Bob Ryan says C's fans only reactive

[KJ33]

Just saw Bob Ryan on NESN talking about the fans booing the Pats on Sunday.  He mentioned that Gillette is not a very loud stadium, and the fans don't cheer on the team to do well, they only cheer once the team does something well.  He then said that Celtics fans are the exact same way, always have been, they don't exhort the team to perform, they only cheer when they make a good play.  To me, this is another instance of Bob having stopped following the Celtics in the 80's, just like his shots last year that the team had no bench, when there was still plenty of offseason left.

I was at nearly all of the playoff games last year, and as many of you can attest, there were plenty of chants of D-fense, or, in the Finals, Beat LA!, that were started by the crowd, not just cheering after the Celtics made a great play.

What do the rest of you fans think about this characterization by Ryan?

[crownsy]

that he's out of touch. The crowd at the garden is one of the most proactive in basektball. He has a point on the pats, but in the NFL, nearly all crowds are that way outside of the really excellent ones (pitt, Philly, chicago and greenbay)

but he's not correct on the garden. I was at 5 games this year, and have all the playoff games on tape. He's dead wrong on the garden crowd, they were into every game, 100%.

[Chris]

Just saw Bob Ryan on NESN talking about the fans booing the Pats on Sunday.  He mentioned that Gillette is not a very loud stadium, and the fans don't cheer on the team to do well, they only cheer once the team does something well.  He then said that Celtics fans are the exact same way, always have been, they don't exhort the team to perform, they only cheer when they make a good play.  To me, this is another instance of Bob having stopped following the Celtics in the 80's, just like his shots last year that the team had no bench, when there was still plenty of offseason left.

I was at nearly all of the playoff games last year, and as many of you can attest, there were plenty of chants of D-fense, or, in the Finals, Beat LA!, that were started by the crowd, not just cheering after the Celtics made a great play.

What do the rest of you fans think about this characterization by Ryan?

I was at almost every playoff game, and there was also a LOT of silence when things weren't going well.  After being at 90% of the games last season, I think Ryan is not that far off on this.  The energy in that building was very much contingent on what was happening on the floor (or the occasional Jumbotron prompted cheers).

[KJ33]

Just saw Bob Ryan on NESN talking about the fans booing the Pats on Sunday.  He mentioned that Gillette is not a very loud stadium, and the fans don't cheer on the team to do well, they only cheer once the team does something well.  He then said that Celtics fans are the exact same way, always have been, they don't exhort the team to perform, they only cheer when they make a good play.  To me, this is another instance of Bob having stopped following the Celtics in the 80's, just like his shots last year that the team had no bench, when there was still plenty of offseason left.

I was at nearly all of the playoff games last year, and as many of you can attest, there were plenty of chants of D-fense, or, in the Finals, Beat LA!, that were started by the crowd, not just cheering after the Celtics made a great play.

What do the rest of you fans think about this characterization by Ryan?

I was at almost every playoff game, and there was also a LOT of silence when things weren't going well.  After being at 90% of the games last season, I think Ryan is not that far off on this.  The energy in that building was very much contingent on what was happening on the floor (or the occasional Jumbotron prompted cheers).

May I ask what percentage of the time that "things weren't going well" since the C's were 13-1 at home during the playoffs, and many of the games were blowouts?  I think all NBA arenas have their moments of lifelessness throughout the long regular season during some of the more mundane games in January and February, you can't have a playoff atmosphere for 41 games against some not-so-stiff competition.  I don't think that proves that the fans are merely reactionary.  When things counted, the fans constantly tried to get things going, often starting on the escalators and even 30 minutes before the game began.

[SShorefan 3.0]

Just saw Bob Ryan on NESN talking about the fans booing the Pats on Sunday.  He mentioned that Gillette is not a very loud stadium, and the fans don't cheer on the team to do well, they only cheer once the team does something well.  He then said that Celtics fans are the exact same way, always have been, they don't exhort the team to perform, they only cheer when they make a good play.  To me, this is another instance of Bob having stopped following the Celtics in the 80's, just like his shots last year that the team had no bench, when there was still plenty of offseason left.

I was at nearly all of the playoff games last year, and as many of you can attest, there were plenty of chants of D-fense, or, in the Finals, Beat LA!, that were started by the crowd, not just cheering after the Celtics made a great play.

What do the rest of you fans think about this characterization by Ryan?

I was at almost every playoff game, and there was also a LOT of silence when things weren't going well.  After being at 90% of the games last season, I think Ryan is not that far off on this.  The energy in that building was very much contingent on what was happening on the floor (or the occasional Jumbotron prompted cheers).

