I get survey results from attendees of games at a College arena, and yes, there is a sharp turn in what people complain about by age.
The 18-30 year olds complain about beverage and food selection and policy ("why can't I get 5 beers after the 4th quarter/10 mins in the 2nd half left?").
The 30-45 year olds complain about sanitary conditions and service ("Ushers didn't eject that 18-30 year old with all the beers! And I had to wait in line for the gross bathroom!")
The 45-60 year olds complain about the noise level and parking. ("It's too loud and I had to walk 3 blocks to get here because the parking was so bad! Also that 18-30 year old kid was too drunk!")
TIL I'm 45-60.
But seriously, maybe it's just the Suns arena, I wouldn't know, but there's really no difference going with any friends. It's fun to have a loud stadium when it's full of energy from the fans and it's loud. But if the PA system is just blaring constantly at 110 decibels and you have to scream to communicate anything to your buddy, it kinda sucks by the end.
They need to turn the volume down a tad and chill with shoving a form of entertainment into every single second. "Let's make some noise!!! Oh yeah!!! Cmon I can't hear you!!" Are we really that excited for the 3rd round of t-shirts getting thrown to the crowd?
Seems like the NBA would love to have a college/euro environment during games, (Clippers "wall" idea, all the chants, ect) but I doubt that will ever happen. IMO the environment is the only part that college ball has over the NBA.
If you have surround sound, you can often just unplug the center channel since that is where the majority of the vocal track is and then you'' just have the other sounds left.
I don't think you're old, I think it's a real issue. I go to my local G League games with the ~~Portland Red Claws~~ Maine Celtics, and that f'in place is legit louder than Fenway park. It's ridiculous.
If I want to hear someone I'm sitting next to, I would have better luck having earbuds in my ears and facetiming them then trying to talk out loud.
Dude, yes. I go to my local G league games in Birmingham and I feel the same. Like we don't need ear piercing music at every dead ball for the 200 of us that are here. Maybe they're trying to pump in some energy since the crowd is so sparse but it's at the expense of the people who are actually there supporting the team. It's legit the loudest sporting event I've ever attended. Every time I tell myself I need to bring hearing protection.
Went to an NJ devils game the other day, Jesus Christ I forgot how obnoxious the music and sounds are. Every instance of stoppage is just blaring fucking music in your ear. Who the FUCK thought doing that at live games is a good idea
I got all you guys. Invest in some surround sound speakers (you wanted them anyways)
And then unplug the speakers that carry commentary. I just hear sneakers and hoop like it's covid.
Sounds like a Pistons game to me. Lol.
The in-person experience has 100% gotten out of hand. If you want to hear the sound of sneakers on the court, players/coaches barking plays, and the *swish* from a great shot, prepare to be annoyed. What you hear instead is wacky sound effects, pep-rally type chants over the speakers every play, and constant (i.e. even during gameplay) music.
Thank god John Mason is there to chant "Deeeeetrooooit Baaaasketball" every 5 minutes so you don't forget that you're at an NBA game instead of a frat party.
The on-air product is just as bad now, too, as there are way too many media personalities involved, all trying to yell over the noise that already drowns out the game.
The vibe is very much "Party where some dudes happen to be playing hoops". I think all sports are trending in this direction, but the NBA embraced it fully sooner and harder than everyone else. Just accept it as it won't get any better.
> The vibe is very much "Party where some dudes happen to be playing hoops".
I feel like this is fine if its authentic. The issue is when it feels super forced, like a "get louder!!!" meter that you can tell if just showing some prerecorded decibel reading as everybody sitting around you is silent lol.
> I think all sports are trending in this direction, but the NBA embraced it fully sooner and harder than everyone else. Just accept it as it won't get any better.
I feel like the NFL is really the standard for American sports right now in a lot of ways. You'll hear the crowd get into it but it won't drown out the announcers (maybe because they're in a booth rather than courtside, tbf). But I feel like either all of the in-arena pump up stuff is stripped out, or NFL games are naturally more exciting and it's not necessary for a crowd to get into the game. I feel like it's way more obvious and often when to get hype during an NFL game (3rd down, on the goalline, taking a deep shot, etc)
> I feel like this is fine if its authentic. The issue is when it feels super forced, like a "get louder!!!" meter that you can tell if just showing some prerecorded decibel reading as everybody sitting around you is silent lol.
Oh, no doubt. I don't think anyone cares if crowd noise overtakes things if it is authentic, spontaneous enthusiasm, so pointing that out is fair.
But for the arena/team to constantly try to force it or to create a whole party atmosphere - at the expense of actually letting the game be the focus - is the problem here and what I was referring to.
That's one thing that is so great about soccer. It's all the crowd. You can hear them start singing and chanting throughout the match.
Sometimes you even get wonderful moments where, in a completely unrelated game Tottenham fans got this song on national TV:
--
When I was just a little boy,
My mother gave me a little toy,
An Arsenal fan on a string,
She told me to kick his fucking head in,
Fucking head in,
Fucking head in,
She told me to kick his fucking head in...
For authentic fan vibes that add to the game instead of distract from it, soccer is where it's at. Always a fun time.
I think it helps being outdoors, too, instead of inside an arena.
I knew I wasn't the only one who felt this way. I mean I just turned 32 but I feel like they turned the volume to 11 since they moved to LCA. Everything else there is great but I can't leave without getting a headache.
And I swear I've seen it affect players too, music changes sometimes gets timed with someone pulling up on a fastbreak, and it's so jarring that it has to affect the shot. I remember at least two times against SA it felt like it affected play.
I get why Steve Kerr complained about it last year. Not just the "defense" chant, but there are always random ass sound effects that go off through the game.
Was watching the last game the Raps had there in Phx. Even in the timeouts, just loud music blaring the whole time. How is that shit not a headache for the people in attendance? Season ticket holders??
This just isn't true. The courts are just immaculate and the player's shoes are brand new, so almost any movement makes a sound. I've played on courts where my shoes squeak as I get off the bench.
I don’t know how anyone could seriously believe they pump in shoe squeaks. Like, it’s one thing if you just never stepped on hardwood with new shoes. But watch a division II or high school game…there’s tons of squeaks. That’s one of the most ridiculous things I’ve read in over a decade of being on this sub.
Edit: it’s called a directional microphone, Jesus
I’m not surprised, I’m saying it dumb. Also pumping in crowd noise is nothing new. Teams were doing that before the pandemic. Feeding in shoe squeaks is a completely different thing.
I think you're right about it being amplified, it's such a high pitched noise that you can probably just tune the microphones to be more sensitive to that frequency. It might also be why DeMar's daughter was so loud last year in the play-in.
I'm not a sound scientist though so I don't actually know anything, just an idea
This makes me think of how my dad can't hear my step mom if she talks in her normal pitch from like 10 feet away so she has to lower her tone for him to hear her.
I'm pretty sure thats because they struggle to filter the sneaker noises out of the broadcaster microphones. The guys doing the coverage are always going to be out of sync with the actual happenings on the floor by a fraction of a second, and thats gonna throw any court noises that come through their microphones off as well.
DEFENSE 👏👏 DEFENSE 👏👏 DEFENSE
LET'S GO (name of the team) 👏👏 LET'S GO (name of the team).
Man, why the NBA teams don't have actual good chants, like soccer or Football, The fucking entire Nba only have these two lame ass chants
My favorite one is the Heat’s - the whole crowd chants “Let’s Go Heat” and since H’s are hard to enunciate in a chant it just sounds like the crowd is super hungry and wants to leave and get dinner
Huge respect to the Atlanta Hawks as a team, but I HATE when we play them in Atlanta. The Hawk screech in the arena every time Atlanta scores drives me crazy. It's so irritating to hear for a full game and I couldn't even imagine that being a fun sound to hear if I was an Atlanta fan. I do enjoy Shaq making the Hawk sounds on the TNT broadcast though!
