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

[GeeoffBrown]

I think pro wrestling has slowly started to introduce euro style chants into North American culture, so we may see these in other sports eventually.

"Seven Nation Army" chants I could see becoming more regular, as this is now a very common chant in pro wrestling

 

[Rob Brown]

Part of it is that in countries like England, for example, many of the teams have historically been the heart of the community, particularly in less well off, more 'blue collar' communities, so there is a lot more pride and reliance on the football club. As a result the fans feel more invested and that they are part of it, while North American sports are seen more as a form of entertainment and going out for a night versus it being an integral part of the fabric of the community. IMO anyway.

 

[Lt Dan]

Because we revolted to break away from their tomfoolery

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

because with our sports the action is on the field rather than soccer where the field is boring and you need to entertain yourself in the stands

 

[Sasha Orlov]

A night out at a game cost a months pay for most people

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

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.

 

[zenator]

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.

 

[Nogatco Rd]

US has its own version of ritualized singing in some arenas - Sweet Caroline, Country Roads, etc starting during a break in play and then continued by the crowd post-faceoff. Some songs more strongly identified with one city than another (Don’t Stop Believing/Detroit, Mr. Brightside/DC).

I know the Kings tried out a full Euro style cheering section a few years ago with chants, songs, and drums. Only lasted a few games IIRC.

 

[Rich Nixon]

Europeans have great chants and atmosphere at sports games. I mean Gord Miller and Mike Johnson always become wide-eyed, glee-filled children every single World Championship because of how great the Czechs fans are during the tournament. And it's kinda funny how they just treat it as a one-time thing and never for a second question why the atmosphere and experience in NA is so dull and lackluster in comparison.

They just kinda go ''wow isn't it great how fun the fans are, how amazing the city is and how nice the beer gardens feel'' and then they just come back to their boring Canada suburbs and hop in their F-150 every time they have to go to the store.

You touch on something at the end here, which is that the North American suburban lifestyle is extremely artificial and isolated, designed to deny its participants from considering context or pursuing meaning and instead to encourage nothing but empty consumption. There is no comparable bed of community or continuity from which chants and songs would grow.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

The tickets are too expensive to have that kind of clientele

The match I mentioned the tickets were in the thousands.

 

[CashMash]

I don't want football hooligans in my game, thanks.

 

[12ozPapa]

Hockey crowds are much richer than European soccer crowds. Rich people aren't going to act like hooligans.

Now that’s a take.

 

[Fire Sweeney]

Why change something that has worked fine for over a hundred years ? The rise of "soccer" is something recent

 

[ManofSteel55]

I think pro wrestling has slowly started to introduce euro style chants into North American culture, so we may see these in other sports eventually.

"Seven Nation Army" chants I could see becoming more regular, as this is now a very common chant in pro wrestling

Pro wrestling shows it well also. They held a major show in France a month or so ago, and the chants put anything seen at a major wrestling show previously to shame. The American announcers couldn't believe it, but it seems to have little difference to a football chant. It just shows the difference between North American sports fans and European sports fans behaviour at the stadium. In Europe, it looks like a party. In North America, fans sit back for most of the game until something really wild happens.

 

[Ceremony]

The Algorithm has decided to show me proof that it actually is just the North Americans:

 

[mr figgles]

They paid to watch a soccer match. Gotta get some entertainment somehow

 

[kook10]

Americans and Canadians are just generally much more uptight about public singing (and we can't stand when the village idiot brings a drum or cowbell to the game).

 

[DaveG]

The match I mentioned the tickets were in the thousands.

not wrong, though that kind of atmosphere gets so ingrained in the fanbase culture around the sport at lower levels where things are far more affordable that it carries over to the international level of the sports. That just doesn't happen here because, for whatever reason, pro sports doesn't invite that level of investment in NA. MLS has some since a lot of clubs go out of their way to invite that kind of atmosphere, but even there for the most part it's only slightly more creative generic chants that don't change much from team to team. And even that has come with the downside of inviting some hooligan culture with it, though nowhere near the extent of Europe or Latin America in that regard.

The college level of sports here is where you'll find the closest comparison, and usually for football that's mostly the bigger fanbases: Florida, FSU, LSU, Oregon, Penn State, Virginia Tech, South Carolina, West Virginia, etc.

 

[AtlantaHockeyFanatic]

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.

Some of us just want to get high, go to a game and chill. Not everyone wants to get rowdy & obnoxious

 

[McShogun99]

Nothing beats being in Maracana stadium while almost 100,00 fans are chanting "vai tomar no cu"

 

[TheDoldrums]

NA fans just don't have the culture and sophistication of Europeans to chant about wishing genocide on the opponents. Sad.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1803755993903292518

 

[Faterson]

The tickets are too expensive to have that kind of clientele

If you want that kind of crowd you'd have to allow the working class into the building.

Hockey crowds are much richer than European soccer crowds. Rich people aren't going to act like hooligans.

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.

 

[Stewie Griffin]

Easy fix: Lower alcohol costs, sign big hitters/fighters...the crowd will find a way to get rowdy.

 

[JianYang]

It's a different fan culture. Sports are alot more tribal in the rest of the world, and it's not just football where we see this.

It's been this way no matter how affordable or unaffordable ticket prices are/were in north America relative to other leagues in other parts of the world.

 

[Jon Riley]

because with our sports the action is on the field rather than soccer where the field is boring and you need to entertain yourself in the stands

This could be a fair point if only American football and baseball did not exist, though.
Two sports whose existence makes competitive nose picking worth watching