Although I wasn't at as many games as Chris, I went to enough of the playoff games to agree.  There were periods of relative quiet in that building and many many times where the cheering for the play got kidnapped by the jumbotron thus losing much of the momentum. 

I think the most pathetic moment is when the jumbotron has the applause meter (garden level) to get  the crowd going only to have the crowd quiet down as soon as it's off the screen.

[nickagneta]

Call me out of touch too, but I have to agree with Ryan. I've seen some college basketball crowds that can be pretty boisterous all game long here in New England no matter the score that put the fans in the Garden to shame. With the exception of playoff basketball, they have been a notoriously very quiet crowd for the better part of three decades.

And don't get me going on that spoiled bunch of losers over at Gillette. I attended games there in the 80's when they sucked and were getting beaten regularly at home that were 10 times more loud and into the game than the current group. I swear, by Kraft trying to make it a more family oriented atmosphere, that he took the teeth out of what once was a pretty good home field advantage.

[Casperian]

"Ron-do`s bet-ter!"

[Hoops]

Call me out of touch too, but I have to agree with Ryan. I've seen some college basketball crowds that can be pretty boisterous all game long here in New England no matter the score that put the fans in the Garden to shame. With the exception of playoff basketball, they have been a notoriously very quiet crowd for the better part of three decades.

And don't get me going on that spoiled bunch of losers over at Gillette. I attended games there in the 80's when they sucked and were getting beaten regularly at home that were 10 times more loud and into the game than the current group. I swear, by Kraft trying to make it a more family oriented atmosphere, that he took the teeth out of what once was a pretty good home field advantage.

I went to one C's game last year - flew to Boston for game 2 of the Finals. If you'll recall, Boston was up by like 25-30 late in the third and everything seemed like Easy Street. But then Kobe et al. started making that comeback that brought LA within a couple points with just a couple of minutes left in the game. During that stretch where LA was coming back, the Garden was not only anxious (understandable), but it was disappointingly quiet. It remains one of my strongest memories of that game.

So, my sample size is admittedly not worth much, but my experience also lends credence to Ryan's assertion.

[freshinthehouse]

This is what happens when you price a good majority of fans out of being regular ticket holders.

[Michael Anthony]

Just to back up that Jumbotron comment from earlier, it is difficult to produce constant noise when you get drowned out every two minutes by blaring rock music, intense drums beats, and the random screaming Garnett head.

The Jumbotron kills crowd involvement in the game. I usually stop cheering once that things starts going, wait for it to end, and by the time it stops I forget to start cheering again.

[cons]

And don't get me going on that spoiled bunch of losers over at Gillette. I attended games there in the 80's when they sucked and were getting beaten regularly at home that were 10 times more loud and into the game than the current group. I swear, by Kraft trying to make it a more family oriented atmosphere, that he took the teeth out of what once was a pretty good home field advantage.

 yeah, i can't believe the pats were booed last week - first bad game in like 2 years?! For me, it just made me nostalgic for all those years that they sucked so bad.
 it seemed to me like there were a lot of pats fans there who've only been fans since the team became good. How else could you boo? It was pretty embarassing for those fans, i thought. Although it was silly how they kept getting beat by the same trick play.
 to me its still amazing how a lot of the country sees the patriots as being comparable to the yankees. I remember when they were more like the clippers.

[Chris]

Call me out of touch too, but I have to agree with Ryan. I've seen some college basketball crowds that can be pretty boisterous all game long here in New England no matter the score that put the fans in the Garden to shame. With the exception of playoff basketball, they have been a notoriously very quiet crowd for the better part of three decades.

And don't get me going on that spoiled bunch of losers over at Gillette. I attended games there in the 80's when they sucked and were getting beaten regularly at home that were 10 times more loud and into the game than the current group. I swear, by Kraft trying to make it a more family oriented atmosphere, that he took the teeth out of what once was a pretty good home field advantage.

I went to one C's game last year - flew to Boston for game 2 of the Finals. If you'll recall, Boston was up by like 25-30 late in the third and everything seemed like Easy Street. But then Kobe et al. started making that comeback that brought LA within a couple points with just a couple of minutes left in the game. During that stretch where LA was coming back, the Garden was not only anxious (understandable), but it was disappointingly quiet. It remains one of my strongest memories of that game.

So, my sample size is admittedly not worth much, but my experience also lends credence to Ryan's assertion.

Absolutely true about game 2.  Game 1 was actually even moreso.  Although it was loud for large portions of the game, from about the middle of the first quarter through the middle of the fourth it was relatively quiet for such an important game.  I remember thinking at the time that the crowd was just so nervous.  There was a palpable energy in the building, but it was much more of a nervous energy than the boisterous energy that you saw in game 6.

