Why are North American chants so lame compared to soccer chants/songs?

[JianYang]

Game is slow so you have time to think of one.

Really surprised NA football doesn't have a bunch considering how f***ing slow and boring that sport is.

North American football does have a more festive crowd compared to the rest of the leagues here..... just not to the same level of the rest of the world.

But no, just because you think the sport is boring is not the answer because there are crazy crowds across other sports. It's a cultural difference of the sporting fan.

 

[Brodeur]

One of my favorite hockey experiences was going to a Michigan Wolverines game in 2012. Rowdy kids with a lot of chanting. As others mentioned, probably some correlation with the type of crowd who could afford to go to a college game versus an NHL game. When I saw Wisconsin @ Boston College in 2019, my Uber ride to the arena cost more than my front row seat.

I had a couple experiences at Kings games that are burned into my memory. I went to the 2001 playoff game when LA came back from 3-0 with 6 minutes left against the Red Wings. Memorable game but the row in front of me was guys in suits who didn't react to anything. I sprung for nice seats to take my dad to a game in 2003. The two seats to my right were unoccupied for the first half of the game and then this couple shows up dressed like they're ready to go clubbing. Buzzer goes off for the second intermission and the guy asks me if that was the end of the game. During the third period, he asked me who the good players on both teams were, I started to go through the rosters but in the back of my mind I realized he wouldn't know the difference between Luc Robitaille and Lakers player Luke Walton.

And I'm eternally annoyed at people like my sister. She'll brag that she went to a World Series game but will also tell you that baseball is boring and she doesn't care. I don't think it's exclusive to North America, but I'm always cynical about how many people are at a game just for the social media attention rather than caring about the game.

I'm not an alcohol guy and I've never been to Europe, but I was under the impression that the mass transit is much better in most of the major European cities. Maybe easier to have a few beers if you don't have to drive 30+ minutes like I know most would have to for many NHL rinks.

 

[Gunnersaurus Rex]

2 things for me.
One, football is deeply engrained in the social fabric to fans in Europe. They live and breathe their clubs
Two, the game itself opens itself up to this. 45 minutes of uninterrupted play. In North America, you can't go 2 seconds from the end of a play to the PA blasting music or some sort of video screen contest. It's this weird NA culture where we feel we always have to be stimulated or entertained.
I remember years back there was an Eskimos game where he PA wasn't working. Best crowd in years. Suddenly people started their own cheers and chants. It was beautiful.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Soccer is so boring the fans have to invent songs to entertain themselves while watching the game.

 

[Albatros]

Interesting that our fans of both teams sit mixed in with each other. If they did that for European soccer, there would be endless fights and riots. I've gone to games with friends that are fans of the other team. In some places in Europe, someone would never be friends with someone that didn't cheer for their team. A lot of them take their tribalism way too far.

I won't paint with a broad brush to say everyone here is more civilized than Europeans, we have some crazies, and they have some reasonable folks. But I am personally far more civilized than someone that can't sit with or even be friends with someone that cheers for the rival team. I'm a Sens fan, and my 2 oldest best friends are Leaf and Hab fans. Maybe more of us have the levity to realize there is more to life than sports, and it's supposed to be fun, not hateful. I couldn't imagine hating someone because of what sports teams they cheer for.

Although I have been to a few NFL games. I've seen crazy drunken insanity boorishness in Buffalo to friendly family atmosphere in Cincinnati. Places like Buffalo and Philly are insane, while Cincinnati and Detroit were relatively friendly.

Alcohol intake is a huge factor.

Typically most of the stadium is mixed area in European soccer though, and the organized supporter groups have their own separate sections. High-risk games are also not that numerous, might be a couple of fixtures in a season if any. And most rivalries however fierce are ultimately more about banter and bragging rights than about real hate for the ordinary fan, if there's more than that then the reasons usually go far beyond soccer.

 

[majormajor]

That is precisely it. Any serious sociological research would confirm this. Rich folks are too complacent in life to be as passionate as simple, poor folks who tend to compose most of European football audiences. You'll never get a majority of poor folks attending an NHL hockey game because the tickets are too expensive.

European football is quickly becoming that expensive too, it used to be cheap but not anymore. But at least for now their traditions live on.

