judzeehawk
Well-Known Member
Don't understand why you would want to stand the whole game. Must be a Nascar fan.
Improving the atmosphere at Carver Hawkeye
- Thread starter dmihalke
- Start date
Don't understand why you would want to stand the whole game. Must be a Nascar fan.
Given the choice of sitting ALL game or standing, I'd choose to stand.
judzeehawk
Well-Known Member
Lol Stand away! Only I don't see anybody ever stand the entire game. Nobody has to always stand or always sit so I don't get your point.
The Big LeHAWKski
Well-Known Member
It's not even about standing the whole game. When something good happens, everyone stands and cheers (hopefully). But within a few seconds, you become aware that it's time to sit back down. It sucks the life right back out of the arena.
judzeehawk
Well-Known Member
Oh my. I think some of you just want something to bitch about. Or just maybe it's called trolling.
Northside Hawk
Well-Known Member
You want to see a "Pit" you should have seen Dubuque Hempstead's old gym.
It was below ground level you you would walk down to your seat after entering. The wall on the one side was green and grey, dingy, and frequently damp. Air circulated poorly so it smelled like condensation when it didn't smell like chlorine from the nearby swimming pool. The whole building itself, which was a rush job in the late sixties and which my dad helped build, is built in the side of a hill and has had problems from the day it opened.
It always had that dark dingy look and walking down into it was like walking into a wine cellar. Some of you out there may have played in it. The one advantage it had was that the dark background and towering wall right behind the baseline made for a great shooting background. Hempstead always had some good individual shooters, one of them is PJ Hogan who currently is on UNI's coaching staff.
Northside Hawk
Well-Known Member
I never attended a game there, but not taking away anything from the atmosphere I think one of the reasons you stood was because there wasn't much room to sit.
I did start attending games at Carver starting my freshman year in 1984. It was at least five years before anyone wrote or spoke of missing the Field House and it's atmosphere.
Evidently it aged quickly in the minds of many and is now seen as an eyesore, an earsore, a morgue, a cavernous black hole, inconvenient for students, and designed for wrestling first.
Obviously I would have loved the Field House and it's atmosphere, not to mention that it was literally across the street from at least four dorms.
I have never had an issue with Carver. Sit or stand, doesn't matter to me, as long as the team I'm watching is a good one.
HuckFinn
Well-Known Member
OK. But I guess my point is that as a multi year season ticket holder, I have not observed a bunch of blue hairs dominating the crowd and causing CHA to be a tomb. What I have seen is a pretty knowledgeable crowd rising to their feet to respond to good defense, an offensive run out, a spectacular play. I would guess we are no different than most crowds. I think it’s pretty silly to over generalize and claim CHA is quiet, which I don’t believe, and then theorize that how much people stand would change the atmosphere.
hawkeyebob62
Well-Known Member
Uh, people were mourning the demise of the Fieldhouse before Carver was even completed. While it bears no similarities to Hilton, sentiment was that we were trying to copy Hilton, nonetheless.
I will say, walking up to, and into Hilton, for the Springsteen concert in 1981 was pretty cool. Back when a Springsteen concert was still actually cool.
1hawkeye1
Well-Known Member
Winning cures all. That crowd vs Michigan seemed pretty amped to me. Sometimes hard to tell on TV but that's the way it came across.
As for comparisons to hilton? Go check out cryfan. They are talking about not renewing season tix and not attending games cause it's not fun when you're taking an ass kicking on the regular. Goodbye magic, hello tragic.
As for comparisons to hilton? Go check out cryfan. They are talking about not renewing season tix and not attending games cause it's not fun when you're taking an ass kicking on the regular. Goodbye magic, hello tragic.
You really find it that hard to believe that some fans want to be more rowdy and loud than others? I get that whenever someone doesn't have the same thoughts as someone else, they instantly throw out the trolling card, but that's ridiculous here. I think it sucks that there are a lot of fans who want to sit the whole game, but I sure don't think they're trolling other fans by doing it. It's very clearly their personal preference. You calling me voicing my personal preference trolling is just dumb.
Here's the thing. When you go to Carver, you either have to respect the people around you and conform to what they want, or you have to be a complete dick. It's not in me to be a dick and tell everyone around me to go to hell, so I conform and it kills my experience there. I watch at home and text friends during the game, and the crowd always gets mentioned by someone (never me because I don't notice the crowd on tv). Maybe its similar to other places. I dont know because I dont go to other places. But I have talked to people that compare it and they all say the same thing. Carver crowd sucks. You're basically guilted into sitting there the whole time.