[crownsy]

Call me out of touch too, but I have to agree with Ryan. I've seen some college basketball crowds that can be pretty boisterous all game long here in New England no matter the score that put the fans in the Garden to shame. With the exception of playoff basketball, they have been a notoriously very quiet crowd for the better part of three decades.

And don't get me going on that spoiled bunch of losers over at Gillette. I attended games there in the 80's when they sucked and were getting beaten regularly at home that were 10 times more loud and into the game than the current group. I swear, by Kraft trying to make it a more family oriented atmosphere, that he took the teeth out of what once was a pretty good home field advantage.

I went to one C's game last year - flew to Boston for game 2 of the Finals. If you'll recall, Boston was up by like 25-30 late in the third and everything seemed like Easy Street. But then Kobe et al. started making that comeback that brought LA within a couple points with just a couple of minutes left in the game. During that stretch where LA was coming back, the Garden was not only anxious (understandable), but it was disappointingly quiet. It remains one of my strongest memories of that game.

So, my sample size is admittedly not worth much, but my experience also lends credence to Ryan's assertion.

Absolutely true about game 2.  Game 1 was actually even moreso.  Although it was loud for large portions of the game, from about the middle of the first quarter through the middle of the fourth it was relatively quiet for such an important game.  I remember thinking at the time that the crowd was just so nervous.  There was a palpable energy in the building, but it was much more of a nervous energy than the boisterous energy that you saw in game 6.

i for one didn't notice this at all, nor ddoes it show up on the game tapes, but i suppose they could be pumping in crowd noise on the broadcast.

But, to be fair, and to tie into the jumbotron comment, name me the NBA crowd that cheers from tip to final whistle with the exact same intensity during large leads as opposed to close games.

It doesn't exist. Fan's are not going to cheer their heads off during T.V timeouts, random T-shirt promotions, blaring rock music and all the other breaks in the action the pro game has.

The assertion that NCAA crowds are intense during every minute, even in huge blowouts is a falsehood as well. I've been to multiple NCAA games around the area, and 3 in virgina while i was visiting firends over the summers, and it's just not true.

The reason they seem louder and super proactive is

A) most NCAA games shown on TV tend to be close. let me assure you, if Duke was playing FCS southwest tech and winning 10-65, the crowd would be very happy but semi subdued. however, games on TV tend to be low scoring and close. I.E every basket matters.

B) blessedly, most NCAA teams haven't embraced the "our fans are retards, lets drown them out with obnoxious rock music and random jumbo tron interuptions" era that the pro game has moved into. This leads to more pronounced crowd nosie and participation.

c) I love the crowds at NCAA games, because there all younger drunken fans for the most part. And im not being sarcastic here, not to long ago i was one of them. But the NBA promotes an atmopsher of "bring the family!" tied into the jumbo tron. If the garden was filled with 18,000 Drunken 18-22 year olds, im sure it would be alot more intense. It would also be a place i stop brining my 11 year old brother who loves basketball. It allready annoying enough when we get sat next to a bunch of people drunk out of thier minds and screaming obsenities at the court now, never mind if the entire arena was like that.

[papa shuttlesworth]

I think it is largely the Jumbotron's fault or the guy who is charge of it.  During the playoffs, the crowd-started chants (Let's go Celtics, Beat LA, Rondo's better, etc.) were very often cut short by the Jumbotron playing something unrelated.  It killed the crowd's momentum.

The music and videos on the screen should be used to add to the crowd's enthusiasm, not squash it.  I have no problem with something playing during a quiet part of the game to liven up the crowd, but not during parts of the game when the crowd is already into it.

They should have just left the speakers off for the Finals and it would have been even more awesome.

[Chris]

But, to be fair, and to tie into the jumbotron comment, name me the NBA crowd that cheers from tip to final whistle with the exact same intensity during large leads as opposed to close games.

This I completely agree with.  I don't see the problem with fans being "reactionary".  It is a sporting event.  You go to cheer for your team.  Its not a sing along.  I think in these other places where the crowd is cheering, chanting, and singing the entire game just seem forced. 

And I will say that while the Garden is not like say, Sacramento, or Atlanta in the playoffs, where there goal seems to be to create a roaring atmosphere for 48 minutes, they do still know when to get loud.  Whether it is when the team makes a great play, or when the team NEEDS a great play.  There are definitely lulls, but the crowd is smart enough to know when the team needs them.  I still think that is reactionary, but it also demonstrates a level of sports intelligence that you don't see in a lot of other cities.