Vuvuzelas – Just For Fun

I’m sure if I could pronounce Vuvuzela.. it would be a fun word to say. I know, I know, this is a soccer fans term. I’m not a fan of soccer. I realize soccer or football is one of the most popular sports around the world but guess what… I live in the United States and my favorite sport is baseball! Call me what you want, it doesn’t matter to me and I just don’t enjoy soccer. Like basketball, short chubby kids who can’t run just don’t enjoy it.

So back to the Vuvuzelas. To briefly revisit the infamous days from 2009 at Coca Cola Park we can remember when the Noise Nation was best known for the OINK sign and Horns (as we called them). With the return of World Cup I was channel surfing and came across a soccer game. Surprised? I wasn’t. What did surprise me was the noise coming from the fans. Horns! Ha! Love horns!

I’ve received many emails since this phenomenom has been getting media attention again and it looks like soccer officials are toying with the idea of banning these horns.. or vuvzelas from the inside of soccer stadiums. I have to say it did sound like a bee hive over the telecast and someone shared with me that television producers have been trying to filter out, and minimize, the crowd noise from broadcasts.

I’ve seen notes about opposing players complaining about not being able to sleep, not being able to hear signals and one team accusing the horns of affecting their play. Very interesting. Crowd noise impacting the play of the opposing team. Hmm. Like the fans actually helped the home team win. Very interesting.

I actually received a photo via email.. at least one company out there realized the marketing opportunity of a Vuvuzela. (If anyone knows the proper pronunciation of that I would love to know)

Coca Cola Sponsors Vuvuzelas - Photo anonymously emailed to me.

Yeah, I know there are folks out there who find these annoying. Heck, I admit we went a little overboard last season. But if you go to a ballgame and something good happens do you sit quietly and contemplate writing a thank you note to Michael Taylor for completing the first cycle in team history? Do you keep stadium music to a reasonable level so that each and every person in the stadium would not consider it too loud? Can you imagine a game where no one cheers for fear of being looked upon in a bad way?

Believe it or not, I like a noisy and excited crowd. It adds excitement and energy to the event and it draws people back. How many people do you know that would sing kareoke by themselves in front of a large group of people? (sober). Now how many people would consider singing kareoke if there was a group of 10 friends on stage already singing? It’s a lot easier to get excited and cheer on your team if everyone is doing it. I really feel that every fan wants to cheer loudly but most are intimidated and afraid of peer pressure and that someone may be offended by their actions.

Last summer I wondered what 10,000 horns all blowing at the same time would sound like.. now I know. It sounds like an angry bee hive. Perhaps if our team was the IronBees it would be different. It looks like our ‘minor issue’ from last season is finding the world stage. I never realized we were so progressive…

For now, we will just have fun.

OINK!