Levi Stadium predicted to be as loud as Seattle's

[Sports Hernia]

One day people will accept it's not some gimmicky stadium that makes Seattle so noisy.

I'm not a fan of any college team, but whenever I see Husky Stadium it's exactly the same. The damn camera shakes from all the noise.

It's just something about the fans in this part of the world. Maybe it's because they're starved of success? Whatever.

But there's no way they'd ever need a bloody cheat sheet on when to cheer at a big game.

Um, I was at Candlestick for the Green Bay playoff game when Kap came out. Every fan in that stadium stood the whole game and cheered as loud as they could every down when Packer's were on O. You can't say Seattle fans want it more. That's complete BS

Fixed that for ya...

Um, it's well established that he's in to Turtles, not men.

Good point.

 

[willyum]

Yeah, none of this is guaranteed. Not the fan participation, nor the architectural effect. Will know by Week 1 next season

Yeah it really is impressive how Seattle's fans are able to keep up the noise CONSISTENTLY throughout the whole game. I bet half of Seattle has raspy voices the next day at work.

 

[Marvin49]

Fans in SF aren't smart enough or act too cool to be loud.

Good thing the stadium is in Santa Clara then.

 

[Marvin49]

http://www.mercurynews.com/sports/c...vis-stadium-provide-better-viewing-experience

The vast majority of luxury boxes are located in an eight-level tower -- essentially, a 12-story building -- on the west side of the field. That means two things: One, there are no upper decks on the west side, just the lower bowl and the tower. And two, the east side upper decks can be closer to the ground -- because it does not sit atop multiple levels of luxury boxes.

That's the same general design as Philips Arena in Atlanta; all the luxury boxes/suites are stacked on one side. Did not really make things louder there; you wind up sacrificing any noise coming from that side (people in suites don't yell). One of the reasons CenturyLink works is because the footprint is smaller, and the stadium is more vertical than most others; the upper level, which rings the entire stadium, is closer to the field than most. The roof does reflect the noise, but proximity is more important.

I also have to think the fan base will be more, shall we say, white-collar than at Candlestick. The location (Santa Clara) and PSL price ($2K minimum for even the cheapest seats) may tend to keep some of the blue-collar fans from Candlestick away. White-collar people yell a lot less than blue-collar people. (Take it from a white-collar person.)

Thats actually precisely why peeps think the stadium will be loud. It will have the largest lower bowl in the NFL and the upper decks are much closer to the field because all of the suites are in the Tower. The seats at Levis are far closer to the field than at Candlestick...this is partially because of the "stacked" design of Levis and partially because Candlestick was a mixed use facility that gives it an odd shape and puts fans farther from the field.

Now whether it will be as loud as at the Clink...I have serious doubts.

I think another part of the sound at the clink is the "rounded" design of the seating area. At Levis there are hard corners. That rounded aspect helps trap sound better (not making this up...read it somewhere). The hard corners better facilitate the sound escaping upward. There are also 2 large plazas in the corners which sound can escape from.

I guess in the end tho its all just guesswork. We'll find out soon enough.

 

[Popeyejones]

I think stadium design is very overrated in the CLink's deserved reputation as a loud stadium.

When people are talking about the noise they're not really talking about loud cheering (e.g. after the Hawks score, after the Hawks get a sack or interception). That's very loud too of course, but what people are talking about is something very different that by definition isn't cheering: Hawks fans have done an excellent job in organizing themselves to make noise for the sole purpose of distracting and limiting opposing offenses. They're not alone in this of course, they've just been much, much better in organizing themselves for this purpose than other fanbases. Fans don't need cheering instructions; cheering is celebratory and spontaneous. It is sadly believed by some (such as the idiotic 9ers "home field advantage plan") that fans DO need instructions on how to try to distract and inhibit the other team, as that's not spontaneous and it's not celebratory; it's an entirely different thing.