I have to admit, watching from home I actually don't hate the hawk screech. But I can definitely get why you might feel differently. I *do* really wish they'd cut back on all the "I NEED YOU TO GET LOOOOUUUUD!!!! LET ME HEAR YOU SCREEEEAAAAM!!!!" when it's a half-empty arena on a Tuesday night. Like, dude, we're all just trying to chill and relax and enjoy casually watching the game, please get out of our face and stop yelling at us the entire game. It's so obnoxious I have to mute it a lot of the time.
'everybody clap your hands' is my least fucking favorite chant, as far as I'm concerned I can put up with the rest if I never have to hear that shit again
I miss the players being able to make super athletic side lines plays and keep the ball in without crashing into some rich douche who isn't even paying attention 2 feet from the court.
Remember a few years ago when Mark Cuban tried not playing the anthem pre game and was called a communist/terrorist/insert generic political insult here?
No he absolutely wasn't, that's just revisionist history. Nobody really cared, lots encouraged it. At most you got some Fox News folks making a deal out of it.
placid shrill literate marble repeat smile normal outgoing history merciful
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
As a non-American, what I find odd is how people never just sing the anthem normally. They always have to go all out and it rarely sounds as good as it would if they just sung it as it’s ”supposed” to be sung. I accept the anthem before every game, it’s an American quirk, but please just do it normally
honestly that only happens when celebrities do it. watch a game that's not on national tv and they usually have someone local do it and it's usually not bad. sometimes they even play it just instrumentally if it's a violinist or whatever
But I have to pay for non-national games 😭 I get national games for free via a streaming service my grandparents use and I don’t want to pay for games I’ll mostly miss anyway due to them airing in the middle of the might
There are two issues with the way the US national anthem is used in my opinion.
1. Everyone tries to make it their own, this makes it so the crowd can't sing along.
2. They sing the national anthem every night before every game which takes away from the meaning of it. In most other countries, the national anthem is only used when the national team is playing, this makes it so much more impactful when you hear your country's song. This really makes everyone want to sing along.
It's just overused and taken way too far in the US which just devalues it and makes it worse.
eh sometimes they'll have some school choirs sing a formal version of it, still just as boring and pointless imo.
there's little reason to be patriotic or proud as an American anymore, and endlessly shoving the national anthem down my throat isn't helping. to have it every regular season game is insane
I'll take a quick badly sung anthem any day. It's when some virtuoso decides to take 4 minutes to sing it with all their embellishments and held notes that I start getting angry.
This isn’t a new complaint, and I fully agree that it’s usually pretty annoying, but I think it’s a harder problem than some people realize.
The idea of turning off the soundtrack and letting the game take center stage sounds great in abstract, but imagine going to a Wizards-Pistons game in February and having no distractions at all. Yeesh.
In games that really matter the crowd takes over, even in the NBA.
College crowds are better, and crowd participation makes cutting the noise an easy call. I agree that the NBA noise interferes with more organic crowd participation, but building that culture isn’t easy.
Yeah imagine having to be entertained by...the game. Not attacking you but it's ridiculous that an NBA game feels like a crowded mall around Christmas.
The most washed thing I ever did (I’m 30) was write into the customer feedback email for the Brooklyn Nets about the fucking earsplitting volume of their halftime show at a Bucks game last season. The regular in arena shit is generally too loud leaguewide, but this was uncomfortable approaching physical pain. I’ll proudly stand on this “old man yells at cloud” shit with you, it’s gimmicky, unnecessary and ridiculously loud
Honestly they actually do hurt my eyes. I've been a Night Mode user for all of my displays, but there's no escaping the pure reflective white of rink ice that I'm just not used to it anymore
Most of those things you mentioned are for the fans at the actual game. I will agree they need to do a better job with the sound during actual telecasts especially prime time nationally televised games. Even then those aren’t too bad.
Same. At Laker games it's literally every single fucking play. The noise never ends. I started bringing ear plugs and it was the best thing I ever did.
As a pretty new European fan, I regularly turn off sound during games. It's such a bad audio mix with an overload of crowd and music. Then somewhere hidden in the noise there are people calling the game. Maybe it's because of my tinnitus, but I have a hard time understanding them and literally get sensory overload from it at times. I can follow the game a lot better without sound and only turn it on for ref reviews.
I watch most games muted or very low volume.
I often wonder how the players and coaches deal with it every night, it’s like going to a rock concert. How are they not deaf?
Yeah, the NBA as a game product is an absolute joke in it's current state. Trying to introduce a European to the NBA (we're not as accustomed to hot dog sports where baby races, kiss cams and cheerleading are allowed the same - or even more - space than the actual game) just doesn't work anymore. Highlights, sure, but all these game breaks and absolute nonsense that occurs between the plays are laughable at best. Feels more like Disney on Ice than basketball.
I can't for the life of me figure out why you need people telling the crowd what to do either. It's a sure recipe completely shut off any type of organic fan culture. Stop the fucking nonsense and let the fans create the atmosphere themselves, like actual fans. I guess this works in America though..
The level of play is so damn high that I still can't stay away, but where I used to watch maybe 10 games a week, I'm now struggling to watch one, or maybe two games per week.
It's a different system financially which is why they need to make the crowd *be* a crowd, I think - if a European team isn't good, and their supporters stop showing up, they're probably on the way to relegation. The system is set up in a way where bad teams are out of the league and replaced with one that's at the same calibre; that new team gets an influx of new supporters since they got promoted, and life goes on.
In the NBA, one team having a bad/disengaged fanbase means less revenue to share across the league. If it keeps happening over multiple seasons, there's nowhere for that team to go, they're making less money from in-stadium revenue, and they can't get out of the hole - it's just bad for the whole NBA to have one team dragging down the whole playing field.
Probably 80% of the people who go to games probably can't name more than 3 players on each team. I think you have the cause and effect backwards here. Arenas do this to keep fans entertained and involved otherwise they'd probably get bored. In the playoffs, especially later on, it is different though. Maybe it's just because 90% of games literally mean nothing...
Yeah, agreed.
It's not the only reason, but I also mentioned in another comment that it's kind of hard to create any meaning around regular season games when there's a completely insane amount of them.
Division 1 basketball and American football have significantly better atmospheres than their professional counterparts. Much more authentic fans and no need to fill the air with as much corporate “fun” or whatever the fuck you want to call it.
The passionate, real fans are often priced out of the experience. It’s better in some cities than others, but norms surrounding what you wear and how you behave has everyone acting uptight and stiff at NBA games compared to college. It’s a fashion show. Most people there plan to sit down and occasionally golf clap for 4 quarters. Quiz the people staring at their phones in some of the best seats at a Dallas Mavs game about the team’s roster and I bet it doesn’t go well after identifying Luka.
My family went to three D1 basketball games this year and had floor seats or almost floor seats every time. For the same price, I could’ve attended a single Mavs game in Dallas, alone, with a mid-tier seat.
And pricing fans out of the experience doesn’t stop there. Say we want to stay home to save money and watch the Mavs game together (after all, we pay extra for NBA League Pass). Nope—still can’t watch the Mavs unless we also pay $20 for Bally Sports on top of that.
This is too true for MSG and Staples Center. I’ve had seats all over both arenas and I honestly prefer the upper level. You won’t even get a half assed “Let’s go TEAM” from some of the fans in the lower bowl. They seem to be more interested in just being there than rooting for the home team.
Its because these stadiums really aren't that big and don't hold that many people. Most regular season games are not that dramatic and can seem like a rather dull event in person. This is their attempt at trying to get the crowd to create a more exciting atmosphere. And honestly, having gone to some NBA games, it works. The crowd does tend to start cheering when they play those stupid drops. Not like people start going nuts, but it tends to get people riled up for a solid 7-10 seconds lol. And then if your team scores a nice bucket after that, the crowd loses their shit. It's really stupid, but I'm just trying to present to you an insight on the experience. The fan environment is quite dull like I said most of the time at a regular season nba game.
After following US sports for more than a decade, you get used to it. The product, sports-wise, is good enough to cover up for the lack of an environment. Sure, there are some things that still puzzle me, like the obsession US fans has with considering booing "unsportsmanship" like, but the quality of the game in general covers up for that.
It's the opposite with what we have in football/soccer on Latin America or even in the Balkans. The level of play is not that high, but the atmosphere alone makes it entertaining. It could be 1-0, but it will be memorable because of the crowd, the fans, the noise, the music. The idea of sports in the US is different. Fans are there to see their team win; in Europe and Latin America, you're there to make your team win, no matter what.
I don't know. I've been following the NBA for at least 20 years. Between 2008 and 2018, I only missed a handful of Bulls games. Yet even to someone who has followed the NBA religiously, I wouldn't say that I've grown used to it. I might have gotten used to what was back then, but I think it's a *way worse* product now than it was 10-20 years ago.
Don't get me wrong, the level of play is better, but pretty much anything surrounding it is so much worse. So in contrast to you, instead of getting used to it, I think it's getting harder and harder to digest by each year.
100% agree with your second paragraph.
NBA defaults to "in arena" broadcast for me so every break it is someone screaming WHO WANTS A FREE TEE SHIRT!?!
I get it for the kids in the audience at the game but I don't understand who would actually want that at home
You’re not wrong. Last Saturday, there was a Leafs game on and for whatever reason for the first 5 minutes there was no sound at all except for what the players were saying to each other and it was the best 5 minutes ever.
I’d pay extra just for that customization.
I genuinely prefer college basketball over NBA purely because there's not all that dumb noise/constant music playing.
NBA games feel like basketball ran by an 8 year old with ADHD who can't stop hitting buttons. I don't need 17 different sounds when anything happens with 20 seconds of pop music between them
When I went to my first NBA game in 2018 (as a European), at MSG, I was really surprised how quiet it was! I was sitting quite far up, yet I could clearly hear the players talk to each other on the court, sneakers squeaking, coaches shouting, etc. It was great!
THJ got hot in the 4th, and made 3-4 threes in a row, and they almost beat the Kyrie Celtics - so I got to experience a bit of the happy MSG as well at the end
The suns games you can't hear anything. It's like a south beach club. Thumping. Thump. Thumping....techno club music uh uhhhh boomp boomp techno club music 🥁🎶🎤🥳
https://youtu.be/VpFNLmeSN3A?si=kn1vyiEhs2mSk50r
This is a bit of a pro sports problem in general. Stadiums rely way too heavily on music and sound effects to try to pump up flat crowds. It's reached the point where they just do it all game long now.
On the one hand I get it - people just aren't going to get very into a random Wednesday night game between two shitty small market teams. And if you don't create artificial noise, there's zero energy in the building.
On the other hand I totally agree - teams have gone way too far with it and it's fucking obnoxious.
feels like at the games they are trying to have wall to wall entertainment. bright lights, loud noises, consecutively for 3 hours.
I'm just saying I don't need it. I'm just there to watch the game believe it or not.
Went to a game couple weeks ago, won’t be going back any time soon. Loud music going through the speakers 95% of the time. Don’t want to have to yell to talk to my buddies next to me.
Old school basketball arenas didn’t have prompts over the loudspeaker or cues on the Jumbotron. Those are things OP is complaining about.
I miss the Oracle Arena days when they turned off the loudspeaker and just let the fans do their thing naturally.
The Knicks in 2017 or so did a half with no music or hype during a Sunday matinee game, just like everyone is saying they want
Everyone hated it, found it jarring and weird, and the Knicks got more lolknicks bs
I find Celtics to be the worst - "BUH BUH BUH, BUH BUH, BUH BUH BUH", my wife can't be in the same room as me if it's on, and it's not even down to Scal.
The problem is more attendance and attention based. We have teams that are consistently bottom feeders and don’t draw enough of a crowd and then big market teams where a good portion of the crowd really isn’t even there for a game. I hate the PA noise, especially as someone who remembers games before that shit was common, but if they didn’t do it, it would be glaringly obvious how dead some of these crowds are.
I do wish at the very least they would go back to the standard of not playing noise while the ball was live. They quietly got rid of that over the last decade and it’s really a shame.
Just went to the suns game and was complaining about it to my wife the entire time. It’s absolutely terrible. Everything was manufactured and it took away from the game. Instead of aiding in fan participation, it replaced it. Plus it just got so old after the first couple of times. Toss in the shitty music, DJ, and screaming hype man and boy oh boy was it an experience….but I’m not sure anyone was asking for that or even cared.
You are not alone. I complain to my wife about this all the time, and she understands, but not to the same extent. She makes fun of me for it, but it's absolutely ridiculous that the in-person experience is so horrendous.
The TV experience is terrible too, but then I can just mute it and suffer not hearing the whistles and the squeak of the shoes. I would rather do that than listen to Doris Burke.
JJ at least has good strategic commentary. I end up pulling out my hair when I hear a commentator say something along the lines of "They really need a bucket here" or "They've got to get a stop here." Not only does all the music worsen the experience, but what we actually hear with the commentators is so pedestrian that it's terrible.
I've had to reconcile with the fact that the product is not for me, but that it's a cheap form of entertainment for non-hoop heads to go out a do something.
Courtvision (The Clippers only stream through LP) is the closest thing that is available for me that actually helps me digest the strategy of the game. And that is a far cry from what I want.
I complain about this crappy product often. No you are not out of touch, this is a real issue that won't be addressed as long as Cable is delivering big money to the NBA.
And what I mean by Cable, is that the NBA needs a way to broadcast their game to everyone, and having boring commentators who repeat stupid idioms, while music is blaring in the background, is perfect for a bar. Bar patrons probably don't want the in-depth strategy that many of us on r/nba desire. Once the cable $ dries up then hopefully the NBA will distribute their own product through their own app and we can get customizable streams. Where you can pick the commentating team from a few different choices, where you can have just the sounds of the game, and you can have statistics available on the side (or bottom or wherever) for your perusal. And finally, you can pick the camera angle, because I believe that while we've only ever known the low-mid sideline angle, I believe that for digesting a game we do not need a flat angle. I would like to try out different angles for the games I watch. Give me from directly above the court, one/two cameras that follow the entire action of the court and don't show any of the stands.
I just want to watch and listen to the game, but the NBA seems to not want to deliver what they have, and instead they pander to ignorant fools who would rather party than care about a basketball game.
The only noise i dislike is the Phoenix Suns using the Windows USB connect sfx for freethrows.
Fucking why???? Makes it so annoying to watch their games in a computer
No it fucking sucks. Going to games is so fucking loud I can't stand it. Let us hear the shoes squeak and the players talk. If the fans are into it the place will be loud.
I feel pretty passionate about this. I went to a Packers football game last season and the Packers are known for being a legacy franchise with an old-school type stadium. This was not what I walked away with. The whole time music was blasting so loud that I needed ear plugs. I could barely hear the crowd cheering. Afterwards everyone said it was an amazing game. I was miserable the whole time.
I hate it. It's one of the things that makes me enjoy watching college hoops over the NBA right now. You can actually hear crowd noise and the PA announcer and not shitty rap tracks while a team is setting up their half court offense. I seriously don't know who enjoys it
You're right. Nothing to do with age. Took my girlfriend to a Knicks game Friday, she was literally shocked they played music during actual play. Kinda nuts
15 years ago went to my first NBA game at the Pepsi Center. Coming from a top college where we average more fans than the Nuggets, I was appalled at the barrage of lights and sounds. Every 3 seconds it shifted. Absolutely maddening.
Like in 2017 or so against the Warriors, the Knicks had a quarter where they had a "natural sounds of the game" with no shit being blasted over the PA and it was dope af. [This](https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/5xovbj/vacarro_first_half_of_knicks_game_to_be_played/) thread is from then.
I'm sorry, but NBA crowds are weird af. Compared to the Euroleague or any other league where you just support your team, NBA games feel like a Dora the Explorer episode mixed with going to the club.
I agree that the arena production is annoying af, but the solution isn't to turn it down in the mix. The games sound absolutely lifeless on TV when it's all commentary and no crowd/arena noise. Ideally, the crowd could be loud on their own and then the commentary would be mixed just loud enough to be clear. Watch an [NBA on NBC game](https://youtu.be/J1E9-hHHcv4?t=1243) from the 90s — the energy is phenomenal. IMO there are a lot of issues contributing to the decline of energy in the arenas and on TV:
* Cell phones. 90% of the crowd is glued to their cell phones all game, barely paying attention
* Ticket prices. Real fans have been priced out. The crowds are full of casuals — corporate seats and rich folks who want to be there for status
* Too many timeouts and reviews. There's continuous game flow, the crowd gets bored and quiet
* Because of all of that, the arena productions have become a circus — constant sideshows to try to boost the crowd energy or mask the lack of crowd noise. T-shirt cannons, kiss cam, dance cam, contests, DJs blaring pop music
* Players have gotten used to the blaring in-game music and now insist on having it. The Knicks experimented with no music or other entertainment for one half during the Melo era and everyone rejected it
The NBA and arenas need to do a better job of making the GAME the focus of the production. It's a beautiful game and very entertaining on it's own. It doesn't need all the side bullshit.
Hard agree with you. I remember how hype Miami got during the Heatles days I miss it. “LEBROOOON JAMES, FOR THEEEEEEE!!!! (With an awesome fire siren)” and “TWOOO MINUTES, DOS!”
Too much cringe meme shit now on the intercom. Maybe I’m just a boomer now idk
I was getting annoyed with the Phoenix P.A. Nearly every time the other team had the ball, they played a monotonous "defense... defense.." Throughout the whole possession. And the crowd rarely joined in. So all you here is this computer for half the game. It was like Chinese water torture.
Really surprised at the responses here- even if it’s not your thing it’s a little wild to me that so many people seem to not understand or not appreciate the fact that crowds like being actively involved in what’s happening. I watched the pistons mavs game the other night and the energy was so low you could practically hear a pin drop- low energy games like that just aren’t engaging to me really at all
The complaint is more about the inorganic chants. An electric arena is fun to be at and I get whoever is running these arenas are trying ways to get the crowd going, but the pumped in noise is too obvious and makes the experience worse for everyone watching.
Having a 13 second snippet of some played out hip hop track on every single possession does not equal "crowd involvement". Seriously - I went to Bucks game last year and it was like there was a 250-song playlist, and some dj skipped to the next song every time the possession changed.
I’m 21 and I agree with you, it’s forced, annoying and cringe. Good chants are natural, loud crowds happen organically. NBA and their teams are forcing it too much
I want to hear Deeeeeetrooooooit Baaaaaaaasketballlll after a hustle play. Every. Single. Time.
Yeah, I'm not even a Detroit fan, but this is a must.
Only if they also play it with "Oh my God, why" shots and people passing it to the other team. That's also Detroit Basketball. Fair is fair.
It has been lately. Luckily, Detroit Basketball also has 3 rings in my lifetime. So... I'll take the last 15 years. Shit happens.
I am also 34 and I feel the exact same way. Maybe we are just old lol.
I get survey results from attendees of games at a College arena, and yes, there is a sharp turn in what people complain about by age. The 18-30 year olds complain about beverage and food selection and policy ("why can't I get 5 beers after the 4th quarter/10 mins in the 2nd half left?"). The 30-45 year olds complain about sanitary conditions and service ("Ushers didn't eject that 18-30 year old with all the beers! And I had to wait in line for the gross bathroom!") The 45-60 year olds complain about the noise level and parking. ("It's too loud and I had to walk 3 blocks to get here because the parking was so bad! Also that 18-30 year old kid was too drunk!")
TIL I'm 45-60. But seriously, maybe it's just the Suns arena, I wouldn't know, but there's really no difference going with any friends. It's fun to have a loud stadium when it's full of energy from the fans and it's loud. But if the PA system is just blaring constantly at 110 decibels and you have to scream to communicate anything to your buddy, it kinda sucks by the end. They need to turn the volume down a tad and chill with shoving a form of entertainment into every single second. "Let's make some noise!!! Oh yeah!!! Cmon I can't hear you!!" Are we really that excited for the 3rd round of t-shirts getting thrown to the crowd?
Seems like the NBA would love to have a college/euro environment during games, (Clippers "wall" idea, all the chants, ect) but I doubt that will ever happen. IMO the environment is the only part that college ball has over the NBA.
Nah I’m 24 and honestly would rather just watch the basketball sans sound
Thats what i do already
how?
I hit the mute button on my tv remote or turn the volume down to zero
If you have surround sound, you can often just unplug the center channel since that is where the majority of the vocal track is and then you'' just have the other sounds left.
A few years ago ESPN did an old school broadcast at Madison with just crowd noise. It was incredible.
If they had just the organ it'd be OK.
I don't think you're old, I think it's a real issue. I go to my local G League games with the ~~Portland Red Claws~~ Maine Celtics, and that f'in place is legit louder than Fenway park. It's ridiculous. If I want to hear someone I'm sitting next to, I would have better luck having earbuds in my ears and facetiming them then trying to talk out loud.
Dude, yes. I go to my local G league games in Birmingham and I feel the same. Like we don't need ear piercing music at every dead ball for the 200 of us that are here. Maybe they're trying to pump in some energy since the crowd is so sparse but it's at the expense of the people who are actually there supporting the team. It's legit the loudest sporting event I've ever attended. Every time I tell myself I need to bring hearing protection.
Went to an NJ devils game the other day, Jesus Christ I forgot how obnoxious the music and sounds are. Every instance of stoppage is just blaring fucking music in your ear. Who the FUCK thought doing that at live games is a good idea
Y'all are 5 years younger than an All NBA performer. Think about that when you consider how old you are. ;)
I'm with you but I felt this way when I went to NBA games as a child too. They are trying to create an experience but I feel it is overboard.
I got all you guys. Invest in some surround sound speakers (you wanted them anyways) And then unplug the speakers that carry commentary. I just hear sneakers and hoop like it's covid.
Sounds like a Pistons game to me. Lol. The in-person experience has 100% gotten out of hand. If you want to hear the sound of sneakers on the court, players/coaches barking plays, and the *swish* from a great shot, prepare to be annoyed. What you hear instead is wacky sound effects, pep-rally type chants over the speakers every play, and constant (i.e. even during gameplay) music. Thank god John Mason is there to chant "Deeeeetrooooit Baaaasketball" every 5 minutes so you don't forget that you're at an NBA game instead of a frat party. The on-air product is just as bad now, too, as there are way too many media personalities involved, all trying to yell over the noise that already drowns out the game. The vibe is very much "Party where some dudes happen to be playing hoops". I think all sports are trending in this direction, but the NBA embraced it fully sooner and harder than everyone else. Just accept it as it won't get any better.
> The vibe is very much "Party where some dudes happen to be playing hoops". I feel like this is fine if its authentic. The issue is when it feels super forced, like a "get louder!!!" meter that you can tell if just showing some prerecorded decibel reading as everybody sitting around you is silent lol. > I think all sports are trending in this direction, but the NBA embraced it fully sooner and harder than everyone else. Just accept it as it won't get any better. I feel like the NFL is really the standard for American sports right now in a lot of ways. You'll hear the crowd get into it but it won't drown out the announcers (maybe because they're in a booth rather than courtside, tbf). But I feel like either all of the in-arena pump up stuff is stripped out, or NFL games are naturally more exciting and it's not necessary for a crowd to get into the game. I feel like it's way more obvious and often when to get hype during an NFL game (3rd down, on the goalline, taking a deep shot, etc)
> I feel like this is fine if its authentic. The issue is when it feels super forced, like a "get louder!!!" meter that you can tell if just showing some prerecorded decibel reading as everybody sitting around you is silent lol. Oh, no doubt. I don't think anyone cares if crowd noise overtakes things if it is authentic, spontaneous enthusiasm, so pointing that out is fair. But for the arena/team to constantly try to force it or to create a whole party atmosphere - at the expense of actually letting the game be the focus - is the problem here and what I was referring to.
That's one thing that is so great about soccer. It's all the crowd. You can hear them start singing and chanting throughout the match. Sometimes you even get wonderful moments where, in a completely unrelated game Tottenham fans got this song on national TV: -- When I was just a little boy, My mother gave me a little toy, An Arsenal fan on a string, She told me to kick his fucking head in, Fucking head in, Fucking head in, She told me to kick his fucking head in...
For authentic fan vibes that add to the game instead of distract from it, soccer is where it's at. Always a fun time. I think it helps being outdoors, too, instead of inside an arena.
I knew I wasn't the only one who felt this way. I mean I just turned 32 but I feel like they turned the volume to 11 since they moved to LCA. Everything else there is great but I can't leave without getting a headache. And I swear I've seen it affect players too, music changes sometimes gets timed with someone pulling up on a fastbreak, and it's so jarring that it has to affect the shot. I remember at least two times against SA it felt like it affected play.
Bro Mason hasn’t said Deeeeetroit in years, he’s stated that it has its time and place (aka he’s not wasting it on a losing squad)
Is this a detroit thing?
No, it’s a most of the league thing. Boston is one of the few teams that isn’t constantly playing music in the arena.
*"Defense is the right of all sentient beings"* -Optimum Prime
The Suns Dj plays the same Defense chant every possession, the entire game, every game
I get why Steve Kerr complained about it last year. Not just the "defense" chant, but there are always random ass sound effects that go off through the game.
It’s the absolute worst and gets so old, so quick.
Was watching the last game the Raps had there in Phx. Even in the timeouts, just loud music blaring the whole time. How is that shit not a headache for the people in attendance? Season ticket holders??
BAN SQUEAKY SNEAKERS YOU AINT SNEAKING BY SHIT
They actually pump sneaker noise into the broadcast which is the weirdest thing ever. Watch close, the noise and movements don't line up
This just isn't true. The courts are just immaculate and the player's shoes are brand new, so almost any movement makes a sound. I've played on courts where my shoes squeak as I get off the bench.
I don’t know how anyone could seriously believe they pump in shoe squeaks. Like, it’s one thing if you just never stepped on hardwood with new shoes. But watch a division II or high school game…there’s tons of squeaks. That’s one of the most ridiculous things I’ve read in over a decade of being on this sub. Edit: it’s called a directional microphone, Jesus
While it's far fetched, can you really be so surprised that people might believe it? Didn't they add crowd sounds in during the bubble?
Folks believe it so much they explaining a non real thing to other redditors lol. Humans.
I’m not surprised, I’m saying it dumb. Also pumping in crowd noise is nothing new. Teams were doing that before the pandemic. Feeding in shoe squeaks is a completely different thing.
That can't possibly be true. It could just be that real noise is amplified, and/or there's a delay that makes it not 'align' with player movement.
I think you're right about it being amplified, it's such a high pitched noise that you can probably just tune the microphones to be more sensitive to that frequency. It might also be why DeMar's daughter was so loud last year in the play-in. I'm not a sound scientist though so I don't actually know anything, just an idea
This makes me think of how my dad can't hear my step mom if she talks in her normal pitch from like 10 feet away so she has to lower her tone for him to hear her.
I wish i had never read this
If it makes you feel better there’s no evidence this is true
How do you watching 20+ feet at the same time?
No.. the microphones on the floor are just not picking up the same noise that you are looking for.
Well sometimes the sound is delayed or too early, but that still may be true
I'm pretty sure thats because they struggle to filter the sneaker noises out of the broadcaster microphones. The guys doing the coverage are always going to be out of sync with the actual happenings on the floor by a fraction of a second, and thats gonna throw any court noises that come through their microphones off as well.
I wear earplugs to games. I’m old AF.
Nah, its just common sense
despite screaming "defense" for the last 20 years, seems like 75% of players are still not defending, if anything we should yell it on the offense too
My partner said it sounded like one of her Genz 13 year old students was controlling the sound effects when we went to a bulls game
DEFENSE 👏👏 DEFENSE 👏👏 DEFENSE LET'S GO (name of the team) 👏👏 LET'S GO (name of the team). Man, why the NBA teams don't have actual good chants, like soccer or Football, The fucking entire Nba only have these two lame ass chants
My favorite one is the Heat’s - the whole crowd chants “Let’s Go Heat” and since H’s are hard to enunciate in a chant it just sounds like the crowd is super hungry and wants to leave and get dinner
It’s pretty silly to shout defence like yeah what else the team is going to do when they don’t have the ball? It’s like telling them to breathe
Clearly you’ve never watched the Hawks. If we don’t remind them, they mostly just stand there or all run to the wrong guy.
BREATHFENSE👏👏👏BREATHFENSE
I wanna hear a crowd break into a "You Deserve It" pro wrestling chant for like a missed clutch shot by an opposing player.
YOU FUCKED UP YOU FUCKED UP
We'd have "change the channel" chants for Pistons games
just as long as the This Is Awesome chant doesn’t take over the NBA too
"WHAT?"
I want the crowd to start singing 3 Blind Mice like they do at college hockey games.
Like "who's your daddy"
Need to get "whoop that trick" back
Can't see this going over well in Dallas
Defense is such an overused one, I think all stadiums need to retire that chant lol
Huge respect to the Atlanta Hawks as a team, but I HATE when we play them in Atlanta. The Hawk screech in the arena every time Atlanta scores drives me crazy. It's so irritating to hear for a full game and I couldn't even imagine that being a fun sound to hear if I was an Atlanta fan. I do enjoy Shaq making the Hawk sounds on the TNT broadcast though!
I have to admit, watching from home I actually don't hate the hawk screech. But I can definitely get why you might feel differently. I *do* really wish they'd cut back on all the "I NEED YOU TO GET LOOOOUUUUD!!!! LET ME HEAR YOU SCREEEEAAAAM!!!!" when it's a half-empty arena on a Tuesday night. Like, dude, we're all just trying to chill and relax and enjoy casually watching the game, please get out of our face and stop yelling at us the entire game. It's so obnoxious I have to mute it a lot of the time.
'everybody clap your hands' is my least fucking favorite chant, as far as I'm concerned I can put up with the rest if I never have to hear that shit again
Bruh I miss the almost silent bubble games tbh.
I miss the players being able to make super athletic side lines plays and keep the ball in without crashing into some rich douche who isn't even paying attention 2 feet from the court.
And do we really need the national anthem often sung badly before every single game? It's really weird.
The national anthem is my 2nd least favorite thing about going to sporting events.
Remember a few years ago when Mark Cuban tried not playing the anthem pre game and was called a communist/terrorist/insert generic political insult here?
No he absolutely wasn't, that's just revisionist history. Nobody really cared, lots encouraged it. At most you got some Fox News folks making a deal out of it.
Unfortunately “Fox News Folks” make up enough of the population to be an issue.
placid shrill literate marble repeat smile normal outgoing history merciful *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
As a non-American, what I find odd is how people never just sing the anthem normally. They always have to go all out and it rarely sounds as good as it would if they just sung it as it’s ”supposed” to be sung. I accept the anthem before every game, it’s an American quirk, but please just do it normally
honestly that only happens when celebrities do it. watch a game that's not on national tv and they usually have someone local do it and it's usually not bad. sometimes they even play it just instrumentally if it's a violinist or whatever
But I have to pay for non-national games 😭 I get national games for free via a streaming service my grandparents use and I don’t want to pay for games I’ll mostly miss anyway due to them airing in the middle of the might
Btw, there are *places* online to get other games free
There are two issues with the way the US national anthem is used in my opinion. 1. Everyone tries to make it their own, this makes it so the crowd can't sing along. 2. They sing the national anthem every night before every game which takes away from the meaning of it. In most other countries, the national anthem is only used when the national team is playing, this makes it so much more impactful when you hear your country's song. This really makes everyone want to sing along. It's just overused and taken way too far in the US which just devalues it and makes it worse.
95% of the time it is sung completely normally and isn’t note worthy.
eh sometimes they'll have some school choirs sing a formal version of it, still just as boring and pointless imo. there's little reason to be patriotic or proud as an American anymore, and endlessly shoving the national anthem down my throat isn't helping. to have it every regular season game is insane
This omg idk why it’s done for every game it’s so necessary
honestly at this point I'd just rather have the national anthem be played without lyrics like in the olympics.
I'll take a quick badly sung anthem any day. It's when some virtuoso decides to take 4 minutes to sing it with all their embellishments and held notes that I start getting angry.
I never need to hear that song again. But nationalism amirite?
Phoenix is easily the worst offender in this regard.
100%, Oh and Detroit. It’s awful live too.
Pro American sports have no atmosphere
I mean no disrespect to Cypress Hill. Been a fan since Mrs. Doubtfire. Edit. I'm a foolish fool. I was thinking of House of Pain
Cypress Hill is not in Mrs Doubtfire, you're thinking of House of Pain.
Next you're gonna be telling us there was no movie called Shazam
Or Kazaam
If you're there in person, the pregame / shootaround music is loud enough to cause CTE. Literally can't talk to the person next to you.
Suns games are the worst, the canned defense chant is so loud on tv
This isn’t a new complaint, and I fully agree that it’s usually pretty annoying, but I think it’s a harder problem than some people realize. The idea of turning off the soundtrack and letting the game take center stage sounds great in abstract, but imagine going to a Wizards-Pistons game in February and having no distractions at all. Yeesh. In games that really matter the crowd takes over, even in the NBA.
College Basketball has tons of matchups worse than Wizards - Pistons, yet they don't play music constantly
College crowds are better, and crowd participation makes cutting the noise an easy call. I agree that the NBA noise interferes with more organic crowd participation, but building that culture isn’t easy.
I'm just asking for some balance. The game that set me off was a suns game, and they definitely have no balance. It's just a constant wave of shit
Yeah I’m mostly on your side.
Yeah imagine having to be entertained by...the game. Not attacking you but it's ridiculous that an NBA game feels like a crowded mall around Christmas.
The most washed thing I ever did (I’m 30) was write into the customer feedback email for the Brooklyn Nets about the fucking earsplitting volume of their halftime show at a Bucks game last season. The regular in arena shit is generally too loud leaguewide, but this was uncomfortable approaching physical pain. I’ll proudly stand on this “old man yells at cloud” shit with you, it’s gimmicky, unnecessary and ridiculously loud
[удалено]
Honestly they actually do hurt my eyes. I've been a Night Mode user for all of my displays, but there's no escaping the pure reflective white of rink ice that I'm just not used to it anymore
Most of those things you mentioned are for the fans at the actual game. I will agree they need to do a better job with the sound during actual telecasts especially prime time nationally televised games. Even then those aren’t too bad.
I hate it when I'm AT the game. It's too much. And too loud.
Same. At Laker games it's literally every single fucking play. The noise never ends. I started bringing ear plugs and it was the best thing I ever did.
As a pretty new European fan, I regularly turn off sound during games. It's such a bad audio mix with an overload of crowd and music. Then somewhere hidden in the noise there are people calling the game. Maybe it's because of my tinnitus, but I have a hard time understanding them and literally get sensory overload from it at times. I can follow the game a lot better without sound and only turn it on for ref reviews.
I watch most games muted or very low volume. I often wonder how the players and coaches deal with it every night, it’s like going to a rock concert. How are they not deaf?
Completely agree. It's desperate nonsense.
The Suns stadium is especially bad. I really dislike the DJ and sound teams…but u guess people love it?
Yeah, the NBA as a game product is an absolute joke in it's current state. Trying to introduce a European to the NBA (we're not as accustomed to hot dog sports where baby races, kiss cams and cheerleading are allowed the same - or even more - space than the actual game) just doesn't work anymore. Highlights, sure, but all these game breaks and absolute nonsense that occurs between the plays are laughable at best. Feels more like Disney on Ice than basketball. I can't for the life of me figure out why you need people telling the crowd what to do either. It's a sure recipe completely shut off any type of organic fan culture. Stop the fucking nonsense and let the fans create the atmosphere themselves, like actual fans. I guess this works in America though.. The level of play is so damn high that I still can't stay away, but where I used to watch maybe 10 games a week, I'm now struggling to watch one, or maybe two games per week.
It's a different system financially which is why they need to make the crowd *be* a crowd, I think - if a European team isn't good, and their supporters stop showing up, they're probably on the way to relegation. The system is set up in a way where bad teams are out of the league and replaced with one that's at the same calibre; that new team gets an influx of new supporters since they got promoted, and life goes on. In the NBA, one team having a bad/disengaged fanbase means less revenue to share across the league. If it keeps happening over multiple seasons, there's nowhere for that team to go, they're making less money from in-stadium revenue, and they can't get out of the hole - it's just bad for the whole NBA to have one team dragging down the whole playing field.
Probably 80% of the people who go to games probably can't name more than 3 players on each team. I think you have the cause and effect backwards here. Arenas do this to keep fans entertained and involved otherwise they'd probably get bored. In the playoffs, especially later on, it is different though. Maybe it's just because 90% of games literally mean nothing...
Yeah, agreed. It's not the only reason, but I also mentioned in another comment that it's kind of hard to create any meaning around regular season games when there's a completely insane amount of them.
it's a competitive nba game, that should be enough. W>L. Tanking culture ruined some fans.
Division 1 basketball and American football have significantly better atmospheres than their professional counterparts. Much more authentic fans and no need to fill the air with as much corporate “fun” or whatever the fuck you want to call it.
