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Post by panthertrax on Mar 9, 2006 22:46:55 GMT -6
I'll tell you what was embarrassing.......some of the student section singing along with the guy singing the national anthem. Have some class, please. That was rude.
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Post by uwmsafan on Mar 9, 2006 22:55:11 GMT -6
i agree. there is no need to sing along to the national anthem. you wanna sing, talk to the marketing department and ask to sing the anthem at half court. Coming from a veteran like myself, and calls i have taken from fans that have served for our country it is very disrespectful. Especially yelling comments during it too.
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Post by bball30 on Mar 9, 2006 22:58:08 GMT -6
What if there was someway of leaving seats in the student section, or marking spots so that when you arrive at the cell, and recieve your ticket it has a seat location on it that you are assigned to. It would still be a free ticket, and yet reward the students for showing up early, thus allowing the "diehards" the availability to get down front and have a seat reserved, or even make tickets available for pick up starting the morning of on campus? I would think this is more realistic than wristbands or something along those lines.
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Post by uwmsafan on Mar 9, 2006 23:02:23 GMT -6
i also wanted to reply on the wristbands or letting people in first. How do you regulate what is a "diehard"? Someone who has been to a years worth of games? two years? what if someone missed a game? then after a while people will come to all games to get these "front seats" then how do you choose who gets to be there? Then you're talking extra security, which apparently a lot of people dont like about the cell. to make sure that those people who belong in the front should be there.
i once agreed with all of you, but its not feasible, and it doesnt creat a good atmosphere for those who want a good experience at the games. we all pay part of our tuition for the tickets and are entitled to sit/stand where ever we want. Just get there early if you want to be in front, i did it all the time when i used to be in the student section.
Before i took my job with the athletics department i thought about getting season tickets because i was sick of the bickering over being in the front and the drunk stupid people who ruin the fun experience of being in the student section.
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Post by milwsport on Mar 10, 2006 2:07:52 GMT -6
You make some good points.
I'm disturbed that in the past I've read posts that led me to believe that some of us would like a smaller student section they can be controlled where everyone focuses just on the game, rather than a large enthusiastic (albeit uncontrollable) student section.
It's good to really be into UWM BB. It's even better to think of ways to make the student section more effective. But I think some efforts well intended as they may be might be turning off some people.
I base that on a recent conversation I had with the son of a friend of mine. He said he's been to about half the games the last two years. The casual fans don't know you are at all the games. You look like them, you sound like them and as far as they are concerned are no better than they are.
I specifically asked this guy about the left side right side thing. I got the impression that at least on occassion some people start competing cheers to make that point. Plus, the more casual fans come with their friends just as you do. They want to cheer with their friends and do the cheers their friends want to do just as you do. You need to lead, not direct people or try to stifle them when they don't go in the direction you'd like.
You need a structure to do that. A regular campus organization to be a student booster club. Maybe then you could reserve the front row for its members, who can be recognized by shirts or hats sweaters or something like that.
If someone complains then it's "Want to stand in the front? Great, join the club and help boost attendance and you are welcome to do so." Of course you'd need enough members to fill the front row.
I think most students will recognize that people working hard to turn out the troops are doing something extra and should get something extra. I think they'll be more likely to follow them. Plus it would allow a mechanism for passing the torch onto to future leaders.
Let's not lose sight of the fact that this discussion grew out of the perceived need to get a rapidly expanding student section more organized. It's that growth that has made it impossible for a couple of guys to lead the few dozen students that are there.
In reality that's a good thing.
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ArtVandelay
Freshman
I am Art Vandelay, I am an Importer/Exporter
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Post by ArtVandelay on Mar 10, 2006 3:09:10 GMT -6
While nobody on this board knows who I am, I'm nearly certain I've met and/or high fived brettpanther (and his brother), JimmyLemke, Fan, 6thman, and pantherholic. I'm usually within the first 5 people at games following "Super Fans" Tom and Ryan (who I talked to tonight about working together to make our section better).
I haven't been here as long as the original Krazies, but this is my 3rd year at UWM and I have to say I come away from most games disappointed in the behavior of some UWM student fans after nearly every game. I remember attempting to shout down fans as they yelled "F*** Iowa" during the UPPER IOWA game for Gods sake. I also enjoyed being called a "pussy" after I told a few fans to "shut the F up" after they attempted to start the "Eat Sh*t, F**** You" chant" during that same game. Their logic was that UW does it so we should to....
(I should note that the majority of students are well behaved during most games, but usually lack direction)
It is time that we step up and do something about this as a group. The original Klotsche Krazies did an amazing job of building this student section into the largest in our conference, and for that I appreciate their efforts. They have done more for UWM than many non-informed people can imagine, but we need to step up in their place and teach this group that they helped create how to act. I don't want to make "The Cell" less loud or enjoyable, but mainly to end the chanted swearing and immature behavior of some fans, while helping to make creative chants and lead by example.
For the first two years of my UWM experience I mainly roamed around the student section, but this year I firmly planted myself as a "left side" guy. I think it is a brilliant idea for us to finally form together and meet with each other and the administration, and get our concerns across. The US Cellular security is a complete joke to me, and we have to work with athletic department to put pressure on them into making it better.
