Gameday Experience: Louisville

vapspwi

vapspwi

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Other than the game itself, here are some impressions of the gameday experience from this week.

There were a lot fewer Louisville fans than UCF fans, and the ones around me were a lot less arrogant than the UCF people - they seemed to just come to watch the game and not act like they owned the stadium. They seemed better at mask wearing, but worse at sitting in designated seats - the couple of folks closest to me sat in "closed" rows and not in designated seats.

I want to not like the Ramblin' Light Show (and it does seem to be overemphasized with announcements and stuff during the game), but it might get to be cool eventually, especially for a night game in a full stadium. The halftime trivia game feature in the app was kind of cool, though it would be nice to see where my score fell among the people who played, and not just that I didn't win.

We continue to have PA issues, with audio cutting out (like during team intros) and two streams playing at the same time (during the "To Hell With Georgia" thing, which, by the way, would be a lot better if they also did "how 'bout them dwags?"). Music didn't seem quite so punishingly loud pre-game this week. I didn't notice the fake crowd noise much this week, except for a couple of instances where they really cranked it up.

Not sure how I feel about the flashing lights - it still looks like a malfunction and not a feature to me (live and watching the replay on TV). The impression I got was that the opposing coaches were annoyed by the lights going out before third down, and we did the flashing thing less after the first quarter. Maybe the coaches or refs complained? Would be cool if we could introduce some color into the lighting or something.

I don't think I'll ever be a fan of the Wreck driving onto the field by itself, with the team following eventually. It just feels like a screw-up every week.

The "safety patrol" people were kind of a joke. They walked down the aisle occasionally, limply waving a "wear a mask" sign while not actually wearing their own mask correctly. I only saw the supervisor remind anybody to put their mask on. There was one old guy sitting a few seats away from me that didn't wear a mask the whole game - he just ducked down and hid his face behind a piece of paper every time security came by. Keep on fighting the power, you old bastard.

The couple of times I was able to hear "White and Gold" clearly, the "Dixie" flourish definitely seemed to be missing. The band's pregame flow remains a work in progress: Big PA intro followed by...nothing, then the drum major whistling, then some drum cadence, and then finally they start playing.

JRjr
 
Many other schools are doing the light thing now. My first experience with it was at Duke a couple of years ago. It was weird and at first, I thought something was wrong with the lights so it is just something you have to get used to. It is here to stay and not just at GT.

Someone at the game said we did the light flicker thing during the first 3rd down but never did it again. From home, I knew we did it that once but wasn't sure if we stopped.

It is OK to do it after TDs or maybe change in possession but during a series it is too distracting and unfair to the other team. It goes really dark so it might be hard for the OC (if on the field) to read his play sheet.
 
covingtonjacket said:
Thanks for that post. I especially liked the quoted part.
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Just to be clear, I'm a rule-follower, so I dutifully wore my mask for the whole game. I watched half the plays through fogged glasses, and wiped them off and held my breath for the other half. Dude can do what he wants, mask-wise, out on the street or whatever, but if I've got to wear a mask as a condition for attending the game, I expect everybody else to suffer along with me.

JRjr
 
Walton said:
Many other schools are doing the light thing now. My first experience with it was at Duke a couple of years ago. It was weird and at first, I thought something was wrong with the lights so it is just something you have to get used to. It is here to stay and not just at GT.

Someone at the game said we did the light flicker thing during the first 3rd down but never did it again. From home, I knew we did it that once but wasn't sure if we stopped.

It is OK to do it after TDs or maybe change in possession but during a series it is too distracting and unfair to the other team. It goes really dark so it might be hard for the OC (if on the field) to read his play sheet.
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Yeah, watching the Syracuse game, I thought the cameras were broken but eventually figured it out. Agreed that it's probably not appropriate to mess with the lights (at least not to go almost totally dark) between plays - I was looking down at the Louisville coaches and thinking that it would be pretty hard to read the play sheet in the sudden darkness, which is why I wondered if somebody complained after that first time we did it. If play is stopped after a score or during a commercial, then I guess it's fair game.