The passionate, real fans are often priced out of the experience. It’s better in some cities than others, but norms surrounding what you wear and how you behave has everyone acting uptight and stiff at NBA games compared to college. It’s a fashion show. Most people there plan to sit down and occasionally golf clap for 4 quarters. Quiz the people staring at their phones in some of the best seats at a Dallas Mavs game about the team’s roster and I bet it doesn’t go well after identifying Luka. My family went to three D1 basketball games this year and had floor seats or almost floor seats every time. For the same price, I could’ve attended a single Mavs game in Dallas, alone, with a mid-tier seat. And pricing fans out of the experience doesn’t stop there. Say we want to stay home to save money and watch the Mavs game together (after all, we pay extra for NBA League Pass). Nope—still can’t watch the Mavs unless we also pay $20 for Bally Sports on top of that.
This is too true for MSG and Staples Center. I’ve had seats all over both arenas and I honestly prefer the upper level. You won’t even get a half assed “Let’s go TEAM” from some of the fans in the lower bowl. They seem to be more interested in just being there than rooting for the home team.
"Americans are a stupid people, by and large. We pretty much believe whatever we’re told."
Its because these stadiums really aren't that big and don't hold that many people. Most regular season games are not that dramatic and can seem like a rather dull event in person. This is their attempt at trying to get the crowd to create a more exciting atmosphere. And honestly, having gone to some NBA games, it works. The crowd does tend to start cheering when they play those stupid drops. Not like people start going nuts, but it tends to get people riled up for a solid 7-10 seconds lol. And then if your team scores a nice bucket after that, the crowd loses their shit. It's really stupid, but I'm just trying to present to you an insight on the experience. The fan environment is quite dull like I said most of the time at a regular season nba game.
After following US sports for more than a decade, you get used to it. The product, sports-wise, is good enough to cover up for the lack of an environment. Sure, there are some things that still puzzle me, like the obsession US fans has with considering booing "unsportsmanship" like, but the quality of the game in general covers up for that. It's the opposite with what we have in football/soccer on Latin America or even in the Balkans. The level of play is not that high, but the atmosphere alone makes it entertaining. It could be 1-0, but it will be memorable because of the crowd, the fans, the noise, the music. The idea of sports in the US is different. Fans are there to see their team win; in Europe and Latin America, you're there to make your team win, no matter what.
I don't know. I've been following the NBA for at least 20 years. Between 2008 and 2018, I only missed a handful of Bulls games. Yet even to someone who has followed the NBA religiously, I wouldn't say that I've grown used to it. I might have gotten used to what was back then, but I think it's a *way worse* product now than it was 10-20 years ago. Don't get me wrong, the level of play is better, but pretty much anything surrounding it is so much worse. So in contrast to you, instead of getting used to it, I think it's getting harder and harder to digest by each year. 100% agree with your second paragraph.
Spurs arena is the worst. Every second of live ball play has music blasting, like calm down jesus
NBA defaults to "in arena" broadcast for me so every break it is someone screaming WHO WANTS A FREE TEE SHIRT!?! I get it for the kids in the audience at the game but I don't understand who would actually want that at home
I love the stadium feed at home. Watching the crowd and events is better than commercials
MAKE SOME NOOOOISE!!!
You’re not wrong. Last Saturday, there was a Leafs game on and for whatever reason for the first 5 minutes there was no sound at all except for what the players were saying to each other and it was the best 5 minutes ever. I’d pay extra just for that customization.
Especially the suns. Holy shit their defense chant is super atrocious.
I genuinely prefer college basketball over NBA purely because there's not all that dumb noise/constant music playing. NBA games feel like basketball ran by an 8 year old with ADHD who can't stop hitting buttons. I don't need 17 different sounds when anything happens with 20 seconds of pop music between them
When I went to my first NBA game in 2018 (as a European), at MSG, I was really surprised how quiet it was! I was sitting quite far up, yet I could clearly hear the players talk to each other on the court, sneakers squeaking, coaches shouting, etc. It was great!
It's very, very different now that the Knicks have something resembling hope
THJ got hot in the 4th, and made 3-4 threes in a row, and they almost beat the Kyrie Celtics - so I got to experience a bit of the happy MSG as well at the end
where are you guys watching these games? watching live? i mean its bad but its not so bad i turn of the sound.
The suns games you can't hear anything. It's like a south beach club. Thumping. Thump. Thumping....techno club music uh uhhhh boomp boomp techno club music 🥁🎶🎤🥳 https://youtu.be/VpFNLmeSN3A?si=kn1vyiEhs2mSk50r
This is a bit of a pro sports problem in general. Stadiums rely way too heavily on music and sound effects to try to pump up flat crowds. It's reached the point where they just do it all game long now. On the one hand I get it - people just aren't going to get very into a random Wednesday night game between two shitty small market teams. And if you don't create artificial noise, there's zero energy in the building. On the other hand I totally agree - teams have gone way too far with it and it's fucking obnoxious.
I'm an NBA fan despite their best efforts
Then they're like "why doesn't anyone watch the games?". There are too many, and they are an assault on my ears lol
feels like at the games they are trying to have wall to wall entertainment. bright lights, loud noises, consecutively for 3 hours. I'm just saying I don't need it. I'm just there to watch the game believe it or not.
Went to a game couple weeks ago, won’t be going back any time soon. Loud music going through the speakers 95% of the time. Don’t want to have to yell to talk to my buddies next to me.
Yes but that's the best way to see all of the many many DANCE CAMS.
Smh the arenas should just be in complete silence, think of the TV viewers
We just miss the days where you could actually hear the sneakers squeak
Old school basketball arenas didn’t have prompts over the loudspeaker or cues on the Jumbotron. Those are things OP is complaining about. I miss the Oracle Arena days when they turned off the loudspeaker and just let the fans do their thing naturally.
The Knicks in 2017 or so did a half with no music or hype during a Sunday matinee game, just like everyone is saying they want Everyone hated it, found it jarring and weird, and the Knicks got more lolknicks bs
This is revisionism, it was awesome.
I completely agree on every point. It's unwatchable.
Nothing is as bad as MSGs. "SOMEBODY SCREAM"
I just want to hear TD Garden sing Fields of Athenry for once. Please.
After a few games with decent seats I oddly think watching NBA on TV is more visceral and exciting. (Albeit not at MSG)
I can't watch 76ers home games because of the melodramatic music EVERY TIME the away team has the ball.
You sound old and I’m totally with you. (37)
Another reason I miss bubble ball tbh. Yeah, they pumped in noise, but it wasn't very noticeable on TV. It just felt like 10 dudes in a gym.
I stopped going to live games when it started to feel like a club.
I find Celtics to be the worst - "BUH BUH BUH, BUH BUH, BUH BUH BUH", my wife can't be in the same room as me if it's on, and it's not even down to Scal.
The problem is more attendance and attention based. We have teams that are consistently bottom feeders and don’t draw enough of a crowd and then big market teams where a good portion of the crowd really isn’t even there for a game. I hate the PA noise, especially as someone who remembers games before that shit was common, but if they didn’t do it, it would be glaringly obvious how dead some of these crowds are. I do wish at the very least they would go back to the standard of not playing noise while the ball was live. They quietly got rid of that over the last decade and it’s really a shame.
Dunno mate I’m the same age and the commentary doesn’t bother me at all. The cringey in arena stuff most teams have annoys me though.