 

[Acallabeth]

Soccer fandom often spans many generations, fans are introduced to the traditions of passionate support and loud singing when they are kids to teens, and that they can actually afford going to games (often dozens of games a year) in the same crowd of young men breeds entirely different fans.

Locality also plays a large role. Many schools are club-run, so there are typically many local players, not just from the same city (like, being from Moscow is nearly the same as being from Denmark), but having grown up within walking distance to the stadium that is often a center of a local community. That makes team-player relationship notably different. Imagine if Bedard had played for the Blackhawks junior teams since 4.

Soccer being an accessible sport (both in attending and playing) is so important. It's far easier to relate to a guy from a poor family who grew up kicking the ball around the same streets as you did than some guy from Ontario who had $500k invested in his hockey education by 16.

So, for European soccer fans view attending a football game is as much a unifying experience with their community as just a form enterntainment. No wonder hardcore soccer fans are typically young, slightly drunk and brash, while NA fans are mostly nerds who juggle the stats and spend a lot of time in forums. I'm not saying one style of being a fan is better than the other (I combine both), but attending European soccer games is definitely a more exciting experience.

 

[MDCSL]

One of my favorite hockey experiences was going to a Michigan Wolverines game in 2012. Rowdy kids with a lot of chanting. As others mentioned, probably some correlation with the type of crowd who would afford to go to a college game versus an NHL game. When I saw Wisconsin @ Boston College in 2019, my Uber ride to the arena cost more than my front row seat.

I had a couple experiences at Kings games that are burned into my memory. I went to the 2001 playoff game when LA came back from 3-0 with 6 minutes left against the Red Wings. Memorable game but the row in front of me was guys in suits who did react to anything. I sprung for nice seats to take my dad to a game in 2003. The two seats to my right were unoccupied for the first half of the game and then this couple shows up dressed like they're ready to go clubbing. Buzzer goes off for the second intermission and the guy asks me if that was the end of the game. During the third period, he asked me who the good players on both teams were, I started to go through the rosters but in the back of my mind I realized he wouldn't know the difference between Luc Robitaille and Lakers player Luke Walton.

And I'm eternally annoyed at people like my sister. She'll brag that she went to a World Series game but will also tell you that baseball is boring and she doesn't care. I don't think it's exclusive to North America, but I'm always cynical about how many people are at a game just for the social media attention rather than caring about the game.

I'm not an alcohol guy and I've never been to Europe, but I was under the impression that the mass transit is much better in most of the major European cities. Maybe easier to have a few beers if you don't have to drive 30+ minutes like I know most would have to for many NHL rinks.

I was going to mention the Wolverines too, I almost died laughing when I first heard them chanting “you suck on the PP”. College hockey/sports have lots of chanting and great atmospheres.

 

[Lomez]

It's cultural and sports are more tribal in Europe. Not much more to it than that.

 

[Patrik26]

Don't forget the "USA! USA! USA!" chants from the inebriated twenty-something crowd who are too stupid to realize the NHL isn't international competition.

 

[Rich Nixon]

2 things for me.
One, football is deeply engrained in the social fabric to fans in Europe. They live and breathe their clubs
Two, the game itself opens itself up to this. 45 minutes of uninterrupted play. In North America, you can't go 2 seconds from the end of a play to the PA blasting music or some sort of video screen contest. It's this weird NA culture where we feel we always have to be stimulated or entertained.
I remember years back there was an Eskimos game where he PA wasn't working. Best crowd in years. Suddenly people started their own cheers and chants. It was beautiful.

Another fabulous point. Constant advertising and stimulation. I noticed the first time I went to a baseball game at Wrigley Field, I was smacked by the fact that there's only one video screen. It felt like a time machine because there's so much less to be distracted by, and so much more to actually look at.

 

[Voight]

2 things for me.
One, football is deeply engrained in the social fabric to fans in Europe. They live and breathe their clubs
Two, the game itself opens itself up to this. 45 minutes of uninterrupted play. In North America, you can't go 2 seconds from the end of a play to the PA blasting music or some sort of video screen contest. It's this weird NA culture where we feel we always have to be stimulated or entertained.
I remember years back there was an Eskimos game where he PA wasn't working. Best crowd in years. Suddenly people started their own cheers and chants. It was beautiful.

