Monday, February 23, 2009
The difference in the atmosphere for the Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse between Wednesday’s Iowa State victory and Saturday’s Nebraska victory was obvious.
As a season-ticket holder since 1975, alumnus Bob Moody noticed a break in tradition during Wednesday’s game.
Eddie Miles, Olathe junior, plays the tuba in the KU Band prior to the tipoff of Saturday's game against Nebraska in Allen Fieldhouse.
“You could tell it just in the tenor of the fieldhouse,” Moody said. “Even coach Self indicated in his post-game interview that the fieldhouse atmosphere was dead.”
The chatter among message boards and those waiting at Saturday’s Nebraska game was that the electronic music played over the loud speakers for Wednesday night’s game took away from the college basketball atmosphere and made it seem more like an NBA matchup.
Jeff Hays, Kansas City, Kan., junior, said he felt the game didn’t have the college experience, especially the Kansas experience.
“The piped in music felt manufactured and really drowned out the band,” Hays said. “It felt like going to Missouri or another school and it didn’t feel like Allen Fieldhouse.”
Moody said he felt the same way about the electronic music and said that he thought sprinkling in some electronic music with the videos was all right, but that he didn’t like the electronic music for the sake of music during timeouts.
During the first half of Saturday’s game, there was an evident change in the atmosphere of the crowd and Moody said he believed the band played a significant role in keeping the crowd loud and on its feet.
“I just don’t understand what they were trying to accomplish and don’t think they gave it a lot of thought,” Moody said. “But, if you noticed today, the crowd was pumped up every timeout when the band was playing and I think that was significant.”
After receiving both positive and negative e-mails from fans, Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchiony said he would caution people about making any quick judgments on changes to the game-time experience at Allen Fieldhouse.
“Don’t make any judgments on just one game,” Marchiony said. “The band is going to be a huge part of what we do at Allen Fieldhouse.”
As for making the switch with only three homes games left in the season, Marchiony said there were 40 home basketball games each year and they were trying to avoid a lackluster crowd at the end of the season.
“Things can get a little stale and we’re just trying to prevent things from getting stale and complacent,” Marchiony said.
Moody said that he saw the “night and day” difference between the Iowa State and Nebraska game and that the Athletics Department didn’t give a lot of thought to the decision to drown out the band and pump in electronic music.
“I think they were just saying, ‘Well let’s give this a try and see what happens,’” Moody said. “Obviously it was a failed adventure.”
— — Edited by Realle Roth
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Comments
Fans feel better about game time music
"The electronic music played over the loud speakers for Wednesday night’s game took away from the college basketball atmosphere and made it seem more like an NBA matchup."
More like a minor league hockey game than NBA. It was awful.
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