It's basically the football equivalent of basketball fans waving balloons and rods and swirlers behind the opposing basket during free throws. Like basketball fans who do this, I find it to pretty lame and corny, but regardless of my meaningless personal preferences I don't think Hawks fans should be criticized for doing what everyone else does, the only difference being that they're simply better at it than everyone else.

That's why I think the CLink has the reputation for being loud, and I don't really think the design of Levi's stadium matters a rat for this thing that we're really talking about. Maybe the stadium design will make cheering louder, but for this other thing it's not the stadium nearly as much as it's fans unifying to engage in the coordinated action of distraction and disruption of opposing teams. That's a coordianted fanbase thing, not a stadium design thing nearly as much as gets discussed.

(I know this post will get trolled a bit, so I'll say it one more time: regardless of my meaningless personal preferences I don't think Hawks fans should be criticized for doing what everyone else does, the only difference being that they're simply better at it than everyone else.)

 

[Marvin49]

I think stadium design is very overrated in the CLink's deserved reputation as a loud stadium.

When people are talking about the noise they're not really talking about loud cheering (e.g. after the Hawks score, after the Hawks get a sack or interception). That's very loud too of course, but what people are talking about is something very different that by definition isn't cheering: Hawks fans have done an excellent job in organizing themselves to make noise for the sole purpose of distracting and limiting opposing offenses. They're not alone in this of course, they've just been much, much better in organizing themselves for this purpose than other fanbases. Fans don't need cheering instructions; cheering is celebratory and spontaneous. It is sadly believed by some (such as the idiotic 9ers "home field advantage plan") that fans DO need instructions on how to try to distract and inhibit the other team, as that's not spontaneous and it's not celebratory; it's an entirely different thing.

It's basically the football equivalent of basketball fans waving balloons and rods and swirlers behind the opposing basket during free throws. Like basketball fans who do this, I find it to pretty lame and corny, but regardless of my meaningless personal preferences I don't think Hawks fans should be criticized for doing what everyone else does, the only difference being that they're simply better at it than everyone else.

That's why I think the CLink has the reputation for being loud, and I don't really think the design of Levi's stadium matters a rat for this thing that we're really talking about. Maybe the stadium design will make cheering louder, but for this other thing it's not the stadium nearly as much as it's fans unifying to engage in the coordinated action of distraction and disruption of opposing teams. That's a coordianted fanbase thing, not a stadium design thing nearly as much as gets discussed.

(I know this post will get trolled a bit, so I'll say it one more time: regardless of my meaningless personal preferences I don't think Hawks fans should be criticized for doing what everyone else does, the only difference being that they're simply better at it than everyone else.)

I agree they shouldn't be criticized. More power to 'em...

...but the building has something to do with it. Shape, proximity to the field, the way sound is trapped with nowhere to go....all contribute. It wouldn't make a diff if the fans didn't make that noise to trap, but the building certainly makes a difference.

 

[Scottemojo]

I think stadium design is very overrated in the CLink's deserved reputation as a loud stadium.

When people are talking about the noise they're not really talking about loud cheering (e.g. after the Hawks score, after the Hawks get a sack or interception). That's very loud too of course, but what people are talking about is something very different that by definition isn't cheering: Hawks fans have done an excellent job in organizing themselves to make noise for the sole purpose of distracting and limiting opposing offenses. They're not alone in this of course, they've just been much, much better in organizing themselves for this purpose than other fanbases. Fans don't need cheering instructions; cheering is celebratory and spontaneous. It is sadly believed by some (such as the idiotic 9ers "home field advantage plan") that fans DO need instructions on how to try to distract and inhibit the other team, as that's not spontaneous and it's not celebratory; it's an entirely different thing.

It's basically the football equivalent of basketball fans waving balloons and rods and swirlers behind the opposing basket during free throws. Like basketball fans who do this, I find it to pretty lame and corny, but regardless of my meaningless personal preferences I don't think Hawks fans should be criticized for doing what everyone else does, the only difference being that they're simply better at it than everyone else.

