Focus: To what length can we ignore props that conflict with the game? When the commentators get pissed and can't call the game? What fans in the stadiums or over television are annoyed? What about players on the field/rink/etc? Or is it all just part of the game once you've signed up to go international and should somewhat expect it? As a sportscaster I feel like I can weigh in on this subject and relate some first-hand experience. I'm of the opinion that a paying fan can do whatever they damned well please as long as they're not physically hurting anyone (in the stands or the playing surface) and as long as they remain respectful of the stadium rules in place. If patrons are annoyed with the fact that fellow fans are being 'too noisy' than they have one of two choices: 1) Shut-Up and deal with it. After all, they paid for their ticket - So did you. As long as no rules are being broken you have no grounds for complaint. 2) Stay home and watch on T.V. If the broadcasters are annoyed - Tough. Your job is to call the action on the field, and not concern yourself with the fans and their exploits. I also have no sympathy for coaches and players who find it 'too noisy.' Part of the beauty of Sport from a fan's perspective is the feeling of assisting your team to victory. The fan will never kick a ball into the net or throw a no-hitter, but if the collective cheering of the fans can serve as an added advantage for the home-team, then the fans have done their duty. Right now I live in Saskatchewan, and the Roughrider football fans (bar none) are the loudest, craziest, most passionate in the CFL. Opposing players HATE coming to Mosaic Stadium because they know that the noise is going to be deafening. The minute you take away a fan's ability to cheer and make noise, you take away some of the sacredness of rooting for your team. Don't kid yourself, I (and many others on this board) have been on the other side of the equation: When our Junior hockey team heads to Northern Manitoba, we are boo'd out of the building before we even take the ice. The fans are tooting their horns behind our bench and banging on the glass - It's tough, but it's part of the deal. Our fans can do the exact same thing if they choose to, but some fans simply choose to take things to a different extreme. In the end, my only grievance with 'sports props' are when they physically affect the game itself, or if they are used to abuse fellow fans and patrons. The 'buzzing' during the World Cup may be annoying, but not nearly to the point where I'd consider not watching or attending a live match were I given the opportunity.
Aren't these things able to produce comparable noise to a fucking jet engine when they all get going? How could you say that doesn't hurt other fans and or playing? Haven't some college basketball teams banned those inflatable clapper things? Plus it becomes a slippery slope argument. How far should fans be allowed to go with noise making devices? How about those air horn cans that boats use? My friends in high school rigged a couple of horns to an air compressor that was powered by a car battery and used it at high school football games. The school ended up banning it. Anyways, the only reason we are having this discussion is because it's a black tradition that whitey wants to suppress. Racist.
I don't think they should ban these noise makers. You have to give the fans that show up to the match something to do for the hour and a half. You don't expect them to actually watch a soccer game, do you?
1) The question isn't whether they've broken a rule, but whether the rules should be changed. 2) I was annoying on TV too. I don't think anyone would mind a lot of noise and cheering and such after a goal or a big save, or as the timer is running down. I like a good cheer as much as the next guy (the hockey team here does a spell out ["Give me a T!" "T!"] where they spell The University of Alabama in Huntsville ...it takes a while), but the constant buzzing is just obnoxious. Do people go to the game thinking "I'm just going to blow this horn for the next 90 minutes no matter what is happening on the field"? This would be like if Alabama did the Rammer Jammer cheer after every incomplete pass or run for no gain. What game are these idiots watching? I guess this is what happens when soccer is the only worthwhile thing your country has. Maybe they should spend less time blowing horns and more time developing sewer systems than can handle flushing toilet paper.
As a viewer I just muted it, problem solved. As far as on the field, call it an 8th man advantage (our however many of them are out there dancing around). I'm pretty sure it was Bill Parcells who used to bring Jet engines on the practice field to simulate the crowd noise before playoff games. Soccer players continue to perpetuate their stereotype of being pussies.