Some people have already taken an active role in improving the student section. Most notably Fan who I really appreciated doing a great job all season and during the championship of taking care of some of the trouble makers. Best of luck wherever you decide to attend law school.
Next season starts a new era of UWM basketball. Our program has finally attained legitamacy with our 4th straight post season appearance, and we lose a lot of great senior basketball players and fans. We may not be the conference favorite next year, but I still want to give our team as much support as possible. I hope anyone who wants to get involved can get together, drink some beer, and atleast get to know everyone better following March Madness.
So lets try and get the ball rolling on all this by the end of the school year. Hopefully I'll be able to see many of you at our first round game.
Art Vandelay
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Post by jhart05 on Mar 10, 2006 11:44:34 GMT -6
(I didn’t read all 8 pages of this thread yet, so maybe someone already suggested some of these things.)
I have just a few things to add from what I’ve seen...
1) Put a stop to the swearing chants and hand gestures. Those make us look like nothing but classless thugs. And that doesn’t help attract the casual fan to become a permanent fan either.
2) Try to curb the excessive drinking. I know, this is Wisconsin, so that will be hard. It's OK to get a nice buzz on for the games, I do myself. A couple beers, maybe a few puffs, it’s all fine. But the almost falling down drunk people should not be let in the arena or even let on the bus.
I know this is not only students, a lot also comes from those supposedly "grown up" fans as well, who only come to the bigger games. We’ll take care of those idiots.
Maybe you guys should create a “Student Section Etiquette” handbook, or at least a flyer. Something that could be posted around campus and/or distributed to students when they pick up their tickets. You could have what chants/conduct is acceptable and what isn’t. What chants we do and when they are appropriate. Definitely put in there some kind of history of the Klotsche Krazies. I believe Duke has such a thing. I don’t know about the rest of you, even though I don’t like Duke, I would rather emulate a school like that, over Madison. Just make sure it is clear that these guidelines/rules are coming straight from the student body and not the administration. I think the students would be more likely to accept the guidelines this way.
In your meeting I would stress, that it is possible to have fun, be loud, and support your team, without having to be pissed up drunk, rude, or disrespectful. Let them know these things will not be tolerated next year or they will be removed from the arena. If not by the crappy security then by their fellow students.
Let us know when you have your meeting and how it turns out.
Good luck! You have a lot of work ahead of you to get this thing done.
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Post by JimmyLemke on Mar 10, 2006 11:44:35 GMT -6
It was brought up by either myself or Tom Dunne that we should get together and get a meeting A.S.A.P. Brett shot it down, mainly because we need to focus on the tournament right now.
But what about after the tournament? Some weekend night in April, maybe a lunch or something during the day, we can get as many of us who will be there next year together and lay out what we want to change and improve upon next year.
Not to be early or anything, but if we could get the ball rolling, that would be good.
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fan
Sophomore
Don't shoot so much Tone.
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Post by fan on Mar 10, 2006 17:59:57 GMT -6
i also wanted to reply on the wristbands or letting people in first. How do you regulate what is a "diehard"? Someone who has been to a years worth of games? two years? what if someone missed a game? then after a while people will come to all games to get these "front seats" then how do you choose who gets to be there? Then you're talking extra security, which apparently a lot of people dont like about the cell. to make sure that those people who belong in the front should be there. Having Security is fine. In fact, I think it is absolutely needed. The problem is and has been that the rules that security enforces change on a nightly basis. Exhibit A: one of the guards announces 40 minutes before a midseason game (to one side of the student section) that there will be a no tolerance policy on the f-word that evening. Anyone saying it will be kicked out. As we all know, not even half our fans get there that early. As you can imagine, someone who didn't hear the new rule was kicked out with no warning. Other examples I have referred to in previous posts such as the megaphone, sign, and carpet rules. I like some security guards. Namely the ones that address actual problems in the section rather than making up a new rule for the night and claiming it to be a Horizon League rule. Two that come to mind are the old guy with gray mustache and turqoise suit coat and the tall black guy with dreads who looks a bit like Snoop Dogg The reasoning for the wristbands/passes are two-fold. 1. Having a visible marking saying where you belong for security to enforce easier than asking 1/2 drunk kids for their ticket. 2. People behind them know that they are the "diehards." As for how to distribute these passes, I think we have a wonderful organization in place that could foster such a process (the SBGC). If you don't think that is a fair method (which I'd question as membership is open to all, their sole purpose is to support sports, and they were the ones who arguably started the fandemonium), then some sort of points system where one gets their card punched or marked for attending that game could be put in place one year and then people with higher totals would get a shot at being a "diehard". They do this exact same thing for other free events like the NFL Draft. People who stay through the 2nd day of the Draft get in first the following year. It shouldn't be hard to police in either instance as all you have to do is let them in earlier. If they have a visible signal that they belong in the front, and the system is known by the students then people will grow accustomed to it in a hurry. i once agreed with all of you, but its not feasible, and it doesnt creat a good atmosphere for those who want a good experience at the games. we all pay part of our tuition for the tickets and are entitled to sit/stand where ever we want. The atmosphere is a huge downer at some games, especially televised games. If it wasn't, then we wouldn't be talking about this. I want a good experience for all. I'm worried that we aren't rewarding those who come to every game, get there early, and lose their seat to some drunk schmuck at his first game cause they went to the bathroom. Just get there early if you want to be in front, i did it all the time when i used to be in the student section. This is an entirely different beast than you in your hayday or anyone at UWM has ever dealt with. Klotsche had plenty of area for our crew and beginning US Cell wasn't as popular of a venue. We had a roaming lane then.