That's why I think the CLink has the reputation for being loud, and I don't really think the design of Levi's stadium matters a rat for this thing that we're really talking about. Maybe the stadium design will make cheering louder, but for this other thing it's not the stadium nearly as much as it's fans unifying to engage in the coordinated action of distraction and disruption of opposing teams. That's a coordianted fanbase thing, not a stadium design thing nearly as much as gets discussed.

(I know this post will get trolled a bit, so I'll say it one more time: regardless of my meaningless personal preferences I don't think Hawks fans should be criticized for doing what everyone else does, the only difference being that they're simply better at it than everyone else.)

I agree they shouldn't be criticized. More power to 'em...

...but the building has something to do with it. Shape, proximity to the field, the way sound is trapped with nowhere to go....all contribute. It wouldn't make a diff if the fans didn't make that noise to trap, but the building certainly makes a difference.

Proximity to the field is probably the biggest factor.

I don't put a lot of stock in just how much noise gets trapped. I have been to a few other stadiums, none as loud as the C-Link. But it's also the only place I have been where almost nobody sits down. Because you can yell louder when you stand. Even Denver, the 2nd craziest stadium I ever went to, during the John Elway years, people would stand after big plays, but for the most part people sit. Not Seattle. In Seattle you sit for TV timeouts, for halftime, and pregame. The rest of the time, we stand. So we can yell louder. No usher will ask you to sit, no written warnings for ruining the game for the people who sit behind you...

Levi Stadium will get loud after big plays. It will get loud during big moments. But until your stadium experience lets people stand and just yell their lungs out, it won't be using it's acoustics to the max.

 

[IcedHawk]

One day people will accept it's not some gimmicky stadium that makes Seattle so noisy.

I'm not a fan of any college team, but whenever I see Husky Stadium it's exactly the same. The damn camera shakes from all the noise.

It's just something about the fans in this part of the world. Maybe it's because they're starved of success? Whatever.

But there's no way they'd ever need a bloody cheat sheet on when to cheer at a big game.

Um, I was at Candlestick for the Green Bay playoff game when Kap came out. Every fan in that stadium stood the whole game and cheered as loud as they could every down when Packer's were on O. You can't say Seattle fans want it more. That's complete BS

Fixed that for ya...

Um, it's well established that he's in to Turtles, not men.

Maybe he's into male turtles.

 

[SouthSoundHawk]

The tower looks like an office building from the Eighties.

Kind of ugly, might look better on game day...probably not though.

 

[Popeyejones]

Levi Stadium will get loud after big plays. It will get loud during big moments. But until your stadium experience lets people stand and just yell their lungs out, it won't be using it's acoustics to the max.

Yep. It was insane how over-regulated Candlestick became. I was at the Falcons game (last Candlestick game ever) and they wouldn't even let people stand (had people with signs patrolling around and ushers forcing people to sit down). Totally ridiculous.

 

[Popeyejones]

...but the building has something to do with it. Shape, proximity to the field, the way sound is trapped with nowhere to go....all contribute. It wouldn't make a diff if the fans didn't make that noise to trap, but the building certainly makes a difference.

Oh, yeah, something to do it with it for sure, I just don't think the effect of the buildings matches the frequency of the discussion of the building when talking about the loudness of the stadium. I think part of that is because people collapse cheering (which everyone does very loudly) with this other thing that Hawks fans do particularly and atypically loudly. Basically the Hawks don't have an outsized HFA because they cheer louder than everyone else after TDs and the building enhances that sound, they have an outsized HFA (and we talk about the loudness of their stadium) because their fanbase has a more dedicatd focus to causing distraction and interfering with the other team's play.* The stadium itself plays SOME role in that, but I suspect that focusing on the stadium itself is also missing the major part of the story here.