JRjr
 
vapspwi said:
Just to be clear, I'm a rule-follower, so I dutifully wore my mask for the whole game. I watched half the plays through fogged glasses, and wiped them off and held my breath for the other half. Dude can do what he wants, mask-wise, out on the street or whatever, but if I've got to wear a mask as a condition for attending the game, I expect everybody else to suffer along with me.

JRjr
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I feel the same- it just made me chuckle.
 
I saw two students led from the game by GT PD. I suspect it was for ignoring security. The second guy you could tell he knew he should have STFU. When the cops climbed the stairs to lead him out, he was sitting there like he was the best behaved fan in the stadium. In his seat, mask on.
Not sure what he did, but when they asked him to leave he got very animated in his expressions and was pleading with the cops to not remove him. He was frantically waving at the jumbotron making his case (it was near end of 3rd quarter, maybe early 4th).
He went down to the walkway with the GTPD, still pleading. He was probably getting close to cuffs, but a girl he was with just grabbed him and assisted the cops by leaving with him.
I said to my daughter "do you think that worked out the way he expected when he bowed up to security?"
 
I will add, because I complained a lot in my original post, that we seem to have done a good job with the Covid changes. The electronic gates/scanners seem to work pretty well. (One of my tickets wouldn't scan contactless, but they knew how to bring up the barcode and scan it, so it was still a smooth process.) Security was pretty minimal, just basically made me tip my cap - didn't have to empty my pockets or anything.

I do wish they'd just put stinger seats on the designated seats, but the little "sit between these markers" ribbons they installed work fine as a reminder to stay in your seats.

The earlybird concession discount is really nice.

My girlfriend has been enjoying the beer sales, but the guy beside me this week (young Tech guy wearing one of the $200 trucker hats) seemed to enjoy it a bit too much. (Maybe he's just normally a loud dumbass, though.)

I wonder if we'll repaint the field before the Clemson game - the paint's starting to look a little dull and worn after a couple of games and a good bit of rain.

JRjr
 
vapspwi said:
Just to be clear, I'm a rule-follower, so I dutifully wore my mask for the whole game. I watched half the plays through fogged glasses, and wiped them off and held my breath for the other half. Dude can do what he wants, mask-wise, out on the street or whatever, but if I've got to wear a mask as a condition for attending the game, I expect everybody else to suffer along with me.

JRjr
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The mask wearing as spread out as we were was silly. When you are in your seat you should be able to unmask, anytime you are up and about you should be required to mask up. I wore mine pretty much the whole time (except when eating); but you can get around the mask ordinance by buying a bag of peanuts and nibbling on them throughout the game....so again, what is the point. It helps to sell more beer I guess, because again as long as your eating or drinking something you don't have to wear the mask. There should be some advantage to sitting spaced out in an open air stadium, and that advantage should be you don't need a mask when you are seated.

Part of my opinion is based on assuming that people who are high risk to die of COVID or are routinely around people that are high risk have enough sense not to come to the stadium in the first place.
 
aeromech said:
The mask wearing as spread out as we were was silly. When you are in your seat you should be able to unmask, anytime you are up and about you should be required to mask up. I wore mine pretty much the whole time (except when eating); but you can get around the mask ordinance by buying a bag of peanuts and nibbling on them throughout the game....so again, what is the point. It helps to sell more beer I guess, because again as long as your eating or drinking something you don't have to wear the mask. There should be some advantage to sitting spaced out in an open air stadium, and that advantage should be you don't need a mask when you are seated.

Part of my opinion is based on assuming that people who are high risk to die of COVID or are routinely around people that are high risk have enough sense not to come to the stadium in the first place.
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I'm obviously not super-worried about catching it in that environment (open air and reasonably distanced). I haven't been wearing masks when out on trails hiking with only intermittent close contact with passing hikers, for example. But I'm more comfortable with people wearing masks when we're all singing and yelling in the stadium than I would be without them. Can't hurt, seems like a reasonable compromise for these 6 games to me, and we'll revisit it next season. (Probably also good training for basketball season - consistent policies are appealing to me.)

FWIW, the steadfast no-mask guy was probably late 60s/early 70s.