Why would the Premier League give a shit? Are they planning on letting in a South African team? Wow. How incredibly parochial of them. "Will you Africans please give it a rest with your football custom, so we can impose our European football customs on you?" I don't really like it either, but I'm also not in the practice of telling people what they can and cannot do at sporting events in their own damn country. I find it incredible that people are trying to bring the World Cup to South Africa, and then tell them to basically stop being South African. The vuvuzela is just part of soccer culture in South Africa. If you don't like it, don't host the World Cup there. This is just a bunch of European players being nancyboys. That's retarded. There are professional soccer leagues in South Africa. And at their matches, you know what people do? Bring their vuvuzelas. Somehow, the players there find a way to deal with it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_attendance_figures_at_domestic_professional_sports_leagues The South African Soccer League averages 7,500 people a game that is unfair to compare that to attendances of 90,000. End game for me: it is annoying as fuck and adds nothing to the atmosphere. I enjoy the natural noise of the crowds. The cheering, the booing and best of all in Soccer the singing. This is just 90mins of annoying. I would arguably suggest they have had a negative affect on the African Nations who have performed poorly so far. So much of the home continent advantage they were expected to get from the crowd is drowned out by the drone of the Vuvuzela. The opening match would have been so much better to hear 90,000 South Africans singing and cheering for their team rather then a monotoned hum.
This is exactly what I mean. You're telling South Africans what customs you think it would be nice for them to adopt. It's like having dinner at someone's house and telling them, "No, your grandmother's recipe is shit. You should serve chocolate cake for desert instead, because where I come from, we like chocolate cake."
Nothing wrong with the custom of being a good host. Don't get me wrong, you make a damn good point, but if they're being honored with hosting the World Cup then being a good host is pretty well mandatory. I couldn't stand that shit on my TV, so I cannot begin to imagine how ridiculous it is when you're pretty well surrounded by a shitload of buzzing horns.
I'll give you that. I think we can solidly add the vuvuzela on the list of "reasons to not have the Cup in South Africa again."
Do you like being able to hear? Vuzuvelas have been measured at 127 dB. The threshold of pain is 130 dB, and jet engines are ~140 dB. And that's just one horn, imagine an entire stadium full of them. That's pretty much guaranteed permanent hearing loss over 90+ minutes of soccer. No thank you. The company said yesterday that they're now selling vuzuzelas that are 20 dB quieter, which moves them from the realm of "ear bleeding" into just "really annoying." It may or may not help, most people probably own their own horns at this point, why would they buy a quieter one?
Just because you've been historically oppressed doesn't mean your customs aren't fucking stupid. And I'm not just looking at South Africa, I've got a strong eye on Mississippi State and your fucking cowbells. If you bring a noisemaker into a stadium just for the sake of making completely uncoordinated noise, you're an obnoxious prick and no amount of liberal cultural hand wringing is going to change that.
My point was this isn't an embeded part of their culture. It was a couple of hundred superfans in a stadium of several thousand. Vuvuzelas were unheard of outside of this small subculture. Through cheap mass production, world cup fever, poor officialdom and an apparent love of blowing the shit out of horns this has snowballed in a very short time. The blame absolutely lies with Fifa, the writing was on the wall after the confederations cup; however due to what appears paranoia of offending cultural/racial sensitivities they failed to act.
Cultural Darwinism. If your customs suck, we get rid of them. No one complained about cultural imperialism when the pale faces expressed concern about the pollution in China leading up the Olympics. Will you Asians please give it a rest with your industrial growth, so we can impose our Western post-industrial environmental standards on you?
Amen. I live close to Starkville and go to a few of the MSU games. Those damn bells are more annoying than the toothless masses that ring them.
I'm not sure your point? Fifa are comparable and held to the same standards as South Africa's Apartheid government? You better get on Scottrade and short Fifa stock.
Fair play and I don't disagree; I do however absolutely believe that those fears were behind the reluctance to ban them. You look at the words being used by FIFA, "tradition", "culture", "heritage" you would swear Nelson Mandela escaped from Robben Island and swam to safety using a Vuvuzela as a snorkle. But the reality is this is basically a recent phenomenon that could have easily been stopped and I just can't rationalize why it hasn't other than the paranoia I suggested.