Jumbotron advertising. Nevertheless, it seemed to be thumping every minute that the band wasn’t playing. There was never a moment when something wasn’t flashing on the Jumbotron, acknowledging returning players, showing clips of alumni in the pros and things like that. It was very orchestrated and the crowd seem to expect it. Maybe if I was a Georgia fan I would’ve gotten more out of it.

The fan involvement was impressive to the point of being slightly frightening. We had seats with a bunch of Georgia season-ticket holder‘s so I think my crowd was a little more sedate than most parts of the stadium. Nevertheless, the polite folks that I met when I sat down transformed during the game. They were screaming at the refs over every call, or non-call as they saw it, and barely sat down the entire game. The young couple sitting next to my wife stopped talking to her about the middle of the third-quarter and the husband got a strange look in his eye as the score got closer near the end of the game.As soon as Book threw the last incompletion, the wild look in all of their eyes disappeared and they were suddenly friendly again. I wonder what would have happened if we had won.

Everyone participated in every chant. It was extremely well coordinated. Every seat came with a red shaker which is standard SEC issue and looks amazing. Between the third and fourth quarters they turn off the overhead lighting then turn it back on with red lights only. Everyone pulls out their cell phones and turns on the flashlight feature. The band plays the theme for Superman and they all wave the flashlights in a predetermined unison pattern. Reminded me of Nuremberg. They had Loud Continuous Noise for every single play. I have never heard that volume at ND.

I could see where all of this would be very intimidating for a visiting team. It did not surprise me that we had multiple false starts and, in fact, the audience seem to revel in them.

Replies: