Ladies and gents, those of you who can make to games this year will notice a different environment due to Whit! There will be an event on the fields adjacent to Lane similar to a fan fest, there will be more music in the games to get the students involved. All in all Whit is trying to make a better experience for all, and IMO you all will like it!!!! That is all for now!
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Hopefully no music between downs.
Agreed. Don't make it like an NFL game.
Hopefully the band will be involved a lot.
Honestly, removing "Hokie Respect" is good enough for me.
Or a Georgia Tech game.
BandS*
Doesn't have to be removed, just toned down.
this! the spring game music between downs was horrible
NO! no no no no NO! There is only one song that should be played through that sound system, and it happens before kickoff. (except for those rare occasions)
Ok, reasons:
1) We do not want to be like other schools that give in to popular trends just to get a few more people to yell (see any school playing zombie nation)
2) We should demand respect, playing 'what does the fox say' like I heard last year does not demand respect.
3) Lunch pail. Keys. We don't need pumped in noise to make Lane intimidating. WE are intimidating!
4) We have two bands fully capable of playing music.
Couldn't agree more.
I love Zombie Nation...and Seven Nation Army.
I respect that... Just don't play it in Lane. A black metal lunch pail should get you yelling for football, not some mediocre electronic "music"
I'm getting kind of an elitist vibe here, those songs are loved by the fans and gets everyone pumped and excited. There is a great mix of marching band songs and songs played on the sound system.
Most of the music they played at halftime last year I had never heard of so I am not sure it can be loved by the fans (maybe the students).
Well, I wouldn't exactly expect most alumni to be in touch with what current students are into nowadays, TBH.
Also as a current Alum myself I always believe that really the students are what make the atmosphere. Not meant as disparagement on the alumni/fans at the game but when I was a student there was no louder section than the student section. Frankly, the students in the 90s and early 00s were what gave Lane its reputation. Making sure they are engaged throughout the game is essential for Lane keeping the noise so I would rather they play music I've never heard of every time if it meant Lane was insanely loud all the time.
I personally think the atmosphere in the student section is good. I don't really have anything to compare it to, but I think we get pretty wild. A good season would definitely go a long way though.
Yup. Music doesn't get anyone involved. Things that get students involved are organic to the student body and can't be pumped through speakers.
If this keeps up, sooner than later we'll be pumping crowd noise through the PA a la WVU.
Half of me agrees wholeheartedly... the other half of me understands where Whit is coming from.
I'm not going to mince words here, our fan involvement has absolutely royally sucked in recent years at games. This goes for students, alumni, and those who are just a fan. As a whole, we have been lethargic and apathetic during the games themselves. Lane is a shell of its former intimidating self, and something HAD to be done to get some teeth back in it. The Key Play is a blessing and a curse. It gave us this great website, but at the same time, it also made it acceptable to not yell your face off on 3rd downs. Lane is now louder on 1st and 2nd down than it is on 3rd downs, because more and more people think jingling keys is enough noise for the play. And don't even get me started on how that stupid 'wave your arms to pretend block kicks' has completely neutered the 4th down bite Lane used to have (where the stadium would get deafening for 4th downs... now, its almost as quiet as it is when VT is on offense).
So yeah, we might not like the fact that we're now going to be piping in music between plays, but we kind of brought this on ourselves. And if playing a few popular songs a game gets the fans engaged again, I'm perfectly fine with the sacrifice, because when you have an environment where seeing who can toss their ticket made into a paper airplane the furthest becomes something to look forward to every game, you need all the help you can get.
I'm a little confused about how TKP made the crowd experience worse. Otherwise, well reasoned points - leg.
He is referring to the actual shaking of keys:
- bad because people shake their keys and don't yell (though everyone I know does both - but I am a product of the late 90s teams)
- good because it gave us the name of this great website.
We used to do shaking of the keys on Offensive 3rd downs. Showed it was a Key Play, but didn't cause noise for the O. When we were on 3rd down, might shake keys, but definitely yelled!!!!
