Went to my first game in almost a decade yesterday, and the sound system was the most noticeable difference.
Godzillatron made its debut when I was a student. While there are less ads than there used to be, the overuse of the sound system makes the stadium experience much worse. Too loud and too frequent. Here's a list of needed changes:
- Turn it down. You ever notice yourself going into a shell when there's this obnoxious loudmouth that won't shut up? That's the relationship the crowd has with the sound system.
- Instead of what amounts to one gigantic speaker in the south end zone, create a system of smaller speakers distributed throughout the stadium. Half the volume would still be heard clearly by everyone.
- Use canned music and "pump up" sound effects less often. Not only does it get annoying, but the crowd doesn't get pumped up at the same sounds and graphics the 17th time they hear and see them.
- Don't ever play anything while the band is playing.
- The play-by-play announcer needs to talk less frequently and use fewer words when doing so. For example, "And that Sam Ehlinger pass is complete to wide receiver #6 Devin Duvernay, who makes the catch before going out of bounds for a gain of eight yards! Forced out of bounds by #81 defensive back Firstname Lastname of Kansas. They'll mark the ball at the Kansas 46 yard line, that brings up 2nd down and 2 to go for the Texas Longhorns," could be replaced with, "Caught by Devin Duvernay, 2nd and 2."
Not much of the content was advertising, so you have to wonder what the motivation is. In years past, you always figured the fan experience was being trampled by ads in the name of the almighty dollar. No one appears to like the sound system, and it doesn't seem like it makes money, so why keep doing it?
Last edited: Oct 21, 2019