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Post by milwsport on Mar 10, 2006 20:46:55 GMT -6
I think you're missing a few points here. Unless there is some reason to reserve the front row for certain people, it's going to be resented. Simply saying you come to all the games is NOT enough of a reason.
Second, I don't like the F bomb cheers either but for some people that's what fun for them. Yes they did that F U Butler cheer way too often but those same folks were also cheering ""Defense" clapping to the school song, yelling at UWM at the top of lungs etc. at other times.
If getting that kind of noise out of that section means tolerating a few cheers I'd rather not hear, then I'll tolerate those cheers. On Tuesday night I mentioned to several older fans that I wasn't thrilled with the F bomb cheers and they're response was basically, "They're college kids having fun." No one seemed especially concerned over upset over it. Some thought it was perfectly okay.
I'm sure others were upset like I was but my point is that these things are NOT really turning off people to the extent that you might think they are.
Again the answer is to F bomb cheers is to do something different in an organized manner when they start. Telling people to shut up just makes them mad and more determined.
I agree with you on the drunks. I've seen some who can hardly stand. they shouldn't be let on the bus or into the building.
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mwu
Sophomore
I am U-Dub U-M
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Post by mwu on Mar 10, 2006 21:40:44 GMT -6
i really dont care what kind of cheers we do, the louder the better. people always talk of being embaressed on national tv. i've rewatched the game twice and couldn't hear fvck you butler anywhere. espn knows what college kids are like, as they to schools far worse than ours chant-wise, the feed is time delayed and they can edit out alot on the fly. hell, i went to countless badger football/hockey games as a youngster and i have no recollection of vulgaritys that are plentiful at uw events.
i think we all agree on the drunkards, if you cant stand you A) need to go home B) worship the porcolin(sp) god and get that stuff outa you. we cant have a cheering section if the words out of your mouth are a slurred mess.
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Post by formerseasonticketholder on Mar 10, 2006 21:50:55 GMT -6
i agree. there is no need to sing along to the national anthem. I don't think we should ever discourage singing along with the national anthem. Hooting, hollering and other foolishness during the national anthem has been covered on this board before - uwmfreak.proboards5.com/index.cgi?board=Section&action=display&n=1&thread=506 - and I think we all agree it's out of place, but I think singing along with the national anthem should always be encouraged. After all, it is the national anthem.
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fan
Sophomore
Don't shoot so much Tone.
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Post by fan on Mar 10, 2006 22:37:41 GMT -6
I think you're missing a few points here. Unless there is some reason to reserve the front row for certain people, it's going to be resented. Simply saying you come to all the games is NOT enough of a reason. Exactly. It hasn't been enough. The wristband/pass will say it is and if they want one they have access to one. Second, I don't like the F bomb cheers either but for some people that's what fun for them. Yes they did that F U Butler cheer way too often but those same folks were also cheering ""Defense" clapping to the school song, yelling at UWM at the top of lungs etc. at other times. I agree with this as well. I don't care for the F-U chants one bit, but I know many students think the fact that they can swear at a basketball game is the coolest thing since sliced bread. Even if I don't agree with them chanting this I don't think we need to say an angry shut up. A shhhh, new cheer, or just not continuing with their cheer will suffice. Once they have been to enough games, they'll understand proper conduct and given our success and freshman showing this year, I think our student section will be outrageously large next year for almost every game. I had a class mate who hadn't been to a game this year tell me how great it was that F-U Butler could be heard on ESPN. If thats what gets him to the game then let him do it. He' ll realize eventually that its childish and he'll be there for other wars down the line. I agree with you on the drunks. I've seen some who can hardly stand. they shouldn't be let on the bus or into the building. I can't say all drunks are bad because I'd be criticizing my earlier years far too much. There is definately a drunk within reason and those are what this section was built on.
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Post by Ron Mexico on Mar 12, 2006 16:19:07 GMT -6
The problem is the people who ONLY come for the big games. They have no idea how to act, since this is often their first game they've been to in the student section all year. Stuff would be a lot easier to organize if most people actually showed up to regular season games. Size has nothing to do with this, bigger schools like Duke can coordinate things just fine. It's because the same people are at the student section for pretty much all the games. There's not a bunch of bandwagon hoppers who have no idea what to do at a game. We need a large enough core group that is committed to UWM basketball 12 months a year, not a (relatively) small group of devoted fans with a bunch of people who couldn't even tell you the name of our head coach. That's what our student section is for too many of the important games.
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Post by jdrew767 on Dec 24, 2006 11:13:10 GMT -6
need more original chants
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