This + a lot of teams are owned by the fans and every team has a supporters club that usually has significant influence.

Refs you suck! f*** (fill in the blank)! (Blank) sucks!

I'm watching a documentary about the England-Italy Euro final and the English fans are singing "you can stick your twirls pasta up your arse". Now you can like it or not (I find it hilarious) but at least there's some creativity.

Check out the RAF Bombers chant England fans have been doing in Germany the past week.

(Even though they aren't in the same group as Germany )

Ten German Bombers - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[kingsholygrail]

"Ref you suck" chants came from wrestling. Same with chanting "Bullshit."

 

[Obvious Fabertism]

Might just be my Minnesota experience speaking, but you still get tons of “original” chants throughout the amateur sphere. High school hockey games will have different cheers throughout the season, or maybe have a long standing chant that they individualize. The funnel chant at Gopher games is a classic to me, and then all the variations of “your mama” heckles.

U-G-L-Y the OP has no alibi, their ugly, yeah yeah their ugly.
Y-L-G-U from the back, OPs ugly too, their ugly, yeah, yeah, their ugly.
M-A-M-A, how do you think OP got that way? Their mama, yeah, yeah, their mama.

 

[FU Shoresy]

Because soccer sucks. And you need to be more creative to make the sport somewhat entertaining!

 

[colchar]

Refs you suck! f*** (fill in the blank)! (Blank) sucks!

I'm watching a documentary about the England-Italy Euro final and the English fans are singing "you can stick your twirls pasta up your arse". Now you can like it or not (I find it hilarious) but at least there's some creativity.

Stick it up your arse is creative?

And since that sport is so effing boring they have nothing else to do for 90+ minutes other than make up chants.

 

[Shocker]

Football, like basketball, is better in Europe.

Mouthbreathing americans ruining sports for pure entertainment show again.

 

[DisgruntledHawkFan]

Soccer clubs are far more politically charged in lots of cases than any team in the US or Canada by several miles.

 

[tucker3434]

Part of it is probably that many professional sports tickets are corporate. I've been to plenty of sporting events I didn't care about because either my work or one of my buddies' jobs had free tickets.

College athletics are more for the love of the game. Not many people go to those that don't really want to be there. That's why they're a better experience live, IMO, than pro sports. You could post endless examples of insane in game college traditions.

 

[Duke749]

College football is pretty comparable. They’ll have 80,000 people singing their school’s song.

 

[WreckedUm]

The sarcastic "Olé" chant when Montreal is losing an away game always warms my heart.

 

[joelef]

Because soccer is boring and fans have to chant the whole game to keep themselves awake. As an American living in Europe, I've been to quite a few sporting events and chanting and singing is just part of the culture. Seems to me that the game is secondary to the chants for some of these fans.

So but your own definition then baseball must be boring since Japanese baseball fans chant the whole game right?

Soccer is so boring the fans have to invent songs to entertain themselves while watching the game.

What about Japanese baseball fans who invent songs and chants at games ? Are you that much of a hypocrite?

 

[Obvious Fabertism]

So but your own definition then baseball must be boring since Japanese baseball fans chant the whole game right?

Baseball is easily the most boring sport around, even the players need stimulants to stay awake during that snooze fest. I’m falling asleep just typing abou…ZZZ

 

[joelef]

Part of it is probably that many professional sports tickets are corporate. I've been to plenty of sporting events I didn't care about because either my work or one of my buddies' jobs had free tickets.

College athletics are more for the love of the game. Not many people go to those that don't really want to be there. That's why they're a better experience live, IMO, than pro sports. You could post endless examples of insane in game college traditions.

“ college athletics are more for the love of the game” That’s the best joke I heard all day.

Baseball is easily the most boring sport around, even the players need stimulants to stay awake during that snooze fest. I’m falling asleep just typing abou…ZZZ

Good thing to see some consistency in here

It’s just European soccer thought it’s also Australian afl and nrl, Japanese baseball , New Zealand rugby , Indian cricket. Etc.. basically everywhere outside of the United States and canada

 

[Obvious Fabertism]

College football is pretty comparable. They’ll have 80,000 people singing their school’s song.

My conclusion is that you need a live band if you really want those kind of chants to succeed in NA.