But First has covered all of the bases. Stadium design, the new fan culture, etc.

The only remote thing I can think to add is that hardcore fans are priced out from the games, and I don’t have a solution. The ownership has a reasonable expectation to make a profit, and a comfortable stadium that can draw a high priced clientelle makes a lot of sense. It’s rotten for the educated fans that have to cheer from afar, but that’s the way it is. At least the altitude doesn’t cost the team anything.

Try getting a gig as an assist. coach for a youth league (like YMCA, PAL, or Pop Warner). Start as an assist, since little kids really learn much differently and the game has a much different focus (in terms of tactics, techniques, and fun). Even with my years in coaching, I would NEVER accept a head position until I learned how the experts do things at a different level.

Now you can not only build young athletes to “99” ratings, you can make a wonderful impact on the lives of children. Plus your wife will stop complaining about all of that computer time! (Of course, use the reduced computer time for MHR, not games). : )

Trust me, you’ll like the real-life coaching even more than Madden.

...where did I learn how to be a better home team fan? The answer, of course, is being in the stands with friends and family. There always seemed to be a lot of savy old veterans sprinkled in every section. When young fans made mistakes, and I made my fair share, the older fans corrected them. Because many of those around you were friends and family, it was all pretty good natured and the embarrassment didn’t last beyond the next play.

That method still works at your local high school and college games but what about places like Invesco? I’m sure a lot of you are like me; I can’t afford season tickets. So where do you learn to keep quiet while your QB is changing the play at the line or laying on his hard count? Where does the average Joe learn Peyton Manning is going to have more trouble running his offense in a stadium where even his guards can’t hear him?

Firstfan has it right that the major area sports writers/broadcasters should do the heaviy lifting but this looks like a pretty good place too.

And as far as altitude goes, I love the “no huddle” idea. Don’t those Florida and Texas teams take advantage of their heat and humidity early in the season? Well the good news here is that Denver is high altitude all year round. The Rockies, Nuggets and Avalanche take advantage of it.

In fact, anything that can get into the heads of the visiting team sounds like a good idea to me. Western State College in Gunnison, at about 7700 feet, has a little sign that reminds players from opposing teams that they are playing in the highest stadium in the U.S.; or is it North America? Maybe the Broncos should place a poster in the opposing locker room advising about the warning signs of altitude sickness, or better yet, public notices posted in several key areas that say studies have shown that the altitude in Denver has little or no effect on the well conditioned athlete. And then, when they begin to feel the effects, they may begin to wonder. Just kidding, lol.

firstfan
I have been a Denver fan for almost fifty years (yes-the fiftieth anni. is getting close) but I have never been to Denver. Even back in the 60’s and early 70’s ( when we were rotten) and without Floyd Little we were rotten, we would still occasionally whallop teams far better than us at home. For years I felt it was the altitude-but I think you are right.
I have never seen either stadium( or heard the noise) but, now that you mention it, I don’t recall a watched ‘Mile High’ game that they didn’t mention the noise.

Your call for action is great and I’m trying to figure out how we, that are hundreds of miles away , can help.

I’m thinking that someone should invent a cell-phone amplifier. You in Denver get the amplifiers. We that have access to wood patios, put our cell phones on the wood patios, and jump up and down and scream at just the right time. What do you think?

Maybe there's someone reading MHR that can figure it out.

and once again,
Really great post!

Arctic Bronco and Danver are here in Las Anchorage (I think) and chavez recently escaped to WA. Styg is in South East, but we don’t hold it against him.

designing a “Noise Sign”.

It would be a large foldable sign with whatever witty saying struck the owner at the time. The sign would be for the fans who sit near the rails, and everyone who can reach the sign can slam their hands on it when they want to make noise.

The design of the sign would be intended to amplify the sound the pounding hand makes. The stuff I have come up with so far is a little unwieldy, but loud. The sign would have to be brought in sections by about four or five fans, and then linked together, in order to be the size of typical banners brought to games.

But all in all their are lots of ingenious ways to make noise. I think firstfan hits the nail on the head when he talks about making the difference in noise levels as radical as possible.

Which is purely a matter of connecting and educating. I think a little “Homefan’s Handbook” would be worth its weight in gold.

And I think I know just the place where one could get started up….

I am going to add some tags to this piece. If you don’t want them let me know and I will remove them. It’ll just help connect this post to the outside world more. Hope you dont mind! ;)

I don’t know if you read all of these or not, but if you do, do you see what you have created? Think about it.

I think that the generalization that the fans have been priced out of games in incorrect, there is no “wine and cheese” crowd. I’ve watched a handful of games from the luxury boxes and because of the free flowing beer (you can just order a case at a time if you want), it’s actually just as rowdy in some of the boxes as it is in the stands. Look, maybe it’s harder than it used to be to get tickets because the Broncos are SO popular here, but you can get single game tickets and half price tickets when they go on sale really early in the season. It’s not anybody’s fault other than your own if you wanted to go to the game and can’t. The ticket prices are more expensive than they used to be, but so are homes, phones, gas, beef, and and tickets to anything worth going to. Inflation, not greed, is the issue with ticket prices.

I own season tickets now and when I was a kid, my family had them. It was priority number one after college to be able to afford season tickets. That’s my choice, and I am a loud obnoxious fan who sits 20 rows up from the 10 yard line. Every once in a while, I’ll get a dirty look, but only if I say something including an F*bomb (which happened frequently last year). All of the fans who sit in my vicinity are loud and passionate and most of them are regulars at every game, but typically, as the season drags and Denver falls out of contention, they stop coming or sell off their tickets.

The bottom line is that Denver’s never really done much, sans 2005, in the new digs, and until they can sustain some level of dominant football, the stadium won’t be known as loud. The noise problem, to me, is directly proportionate to the “winning” problem the Broncos have had over the past 7 years. I doubt Mile High was dubbed a “loud” place by national media until 1977 or even later. The Broncos fans were characterized by their noise from the late 70’s thru the late 90’s…but, we haven’t done anything since, or before then.

Of course, because the stadium is bigger, it may not sound as loud to the fans, but, to the players, there’s probably not a noteable difference in most of the newer stadiums outside of Seattle or a dome. In fact, I’ve been to a few games at Arrowhead. When the Indians were good in the late 90’s, that place was like Mile High – East. It’s a cool place, but I’ve also been recently, and it’s not even as loud as Invesco, now that they’re terrible.

We have to stop blaming inflation and architecture for the lack of boisterous noise at Invesco. It’s the eam’s fault. When Mile High was the loudest, it was late in the season or in the playoffs. Denver’s hosted TWO playoff games at Invesco and we were out of the Steelers game by halftime, so, really we’ve had just 6 quarters of intense, loud football in 7 years, and that’s the team’s fault. Denver hasn’t had a must win showdown with the Raiders, Chiefs, or Chargers late in the season since 1998. The stadium gets loud when the team’s good and situation’s intense, but those situations have been few and far between.

“Phyllis and his merry men”, “Missouri Indians”, “Kansas City Chefs”, “conquered fader nation”......all have been added to the MHR lexicon and may have to be copyright protected! LOL. I’ve created a monster!

How about Missouri Squaws(Native American women) or Missouri Papooses(children)? Indians isn’t much of an insult since Indians were quit fearless and brave back in the day. Of course Squaws and Papooses are insults given to Native American women and children by white folk, but I doubt any feelings would be hurt since there aren’t any Native Americans on the chefs to insult. We’d be calling a bunch of non Native Americans Squaws. I see nothing wrong with that. ;)