[NERDING OUT BELOW: DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T GIVE A CRUD]

*If we had enough data points -- and we don't, as this is really only two seasons old now and we only have 16 home games and 16 road games -- we could actually test this: we'd basically look at the differential of offensive performance home versus away conditioned on the league average for differential offensive performance home versus away, and we'd call this the "stadium effect" (conditioning on the league average allows us to isolate out the stadium effect from other hometown effects like sleeping in your own bed, knowing the field, etc.) Then we'd look at the differential of defensive performance home versus away conditioned on the league average for home versus away defensive performance. From this, whatever, if anything leftover after netting out the "stadium effect" would be the "distraction effect", and we'd know not only if an entire stadium screaming at the top of its lungs whenever the opposing offense tries to snap the ball actually has an effect, but also what the SIZE of that effect is. We could do it because the effort to distract only occurs when the team is on defense, not on offense. It's a little messy, but could get us a lot of the way there. We could also maybe put in a control for decibel level after home team touchdowns, interceptions, sacks, etc. to control for cheering, although to do that we'd of course need that data for all 32 teams, and I doubt it exists.

[/NERDING OUT]

 

[Marvin49]

Levi Stadium will get loud after big plays. It will get loud during big moments. But until your stadium experience lets people stand and just yell their lungs out, it won't be using it's acoustics to the max.

Yep. It was insane how over-regulated Candlestick became. I was at the Falcons game (last Candlestick game ever) and they wouldn't even let people stand (had people with signs patrolling around and ushers forcing people to sit down). Totally ridiculous.

I was there too and I didn't see any of that. The only place I saw ushers move peeps was when peeps were standing in isles in front of peeps who were sitting...IE they wouldn't let people walk laterally through the stadium.

There was a large security presence but IMO it had alot to do with keeping the stadium in one piece should they possibly play another game in the Playoffs. I spoke with one of the security guys after the game and he said some guys actually stole an entire row of seats from way up top and...wait for it....a urinal.

Why the F*** would you even WANT a urinal? LOL.

The roar when Bowman picked the ball off tho was unreal. Comparable to Vernons catch vs the Saints and Garrisons 96 yard run in OT.

 

[GLOCKHAWK]

THIS

 

[Marvin49]

THIS

OK...I couldn't let this one go...

Santaclaraplaysfair is the name of the organization that has been against the stadium from day 1. Lies upon lies, upon lies. Think republican party...nothing but scare tactics. "Death Panels". Even that very first box with the quotes about who pays for the stadium is complete BS. The numbers that the City is actually on the hook for are very close to the initial price.

The bond they are referring to goes through the city (or more acuratly the stadium authority with is both the city AND the team) and was done that was in order to secure a better interest rate. They also refinanced the loan later and got a better rate. That loan will be paid off through Stadium Builder Licenses (almost sold out already) and corporate sponsorships (already ALOT of them including Levis, Brocade, SAP, Sony, Violin Memory, and several more). In fact, if you look at stadium deals all over the country Santa Clara got one of the sweetest deals you will ever see. Why? The political climate in CA. There is a reason there hasn't been a football only stadium built in CA in like 50 years.

The Great America Parking lot isn't "no visiting fans". Its for Club Seat Holders....the 9K seats out of 68K with SBL prices from 20K to 80K. If you buy a ticket from an SBL holder and its a club seat, they can also sell you the parking pass. The graphic of the Niner fan shooting the Raider fan is ludicrous. Also, Great America is CLOSED for the majority of football season because its WINTER. Just more lies. There is additional parking at the businesses all over the area including a garage across the street, and access via both Heavy and Light Rail.

The third box is offensive and completely indicative of santaclaraplaysfair. A guy dying at a stadium site isn't a joke. Its a tragedy. He was however an elevator worker and it's a dangerous job. It happens more often than people know. The incident closed cronstruction for several days and was investigated. Making the accusation that they don't care is offensive.

That organization sickens me to the core. They lost. The stadium is being built. Yet they still push stuff like that. Disgusting.

 

[lvnginhwktwn]

Rather have a team that plays well enough to not have to rely on fan noise to win games.

 

[Laloosh]

Rather have a team that plays well enough to not have to rely on fan noise to win games.

You've certainly come full circle. For a while there, you were one of the least annoying 49er fans on this board.

