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

[BB79]

Chants are lame.

 

[tucker3434]

Im under the impression that making 50k-100,000 people stay an hour longer doing literally nothing so Old Spice can shove 17 ads per quarter down our throat negatively impacts the in-person gameday experience, disagreeing with your initial statement.


You've moved the goalposts from "in person experience" to "the stadium/arena being any less rowdy than it was a decade ago/traditions being pushed aside."

Not only that, hundreds of traditions have been pushed aside. Only 5 of the top 10 most played yearly FBS series are still currently played yearly. The Big 10 had a 90 year old rule of not playing November/December home games at night, that was tossed aside due to TV money/corporatizing.
Playing on Thursday, then f***ing up High school football and playing on Friday, making smaller conference teams play on Tuesday and Wednesday

No more Kansas-Missouri
Oklahoma-Nebraska
Penn State-Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh-West Virginia

No more Southwest Conference, Big 8, Big East, 7-9 team ACC.

Traditions arent being pushed aside?

You are completely delusional

The purpose of this thread is about crowd atmosphere of NA compared to Europe. My point was that college athletics, with their unique traditions, general student-lead rowdiness and lack of a large number of corporate seats makes for a better game day atmosphere than NA pro sports. You’re trying to make this into an argument about the commercialization of college athletics. Never what I was talking about. Games at Knoxville, Athens, Auburn, Tuscaloosa, Clemson, etc, are by still a very different experience from seeing the Falcons or Hawks in Atlanta regardless of all that.

 

[Hasbro]

Oh yeah but then explain baseball.
One of the most boring games of all.ll

The pitch clock made a huge improvement.

Baseball leans heavily on selling "the experience too". It's like a firehose of nostalgia going to a game.

 

[Bizz]

gotta find something to do during all those 0-0 ties.

 

[Lt Frank Drebin]

Soccer fans can sing an entire song and not witness a single scoring chance. European hockey fans have some of these chants but they are often interrupted by the crowd reacting to big hits and scoring chances. Hockey just has more action. No need to sing songs to pass the time while someone is rolling around pretending to be hurt.

 

[CTHabsfan]

Chants are lame.

Yup! I'd go to a karaoke bar if I wanted to spend a night singing.

 

[Gorskyontario]

Chants are lame, and people going crazy over a non contact sport and causing riots and collapses and other disasters. I would never consider attending another game if that was the atmosphere.


I'm a pretty big Rugby fan(which is a nothing sport in Canada). So I follow French rugby and British rugby fairly closely(since I'm roughly half French and half English). Rugby games are generally speaking much calmer and more enjoyable then Football(soccer) in Europe.

There's a saying in the UK. “football is a gentleman's game played by hooligans, and Rugby is a hooligans' game played by gentlemen”. That definitely extends into fandom as well.

 

[DaveG]

I first heard the "I believe that we will win!" at the World Cup in... 2014 (I think) from American fans and I nearly cringed myself inside out. It's great that they try and everything but just... no.

As much as I've enjoyed some of the nonsense in this thread, one thing I don't think I've seen mentioned is that European sports also have a greater tradition of supporters travelling to away matches to support their team. Obviously this is much more practical in a European sense where countries are much smaller and that can actually be done by large(ish) groups of people.

And even that lame-ass chant was taken from college basketball (Utah State specifically). There's basically no originality to chants at pro sports in North America, and that carries over to our international supporters. About the most clever thing I've ever seen at a (pro) game in the US was Canes fans mocking the Ole chant by changing it to Irbe back in 02 during game 5.

 

[DaveG]

Fans in the stadium sitting through an extra hour for television advertisements doesnt impact in-person gameday experience?


Spoken like someone that hasnt attended a college game in the last decade

TBH it's less the commercial breaks and more the squeezing out the bands playing time so that they can cram more advertisements onto whatever godzillatron that can kill an atmosphere during a game. Because who the hell wants to get the crowd more amped up or at worst keep them engaged when they can get paid to advertise for $2 off wiper fluid at Autozone or whatever?

 

[MrazeksVengeance]

The lack of anything happening gives soccer fans plenty of free time to come up with intricate chants.

Follow up question: Why do fans of any sport think shitting all over other sports will endear those fans to their game?

I have seen way too many NA based hockey fan pages whose identity is built on shitting on other sports - mostly association football and basketball

 

[MrazeksVengeance]

You can chant and act like a decent person.

Exhibit A - Czech fans at Worlds.

 

[ScottishCanuck]

Chants are lame, and people going crazy over a non contact sport and causing riots and collapses and other disasters. I would never consider attending another game if that was the atmosphere.


I'm a pretty big Rugby fan(which is a nothing sport in Canada). So I follow French rugby and British rugby fairly closely(since I'm roughly half French and half English). Rugby games are generally speaking much calmer and more enjoyable then Football(soccer) in Europe.

There's a saying in the UK. “football is a gentleman's game played by hooligans, and Rugby is a hooligans' game played by gentlemen”. That definitely extends into fandom as well.

Football is not the Wild West. The vast majority of games pass without incident. It’s a lot more tribal than rugby or hockey, but that’s a lot to do with it being a working class game and clubs being a historical symbol for people to rally around.

Rugby (Union) is also quite a snobby and elitist sport, with a good number of fans looking down on football and the working class. I like the sport and played it myself growing up, but there’s a nasty element to it.

I also find the “it’s so boring that they need something to do” posts funny, simply for the fact that a good portion of hockey these days, certainly in the regular season, is mindless dump and chase.

 

[Hasbro]

I have seen way too many NA based hockey fan pages whose identity is built on shitting on other sports - mostly association football and basketball

In that case it's gatekeeping.

 

[MrazeksVengeance]

In that case it's gatekeeping.

As a European fan of a Southern franchise, it’s oh so fu^kin’ prevalent in so mamy forms.

 

[Hasbro]

As a European fan of a Southern franchise, it’s oh so fu^kin’ prevalent in so mamy forms.

Meanwhile in the US Soccer is desperate to catch on.

 

[Gorskyontario]

Rugby (Union) is also quite a snobby and elitist sport, with a good number of fans looking down on football and the working class. I like the sport and played it myself growing up, but there’s a nasty element to it.

That's specifically a Uk thing. However in Northern England rugby league(inferior ruleset in my opinion but I can still watch it) is anything but an elitist sport. In Southern France they simply like rugby, most other countries don't have the type of class divide, or at least it's no where near as pronounced as in the UK.

You say snobby and elitist as if it's a bad thing in this case. Football(soccer) hooliganism has died down in the last 20-30 years, but there was a point in the 70s-80s where fandom between Liverpool and Manchester wasn't even about the sport. It was about both those cities becoming more economically depressed and working class men having an excuse to beat eachother up.

From green street hooligans, to the episode of cracker Robert Carlyle or other media. Personally I would rather hockey(and most other sports really) still be a suit and tie event. Like the Montreal Canadiens prior to the 90s, or how boxing used to be.


^That's a chant

 

[BudBundy]

Soccer fans can sing an entire song and not witness a single scoring chance. European hockey fans have some of these chants but they are often interrupted by the crowd reacting to big hits and scoring chances. Hockey just has more action. No need to sing songs to pass the time while someone is rolling around pretending to be hurt.

This pretty much nails it.

 

[Edenjung]

Interesting that you guys think that you cannot watch a game and chant.
Or that they sing continuously during a football match or that all people sing.
The ultras chant the most. But they also watch the game (people are able to watch and chant and do not have to sit in silence like they are watching a movie) and react.
And no football is not boring and nothing happens. Alot happens in 45 minutes.
Similar to hockey you learn to follow the game and become engaged in it.
Of course hockey, basketball and handball have more scoring (more action) but football is still full of action.
And even in those sports there is a difference between europe and NA. For example, in european basketball it is harder to score (leading basketball superstars like Doncic, Jokic and Antetokounmpo to say that european basketball is harder to play than the NBA).
You NA guys just think of sports as entertainment plain and simple. We europeans are way more emotionally involved and care about the sport in a way that you guys don't

It has nothing to do with a game being different or "boring". For example cricket fans in India, pakistan, etc. also chant and do choreographies before games. And cricket matches can last longer than baseball matches.

 

[IslesNorway]

Take out the money, the fame, and whatnot, and ask any player which crowd he’d most like to play in front of, a European or an American, and the answer is pretty much given.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

What an absolutely odd thing to be annoyed about. I have never once gone to a game and thought to myself "Well, these tossers sure do suck at chants."

 

[JianYang]

Football is not the Wild West. The vast majority of games pass without incident. It’s a lot more tribal than rugby or hockey, but that’s a lot to do with it being a working class game and clubs being a historical symbol for people to rally around.

Rugby (Union) is also quite a snobby and elitist sport, with a good number of fans looking down on football and the working class. I like the sport and played it myself growing up, but there’s a nasty element to it.

I also find the “it’s so boring that they need something to do” posts funny, simply for the fact that a good portion of hockey these days, certainly in the regular season, is mindless dump and chase.

What is obnoxious about that "boring" argument is that certain people are trying to pass off their opinion as a fact.

Everyone has their own tastes and preferences for various reasons, and anyone who implies that their set of preferences is rightful needs to get off their high horse.

I prefer watching hockey over any other sport, but I understand that for other people, it may appear to be boring, and thats okay.

I can tell you that the fans chanting at sporting events across the globe are not doing so because they are bored. Thats a stupid take.

 

[Acallabeth]

"Adebayor, Adebayor. Your dad washes elephants and your mom is a w. Hore"

"Marner, Marner, you little kitty, what is your playoff EVG per 60?" doesn't really ring the same bell.

 

[Rufus T Firefly]

Well, The Wave was started at an NHL game, so while the chanting might be weak the choreography seems to be on point!

 

[roon]

Because today’s NHL is priced only for the rich and stuffy. Or bandwagoner businesspeople looking to hobknob with clients.

The average attendee would rather sit and be on their phone than getting rowdy during the game.

Hell, if a few people actually did manage to get a rowdy/creative chant going…how long would it last before fans around them got offended??

Probably not long.

Tell me you're from Toronto without telling me you're from Toronto.

 

[NickyFotiu]

I would not want families with kids exposed to some of the really crude, bigoted or racist chants.