I've been to other places that play a small sound bite before 3rd downs when the team is on D, and I don't mind it. Not talking a big long drawn out production, but a little bit to amp to the crowd isn't a bad thing. I mean, this discussion is about how "deflated" the crowd is on 3rd downs, so if you are Whit, why not try to invigorate some excitement?!
You mean the turkey gobble sound clip for 3rd Down on D doesn't get the crowd pumped up?
I had my wife and a buddy of mine that's a Tar Heel ask me WTF that was... They had no idea.
If I'm Whit, it could be played here and there. Let's not scrap it. But on a 3rd and 7 against Miami in the 4th quarter, I think something else could be more appropriate and inspirational to the crowd. Just sayin.
I mean, it's not intimidating, but it is at least appropriate, even though it doesn't help the Hokie Bird is not a turkey situation. If you really want intimidating, just put Bud and Sam's faces on the jumbotron. No audio necessary.
One thing that could certainly help is to mic up the bands. They do a good job of getting some sections amped up, but the problem is that you just simple cannot hear them from most sections throughout the games.
They would mic the band for TV, but trust me, piping it into the sound system is a bad idea. Given the family environment, the Athletics Department will not want to hear the profane and vulgar things said throughout the stadium. Also, if you go to a UVA game, you can hear how horrible it sounds when the band is piped through the sound system. There's horrible balance (you will hear only whoever is seated immediately in front of the mic) and the quality will be awful. In most case, you can hear the MVs throughout the game from anywhere that I've sat which includes up in the top right corner of East Stands. It's the HTs that are harder to hear, but that's more because of their size compared to the MVs which is no fault of their own really.
Yeah if you mic the MVs, you're going to hear saxes, horns, and piccolos. No disrespect to those sections at all, but that wouldn't sound very good.
Thanks. My reading skillz are what killz. Me that is. But, in that case, yea.
I don't get what's wrong with the students around me. I try to get them yelling when we're on D, but they just keep shaking their keys like idiots. I keep showing them you can do both.
This comes off as a bit hyperbolic to me.
This is just quantifiably not true. People still yell on third downs.
Has Lane lost some of its edge? Probably. I wasn't around in the early 00's, so I don't really know. But all the stories I hear about Lane in the good ol' days almost always involved a nationally ranked VT team playing against a highly ranked opponent at night on a big stage. This is speculation on my part, but it really seems like the problem isn't so much fan involvement, but rather the recent dip in performance and the lackluster home scheduling. I mean, the 2011 Miami game doesn't feel like a different era--it was just a better team playing (and winning) a big game.
Agreed 100%.
Calm down, let's just see what Whit has in store. The guy has nailed everything so far, so let's just trust him on this.
So am I crazy that I am willing to pay 105 for section 4 row tt tickets? I need someone to get to my conscious or tell me go for it you dummy. I am driving from FL so I don't want to wait for mediocre tickets later in the season. What do I do ahhhhh
I feel like a child
Go for it, dummy.
I don't know where that is, but yes. That is crazy. What game are you going to? I know it's not the same, but I have driven down from NOVA several times and scalped tickets for much cheaper. I know it sounds risky, but there are always people selling their friends season tickets. Don't buy from the people that look like they are only there to make money, buy from people that look like fans with a spare.
I am going to the Miami game and bringing my other half so I don't want to risk not sitting together. I'll probably just wait and see how low tickets go on $tubhub and decide from there.
Well while were on the topic is anyone looking for a tailgate? I've got a goodin brewing it'll just be a bit of a walk from the stadium. Its probably going to be behind Hahn north
I always wondered why they didn't make Saturdays into longer events. Tailgating is, of course, awesome and obligatory but I had always thought the potential of so many people in a single location was a missed opportunity.
How about each Saturday home game has a planned event for the captive audience:
HomeBrew Contest
TurkeyLeg Cooking Contest
BBQ contest: Vinegar, Tomato and Best of Show
Gobbler Olympics: Family style Olympic "events" (pie eating contest obligatory)
etc.
coupled with bouncy houses, hokie bird, tailgate scene, campus charities doing fund raising (dunk tank, etc) and you have yourself a day long money maker good for the whole family.
I'm sure there are other great ideas better than these out there.
This would be even more effective with games that don't kickoff at or around noon.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Winner!!