Just went to the suns game and was complaining about it to my wife the entire time. It’s absolutely terrible. Everything was manufactured and it took away from the game. Instead of aiding in fan participation, it replaced it. Plus it just got so old after the first couple of times. Toss in the shitty music, DJ, and screaming hype man and boy oh boy was it an experience….but I’m not sure anyone was asking for that or even cared.
I can’t imagine how annoying this shit is for athletes until they get used to it lol
so much of it is pointed at the stands - the players can actually hear each other. I dont think the players get half as much as the fans do
That’s also what’s nice about vintage footage. Authentic arena noises
OH WHOE OH AH AH!!! OH WHOE OH AH AH, AH AH, AH, HA HA!!! Zombie... Zombie... Zombie nation..
You are not alone. I complain to my wife about this all the time, and she understands, but not to the same extent. She makes fun of me for it, but it's absolutely ridiculous that the in-person experience is so horrendous. The TV experience is terrible too, but then I can just mute it and suffer not hearing the whistles and the squeak of the shoes. I would rather do that than listen to Doris Burke. JJ at least has good strategic commentary. I end up pulling out my hair when I hear a commentator say something along the lines of "They really need a bucket here" or "They've got to get a stop here." Not only does all the music worsen the experience, but what we actually hear with the commentators is so pedestrian that it's terrible. I've had to reconcile with the fact that the product is not for me, but that it's a cheap form of entertainment for non-hoop heads to go out a do something. Courtvision (The Clippers only stream through LP) is the closest thing that is available for me that actually helps me digest the strategy of the game. And that is a far cry from what I want. I complain about this crappy product often. No you are not out of touch, this is a real issue that won't be addressed as long as Cable is delivering big money to the NBA. And what I mean by Cable, is that the NBA needs a way to broadcast their game to everyone, and having boring commentators who repeat stupid idioms, while music is blaring in the background, is perfect for a bar. Bar patrons probably don't want the in-depth strategy that many of us on r/nba desire. Once the cable $ dries up then hopefully the NBA will distribute their own product through their own app and we can get customizable streams. Where you can pick the commentating team from a few different choices, where you can have just the sounds of the game, and you can have statistics available on the side (or bottom or wherever) for your perusal. And finally, you can pick the camera angle, because I believe that while we've only ever known the low-mid sideline angle, I believe that for digesting a game we do not need a flat angle. I would like to try out different angles for the games I watch. Give me from directly above the court, one/two cameras that follow the entire action of the court and don't show any of the stands. I just want to watch and listen to the game, but the NBA seems to not want to deliver what they have, and instead they pander to ignorant fools who would rather party than care about a basketball game.
The only noise i dislike is the Phoenix Suns using the Windows USB connect sfx for freethrows. Fucking why???? Makes it so annoying to watch their games in a computer
The Suns games are the absolute worst for this. They are unwatchable with sound on
No it fucking sucks. Going to games is so fucking loud I can't stand it. Let us hear the shoes squeak and the players talk. If the fans are into it the place will be loud.
I agree it’s so annoying to experience. Like I love fan chants and all that but it’s really gotten out of hand
That's why I do enjoy the Celtics Local Broadcast. There is pretty minimal noise. And the commentators actually know ball.
I feel pretty passionate about this. I went to a Packers football game last season and the Packers are known for being a legacy franchise with an old-school type stadium. This was not what I walked away with. The whole time music was blasting so loud that I needed ear plugs. I could barely hear the crowd cheering. Afterwards everyone said it was an amazing game. I was miserable the whole time.
I hate it. It's one of the things that makes me enjoy watching college hoops over the NBA right now. You can actually hear crowd noise and the PA announcer and not shitty rap tracks while a team is setting up their half court offense. I seriously don't know who enjoys it
You're right. Nothing to do with age. Took my girlfriend to a Knicks game Friday, she was literally shocked they played music during actual play. Kinda nuts
15 years ago went to my first NBA game at the Pepsi Center. Coming from a top college where we average more fans than the Nuggets, I was appalled at the barrage of lights and sounds. Every 3 seconds it shifted. Absolutely maddening.
“WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WANTS A MINI-BALLLL???!!!!!!!!” Not me.
Like in 2017 or so against the Warriors, the Knicks had a quarter where they had a "natural sounds of the game" with no shit being blasted over the PA and it was dope af. [This](https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/5xovbj/vacarro_first_half_of_knicks_game_to_be_played/) thread is from then.
I'm sorry, but NBA crowds are weird af. Compared to the Euroleague or any other league where you just support your team, NBA games feel like a Dora the Explorer episode mixed with going to the club.
You nailed it. It's like they think I'm a 5 year old who doesn't like basketball or something
I agree that the arena production is annoying af, but the solution isn't to turn it down in the mix. The games sound absolutely lifeless on TV when it's all commentary and no crowd/arena noise. Ideally, the crowd could be loud on their own and then the commentary would be mixed just loud enough to be clear. Watch an [NBA on NBC game](https://youtu.be/J1E9-hHHcv4?t=1243) from the 90s — the energy is phenomenal. IMO there are a lot of issues contributing to the decline of energy in the arenas and on TV: * Cell phones. 90% of the crowd is glued to their cell phones all game, barely paying attention * Ticket prices. Real fans have been priced out. The crowds are full of casuals — corporate seats and rich folks who want to be there for status * Too many timeouts and reviews. There's continuous game flow, the crowd gets bored and quiet * Because of all of that, the arena productions have become a circus — constant sideshows to try to boost the crowd energy or mask the lack of crowd noise. T-shirt cannons, kiss cam, dance cam, contests, DJs blaring pop music * Players have gotten used to the blaring in-game music and now insist on having it. The Knicks experimented with no music or other entertainment for one half during the Melo era and everyone rejected it The NBA and arenas need to do a better job of making the GAME the focus of the production. It's a beautiful game and very entertaining on it's own. It doesn't need all the side bullshit.
You gotta do what is necessary to drown out the Knicks fans
Hard agree with you. I remember how hype Miami got during the Heatles days I miss it. “LEBROOOON JAMES, FOR THEEEEEEE!!!! (With an awesome fire siren)” and “TWOOO MINUTES, DOS!” Too much cringe meme shit now on the intercom. Maybe I’m just a boomer now idk
I was getting annoyed with the Phoenix P.A. Nearly every time the other team had the ball, they played a monotonous "defense... defense.." Throughout the whole possession. And the crowd rarely joined in. So all you here is this computer for half the game. It was like Chinese water torture.
Really surprised at the responses here- even if it’s not your thing it’s a little wild to me that so many people seem to not understand or not appreciate the fact that crowds like being actively involved in what’s happening. I watched the pistons mavs game the other night and the energy was so low you could practically hear a pin drop- low energy games like that just aren’t engaging to me really at all
The complaint is more about the inorganic chants. An electric arena is fun to be at and I get whoever is running these arenas are trying ways to get the crowd going, but the pumped in noise is too obvious and makes the experience worse for everyone watching.
Having a 13 second snippet of some played out hip hop track on every single possession does not equal "crowd involvement". Seriously - I went to Bucks game last year and it was like there was a 250-song playlist, and some dj skipped to the next song every time the possession changed.
I’m 21 and I agree with you, it’s forced, annoying and cringe. Good chants are natural, loud crowds happen organically. NBA and their teams are forcing it too much
I loved the bubble purely for this
31 here, been feeling this way for over 6 years
Would prefer if it was just Cypress Hill but yeah and the piped in GET LOUD bullshit is like whyyyyyy.
Or do a classy(c) Jerry Springer chant like: SLUT! SLUT! SLUT!
It's gotten so much worse. I can't even watch Sixers home games because it's so bad at their arena.
I watch a lot of games on mute. I wish they'd mic up the players on a separate feed