The fact that it kills my experience and pretty much is always the deciding factor when I choose not to go sucks pretty bad. But what sucks worse is it sucks for the team too. Everyone but judzeehawk knows there are two types of fans. Which ones do you think the team wants to see? Of course they want the loud ones that cheer like crazy. They really need to make standing sections and sitting sections to help appease everyone.
Northside Hawk
Well-Known Member
i wanted to get to New York and see Bruce on his Broadway run.
Bruce in an intimate setting? Now THAT would be cool. Many of his songs resound even more on acoustic guitar (which is why Nebraska worked) and he is a riveting storyteller.
They occasionally play snippets of his Broadway performances on Sirius XM Channel 20 and wanting to hear his stories to their conclusion has made me late more than once!
Everyone who goes to Carver knows that the crowd stands up when something good happens, then within a minute or 2, the crowd falls back down like dominoes. Everyone is so used to the routine that I bet it takes less than 10 seconds from the time the first person sits until the time the last person sits.
It does happen sometimes where the crowd senses the big moment and realizes the team needs them, so they will stand up and try to get into it. I'm not saying that never happens. I'm saying it doesn't happen often enough. It doesn't go on long enough when it does happen. And it's not loud enough when it does happen. That's the advantage the home court gives you and that's the difference between a place like Carver and a place like Hilton (makes me puke in my mouth to say that). It has nothing to do with the building. It's the tradition inside it created by the fans that held out during the Lick years and adopted new routines.
It does happen sometimes where the crowd senses the big moment and realizes the team needs them, so they will stand up and try to get into it. I'm not saying that never happens. I'm saying it doesn't happen often enough. It doesn't go on long enough when it does happen. And it's not loud enough when it does happen. That's the advantage the home court gives you and that's the difference between a place like Carver and a place like Hilton (makes me puke in my mouth to say that). It has nothing to do with the building. It's the tradition inside it created by the fans that held out during the Lick years and adopted new routines.
I was just waiting for your approval. Thx.
ssckelley
Well-Known Member
PC has it nailed, it's that politeness thing that's the problem. When I go to the game I feel guilty if I'm standing the entire time. I've been bitching about this for years they've got to get the students out from behind the baskets. The donors should be sitting further up and the kids should be down by the court. But it will never change because they got to keep the people happy that pay the bills.
I'll never forget the time I was in Carver for the NIT game back in 2012. We were starved for a winner after those Lick years and we were thrilled to get a home game as a 7 seed in the NIT because the opponent was Dayton and their arena was being used by the NCAA tournament. The crowd was completely different, you had younger fans in the seats normally reserved for blue hairs and it was electric. That's probably what happened in the Michigan game, the blue hairs wouldn't go out so you had a younger crowd in those seats. It does make a difference.
I'll never forget the time I was in Carver for the NIT game back in 2012. We were starved for a winner after those Lick years and we were thrilled to get a home game as a 7 seed in the NIT because the opponent was Dayton and their arena was being used by the NCAA tournament. The crowd was completely different, you had younger fans in the seats normally reserved for blue hairs and it was electric. That's probably what happened in the Michigan game, the blue hairs wouldn't go out so you had a younger crowd in those seats. It does make a difference.
That Dayton game was crazy. If Carver was like that every game we would probably average a win or more per year. That crowd was hands down better than the crowd late in the year in '15 against Wisconsin and Indiana. Could the crowd have made a difference turning those close losses into close wins? Who knows. But if the answer is yes, we would have a Big 10 title that year.
I'm bumping 80 years old. Infrequent poster on this board. I drop in from time to time to read what members have to say. Have heard these not infrequent complaints about Carver atmosphere. Have wondered though about golf and tennis, for example, where at critical times like a putt in golf or a serve in tennis the crowd goes silent. Why? Suggests that it is more about the performance of the athlete than the crowd pleasing itself.
I take in all of the local high school baseball games. Pay my admission and then go to the third base side and stand the entire game by the fence. Often I have it to myself. When someone does join me along the fence it is typically a person at or near my age. Why not take a place in the bleachers? Because the students are there and unmindful of the game. Socializing. You see, the game is not important. What is important is a venue to gather and socialize.
I stand by the fence because I am there to give full attention to the play on the field. Without distractions. But I understand--each to his own. I prefer to watch basketball games on tv than attend because of all of the distractions. Each to his own...
But it's all right now, I learned my lesson well.
You see, ya can't please everyone, so ya got to please yourself
---Ricky Nelson
