The night of Gibson's HR in the eighth off Gossage which essentially clinched the Series for Detroit I was across the street from the stadium in a bar aptly called "The Press Box". The sound was so deafening that the noise came through the walls of the bar. The scene outside was chaos and excitement with all fans high fiving everyone else. Pretty fun until the bad stuff started ( after my wife and I had left the area ).
This same situation plagues Tennessee. The closest seats to the action go to the highest donor levels. That usually equates to older fans.
I have never equated the experience at the Swamp to the crowd experience at Michigan because it was no comparison......the Gator fans have always been exceedingly loud and rowdy by comparison. However......with the successes of recent years has come some complacency brought on by high expectations and sometimes the crowd is quick to be disappointed and I think some of that is what ails the Michigan fans.....at least in past season it did. That said......I'll bet if Hoke can resurrect the Wolverines with some great wins that place will be rocking and the same goes for Tenn and Dooley. There shouldn't be a lick of complacency at either venue. The "Blue Bloods" at Michigan Stadium however will always keep the place somewhat muted in comparison to an SEC venue.
Nobody has mentioned architecture... The "old" Michigan stadium was just a 100,000 seat shallow bowl with nowhere for the noise to go but up. Should be lots louder with the new setup.
I've been in there once or twice when it was crazy loud.....I've also been in there once or twice when it was more quiet than a cemetery....I much preferred the cemetery settings.....
Stu Good point about stadium architecture. At Rockne's direction N.D.'s stadium was patterned after Michigan's. Neither allows for optimum crowd noise acoustically.
" N.D.'s stadium was patterned after Michigan's. Neither allows for optimum crowd noise acoustically." Been to both.....agreed.[/quote]