NFL (finally) allows teams to encourage fan noise at stadiums

I know this is old news but I thought it should be documented here. The NFL has finally rescinded a rule that prevented teams from using noise prompts on video scoreboards and electronic signage.

Here's an article from NOLA.com that sums up the situation:

...this season at the Superdome, thanks to a rule change approved in March by the NFL competition committee, the Saints will have more leeway to encourage fans to let loose with as much noise as they can produce.

Under a rule that took effect in 1989, a team was not allowed to use video boards to show anything that would promote more crowd noise. Under the previous rule on club-controlled sound, "The use of noise meters or such messages as 'Noise!, ' 'Let's hear it!, ' 'Raise the Roof, ' 'Let's go Crazy, ' 'Pump it up, ' '12th Man' are prohibited at any time during the game. These examples are not limited to the foregoing, but also would include similar messages that encourage crowds to make random noise in order to disrupt the opposition."

...those restrictions no longer will apply until the play clock reaches 15 seconds.

Under the new rules, until the play clock hits that point, the Saints will be allowed to show any messages that aren't vulgar or derogatory on the video boards to encourage noise from the fans.

The Saints haven't offered specifics about what the team might do to get the fans' cheers in the Vikings' ears.

"We will certainly do everything within the rules to encourage fan participation and enjoyment of the game, " Saints vice president of communications Greg Bensel said in an e-mail.

The Atlanta Falcons have revealed a few of their ideas on how to promote fan noise.

Before key plays, the Falcons plan to show a decibel meter to encourage fans to push the indicator as high as possible.

There are restrictions under the new rules. For example, a team can't pump in noise to disrupt the visitors.

Under the new rules, "Any noise that is under club control must cease when the play clock is running, and the visiting team is in possession of the ball, or after the ball is kicked by either team on a kickoff. As an example, if the play clock is not running, a drumbeat, accompanied by "Defense" or some other message on the video board, may be played, but the drumbeat and any other audio must stop when the play clock starts while the visiting team is on offense."

Also under the new rules, videos of fans, cheerleaders and home-team players must stop when the play clock hits 15 seconds. Public-address announcements must stop when the huddle breaks or when the visiting team is ready to snap the ball in a no-huddle offense.

Also prohibited are videos of the visiting team's huddle, conferences in the visitors' bench area and the quarterback at the line of scrimmage.

The new noise policy stems from the NFL's effort to make the game more exciting for fans at the stadiums.

Commissioner Roger Goodell spoke at the league's annual meeting in March about how some fans might find it more comfortable to stay home and watch a game on television.

And here are the old rules, which I found on the Seattle Times web site from 2006. Even the wave was prohibited! (I blogged about the issue back about this time in 2006 as well.)

NYT: "To Pack a Stadium, Provide Video Better Than TV"

Derek Dawley tweeted about this article in the New York Times about video strategies at the new Meadowlands Stadium. Some highlights:

How do you keep football fans as regular visitors to stadiums when the television coverage of every play is so good?

For the Giants and the Jets, the answer, perhaps surprisingly, is more and better video than people can get at home. This season, the New Meadowlands Stadium will offer fans free smart-phone applications that they can glance at to see video replays, updated statistics and live video from other games — and that will work only inside a stadium.

Over the next few years, stadium officials say, the applications will provide fans with statistics on the speed of players and the ball, and fantasy games that will allow them to pick players and compete against other fans.

A real-life game no longer seems to be enough.

In recent years, television coverage of the National Football League has become so rich and detailed that teams and stadiums have no choice but to respond with their own technology plays. Last spring the league’s commissioner, Roger Goodell, said the experience for fans in stadiums needed to be elevated to compete with television broadcasts, to keep fans engaged — and to keep them buying tickets — in a challenging economic climate.

To do that, stadium officials here have taken steps few other N.F.L. stadiums have. About $100 million has been spent on the stadium’s technology, and a former television production executive was hired to oversee the fan experience to offer more than fans can get sitting at home on their couches in front of their high-definition television sets.

...It is unclear how the smart-phone applications will change the atmosphere of games. Fans praised Cowboys Stadium, which opened in Arlington, Tex., last year, for its twin video boards that are suspended over the field and stretch nearly from one 20-yard line to the other so that fans can watch the action live both on the field and on a big screen.

The four video screens at the New Meadowlands Stadium are smaller, but officials say the stadium’s innovations go further than at Cowboys Stadium or any other in the country.

...Security officials will have special bracelets that parents can have placed on their children. In the event that a child is lost, the stadium’s video security system can immediately locate the child on a television screen.

“Teams shouldn’t have an imbalance in the television experience and the stadium experience,” said Vince Gennaro, who is a marketing consultant to several sports teams and teaches sports management at Columbia University’s School of Continuing Education. “Once you raise the bar on one, you have to raise the bar on the other. I think it’s really important now that high definition and DirecTV have innovated, that teams compete essentially with themselves and bring that experience to the seat.”

Read the entire article...