The reason attendance was down this year: the team stinksThe reason crowd noise levels were down this year: we were losing most of our games at halftime, we only won 8 home games
The color or writing on your shirt means absolutely nothing to how loud you are going to be at a game. It got loud this year when we actually had something to cheer about, look at the Davidson game, even being drug into OT against Davidson we were still very loud and into the game.
The whole idea of the new system is pretty simple: remove any separating groups that exsisted in the past and make every student a member of one. We would have sold out our last 5 games this year if we were ranked, and last year we would have seen dissappointing crowds if we stank like we did this season. Group names, seating systems, face paint, colored shirts, army jackets and all of that mess means nothing towards how loud and crazy the crowd will get.
Paint your face or do anything else you want to in order to stand out, that kind of stuff is awesome. I love the masks, hats, jackets and other stuff we have down there. But putting on something like that isn’t an indication that you are a bigger Niner fan than the guy next to you.
The idea is to join everybody together as one united fan base, unity = louder and more energetic. If you try to separate people by singling out the “best” fans, you begin to undo any unification that the ticketing system did accomplish.
Show up, wear green, cheer loud, have fun and stop worrying what the person sitting next to you is doing.
I agree with all that. The more a team wins, the louder the fans. Thats why Duke and UNCCH have such loyal and rabid fan bases as well as the highest number of band wagoners. They are both in the top ranks during the season and alltime NCAA tourney appearances and wins.
I was never saying that the Army or Holigans or anything would be bigger fans than the rest of us. Im a huge huge fan of the team but just dont want to put cammo on my face, partially cause it would be a beetch to get off afterwards for post gaming and also because the guys I go with arent crazy enough.
I just think that it would be fun for certain people to go and be in that group. We are all still a whole. Thats y i suggested the name Niner National Army, because it is still very close to Niner Nation. Those guys who show up in face paint and win fan of the game and stuff dont make me feel like less of a fan nor do they seem to be conveying the message they think they are better than me. They are just fun guys to have at the game and add a little color to the fans. But, again, we are still united.