So Loud!!!

On Sunday I went for the first time, to the new Yankee Stadium and had a great time with family and friends at the event. In my previous post I mentioned a bunch of personal observations about the experience but there was one thing I wanted to spend a bit more time on, as I thought it deserved a post of its own so here goes…

IT WAS LOUD AT THE STADIUM!!!

I’m not talking about a “hey you kids get off of my lawn” kind of situation here. It was loud. Not the fans. They were normal everyday fans. But the stadium itself was loud – the announcements over the P.A. system were loud. The organ music was loud. The rock and rap music between innings was loud.

HOW LOUD WAS IT YOU ASK?

Loud enough for me to have to ask you to repeat that question or any other thing you said to me during the game. . Normal conversation was impossible. I was looking forward to talking Yankee baseball with my son with some relatives, with my friend JHop. , but it wasn’t normal conversation, it was a shouting match. If you were not right next to a person it was impossible to converse. Trying to talk with 2 people at once was a mighty difficult feat.

SO WHY DO THE YANKEES DO IT?

It is not just the Yankees, it is sports teams all over now it seems. I have read a lot of articles and blogs talking about things being too loud in stadiums and arenas in all sports. It seems they feel the need to entertain or try to entertain during each second of your stadium or ballpark experience. Heavens forbid you attempt to be entertained by the game itself. I mean Sunday’s Yankee win was entertaining. It had good pitching, some good fielding, a nice Yankee rally in the 4th inning, highlighted by a triple, the most exciting play in baseball. We even had a Derek Jeter injury to discuss along with the strange moment when we found out Francisco Cervelli was the extra back up infielder. We couldn’t discuss it though because IT WAS TOO LOUD!

Look, I’m not asking for a lot here. I like the organ music at the ballpark. I like the in between innings music over the loudspeakers. I especially liked the TVs all around the stadium where you could see replays and such. All that stuff adds to the excitement of the game and the experience. I don’t want to get rid of that stuff. I just want them to turn the volume dial down from 11 to about 6 or 7, that’s all.

Can you hear me…anyone…can you hear what I’m saying?

Well, at least no one tried to do the wave…