 

[lvnginhwktwn]

Rather have a team that plays well enough to not have to rely on fan noise to win games.

You've certainly come full circle. For a while there, you were one of the least annoying 49er fans on this board.

why because I could give a shit if our new stadium is as loud as the clink or arrowhead? The idea is to compete as a football team, there is no trophy for loudest fans or stadium. I care about winning championships not guiness book records.

 

[Scottemojo]

Rather have a team that plays well enough to not have to rely on fan noise to win games.

You've certainly come full circle. For a while there, you were one of the least annoying 49er fans on this board.

why because I could give a shit if our new stadium is as loud as the clink or arrowhead? The idea is to compete as a football team, there is no trophy for loudest fans or stadium. I care about winning championships not guiness book records.

Well, Seattle went 6-2 on the road this year without home noise. Same as your dope ass squad.

You oughta try a nice tall glass of STFU. Might do you good. Certainly would do wonders for this board.

 

[irocdave]

I have spent most of my life in Seattle ( 44 years as of tomorrow) and fans have ALWAY been loud when the home team is decent in the PNW ( Seattle). Huskies in the late 70's - early 90's for example. Husky stadium was a pile, but the fans MADE it loud. IIRC the much hated wave was invented in Husky stadium. The loudness and wave were considered an experience at the time, now we have trolls complaining about it. The internet has changed that perception, ignorant fans of other teams use it as an excuse.

I went to a lot of Mariners games in the Kingdome in 1995, before they started that epic roll. It was crazy how much noise 20K people can make if they work at it. Never attended a Hawks game in the 70's or 80's but I know it was loud and the fans took pride in the FACT that they helped the home team with the noise. The local media and the national news agencies mentioned it as a factor. That rule the NFL put in place was a direct effect of the noise Seattle fans created in the old King Dome for Seahawk games. For the 49er fans, this isn't new for the PNW. Sonic games in 80's and 90's were the same. LOUD. The reason the Sonics didn't win a couple more titles were caused by that piss poor officiating against the Suns with Barkly and a run in with a returning Jordan.

I would be cool if SF's stadium was designed to take advantage of the fans loudness, I would guess it is. I just don't see it happening though. The fans have to create the sound / loudness for it to work. For the doubters, Seattle has NEVER been caught piping in crowd noise. For the Whiner fans, your not the first to claim this. Ask the Giants fans how that turned out....
I spent almost ten years in Northern California ( 82 - 91) and most of my friends and their parents were niner fans. They were way to laid back to be able to duplicate the loudness Seattle fans generate on game day when the team is good. If the local team sucks the fans are quite, but they understand this isn't a friggin movie and know how to make a difference when it counts. My brothers wife has several niner fans in her immediate family. She asked me last weekend why I don't talk football with them. The gods honest truth is because they are not informed enough to talk football. Claiming the niners cant be affected by bad weather ( below freezing, snow, ice, wind chill etc.) because they play in Candlestick??One of her brothers told me last summer that Kap will be much better than Wilson because he has started for two years. This was at a 4th of July party last summer ( 2013). Iphone came out, facts were viewed, dude left.

We as fans still feel were a small market, but know a good team when we see it. This is our year, and being ignored by the NFL for decades has inspired the fans. We WANT this, we WANT a SB victory and by god we will try to help every way we can. If the Hawks win the SB it will be interesting to see how the fans react to it next year......Or if they win a couple...will the fans get complacent??

 

[Laloosh]

Rather have a team that plays well enough to not have to rely on fan noise to win games.

You've certainly come full circle. For a while there, you were one of the least annoying 49er fans on this board.

why because I could give a shit if our new stadium is as loud as the clink or arrowhead? The idea is to compete as a football team, there is no trophy for loudest fans or stadium. I care about winning championships not guiness book records.

No, because you make stupid remarks w/out doing any research to back up your statements. Case in point, Seattle has the top ranked defense in yards per game and scoring, not just overall, but ON THE ROAD. Does Seattle's loud stadium help them on the road?

I'd provide a reference but it would be wasted on you.