JRjr
 
Our game announcer is pretty weak. He seemed to be wrong a lot. He even missed a fumble recovery until he noticed our offense taking the field. And "Money Down" just sounds dumb and too juvenile; maybe it would help if they just used it on key 3rd downs like in the red zone or something. I prefer the old style game announcers that weren't spending so much time drawing attention to themselves. On the other hand, the light show didn't bother me too much, I think it will be much better when the stadium is full and hopping in a big game.
 
vapspwi said:
I'm obviously not super-worried about catching it in that environment (open air and reasonably distanced). I haven't been wearing masks when out on trails hiking with only intermittent close contact with passing hikers, for example. But I'm more comfortable with people wearing masks when we're all singing and yelling in the stadium than I would be without them. Can't hurt, seems like a reasonable compromise for these 6 games to me, and we'll revisit it next season. (Probably also good training for basketball season - consistent policies are appealing to me.)

FWIW, the steadfast no-mask guy was probably late 60s/early 70s.

JRjr
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we took ours off most of the time while seated. row 1 upper north with no one within 12-15 feet. seemed unnecessary. and at this point i could give a rip about TV optics. walking about i have no problem wearing one of if it puts others at ease. but it's not for my protection.
 
My main thing with the light show is that we've been making fun of U[sic]GA for waving their flashlights around for a few years, and now we're doing a version of it (albeit a little more high tech). (Of note, they also gave the students white light-up pompoms for this game.)

I hate "hype" stadium announcers. It's tiresome when you're winning and embarrassing when you're losing. I miss the old guy that just gave the information - when he put a little inflection in his voice ("he was STOPPED...by a host of Jackets") it meant something.

We've backed off on "Money Down" some since the start of last year, but yeah. If/when we get back to stoning teams on 3rd downs on defense, it might be fun, but right now, it just seems like an increasingly tired gimmick.

I'll give the guy a pass on missing the fumbles - I missed a couple of them myself, and even the TV announcers (in the replay I watched) missed one until the offense came out. On the other hand, yes, there are too many "same number" mistakes, like announcing Clayton back to return a punt.

JRjr
 
It feels like an entirely different program. The old gameday was definitely an extension of the head coach in that the ambiance around the game didn’t seem a priority. Don’t get me wrong, I like(d) PJ, but this is a whole other animal. Especially at night. We’ve got some tweaks to make but we are getting there.

That said, we don’t need every spare second of the gameday experience filled with music blasting from the PA.

I liked how only some third downs warranted Money Down status. Too frequent and it mutes it’s supposed significance. Sort of like the band playing Put On 14 times a game in years past

The lights are cool.

I liek beers
 
On the light thing... I noticed also that we were doing the flashing light thing on big 3rd downs early and quit later. I figured the opposing team complained or something. I do remember seeing other teams do that also, and maybe not so much turning them completely off/flashing like that, but I seem to remember while watching the Syracuse game on TV and noticing them turning theirs all to "orange" on some third downs and after scores, and keeping them that way until just before the kickoff. Maybe we should do that some, flood the stadium with gold (yellow) or blue. When they do this with the lights and turn all the video boards to the same color it really floods the stadium in a solid color.

I would love to see the flashing light show continue for every TD though, and I only remember it for one or 2 of them.
 
Watching on TV and seeing the lights dim between plays a few times (didn't look like flashing, just dim), I figured someone was messing up. My dad was texting me and he thought something was wrong with the cameras. From the folks I talked to who were there though, it apparently looked pretty cool.
 
Deke said:
Watching on TV and seeing the lights dim between plays a few times (didn't look like flashing, just dim), I figured someone was messing up. My dad was texting me and he thought something was wrong with the cameras. From the folks I talked to who were there though, it apparently looked pretty cool.
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Yes, they looked better in person than what I saw on the replay. I was also surprised by the number of people that synced up their phones for the light show
 
I just thought of an even better idea. Next time the mutts come to BDS, we need to strobe the blue lights and by the time the stadium lights come back on, half their team will have dispersed and run away.
 
I had really hoped to see the all blue look stadium lights like in some of the pics from earlier this year. Maybe after a TD
 
JJacket said:
I had really hoped to see the all blue look stadium lights like in some of the pics from earlier this year. Maybe after a TD
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Same here. And apparently with the color changing LED's we have, we should have the ability to wash the stadium in any color. So a gold/yellow wash should be possible also.
 
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