Elliott’s Blog

1. The loudness meter on the Jumbotron. I got to a game really, really early once, and they played this clip when the stadium was empty. They had a REAL “dB meter” on the ceiling of the old Reynolds Coliseum at NC State University. It was a series of six or seven colored light bulbs. Whenyou got that last red one to light up, it really was loud! I hope they transferred this to the new arena that the Wolfpack uses.

2. The various races on the Jumbotron. I think we all realize that the race itself is fake (they must have 10 or 20 of these races to choose from), but that sorta doesn’t matter because the winner does not matter. You can take your ticket for that Dunkin’ Donuts “Cuppa Coffee” and get a free cup of coffee, even if it doesn’t win. How are they going to know? Check the UPC on those cards–they are ALL THE SAME.

3. Cheers from the Jumbotron. Some/many of the cheers that are led from the Jumbotron have crowd noise already built in–they pump extra crowd noise through the PA system to make it seem like there is more noise than there really is.

Everything else at The United Center is real, though.

Random, Somewhat Related Comments About Bulls Games

• I wish they would offer one or two Bulls games where they turn off all the extra audio/visual crap: No Jumbotron, no loud music, no stupid, contrived races during timeouts, no scrolling and flashing ads on the ring-scoreboard.  In my childhood, all basketball games were like this.  I went to a West Aurora basketball game on Friday, and it was like this.
• How about the occasional National Anthem where the featured singer is the crowd! (They have the words on the Jumbotron–good; everyone should know the words, but it is good to have a reminder.  But, guys, the last sentence of the National Anthem is a question, and should end in a question mark.)
• I’d like to see something sold for under $1–how about a 6-ounce Coke. I bet they’d sell a ton of these!