Deafening roars, emphatic cheering, and resounding music being played are things that are to be expected at any sporting event right? Not necessarily at Georgia State. Our games sound like a mix of different small conversations, clicks from people texting on their phones, and the occasional shoe squeak. For my interior built environment description, I chose the Georgia State Sports Arena. I figured that there is no better way to study the arena than during the intended use of hosting basketball games.
On Thursday February 18, after a long day of school, I attended the game against the Little Rock Trojans. For those who do not know the Trojans are the best team in our conference with a record of 23-3 compared to only a 13-11 record for our Panthers. My expectations for winning this game were not very high. To my surprise the panthers came out rolling going up by fourteen points early in the game. As I mentioned earlier the crowd activity was just not in it as much as you would expect to see from a winning side. If you ever watch a sporting event on TV, It is likely that you will hear an announcer say that the team is being energized by the crowd. I do not know if that actually happens or if it just a conspiracy to get people to yell at games but our team was certainly losing some energy. By the end of the half, our lead had been reduced to nine points.
Despite the lack of crowd participation, everybody else there was pretty awesome. The cheerleaders put the most effort out of anybody there. They had elaborate routines and produced events that gave potential for winning prizes. I even caught one of the shirts that they were throwing. The band was really good as well and apart from their music, some of the band members seemed to make the most noise simply as fans. During halftime they had a local wheelchair basketball league come on to the court and play for 5 minutes. This seemed to get more cheering than the real game. As halftime ended and the teams came back on to the court, the crowd went back to its old ways.
Very soon our big lead had somehow turned into a deficit. The funny thing about losing is that for some reason the crowd get more into the game. Now with every 3 point shot or block at the other end caused the crowd to go crazy. This new intensity, however, did not help our team over the hump as we ended up losing the game. Although the game was lost, the entire experience was very enjoyable. As soon as the game was over, there was a mass exodus of all the people attending the game. Seemingly indifferent to the result of the game, the crowd including myself rushed to leave and beat traffic