Over-Exuberant Fan Behavior

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Ogee Ogilthorpe

Ogee Ogilthorpe

Over Macho Grande?
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At what point does your passion and excitement for the home team have an adverse impact on your fellow fans?

I know we've all sat near "that fan" who is over the top and really starts to ruin the fan experience for anyone sitting near them; loud, screaming, dancing, or whatever else (or maybe this guy is YOU!). At some point, a line is crossed from what one thinks is their right as a fan who paid for their seats to someone who ruins it for everyone else.

So just where is that line in your opinion?

Secondarily, just out of curiosity, if you've had or you have season tickets very close to this kind of person, have you ever done anything about it, talked to your season ticket rep, etc?
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
At what point does your passion and excitement for the home team have an adverse impact on your fellow fans?

I know we've all sat near "that fan" who is over the top and really starts to ruin the fan experience for anyone sitting near them; loud, screaming, dancing, or whatever else (or maybe this guy is YOU!). At some point, a line is crossed from what one thinks is their right as a fan who paid for their seats to someone who ruins it for everyone else.

So just where is that line in your opinion?

Secondarily, just out of curiosity, if you've had or you have season tickets very close to this kind of person, have you ever done anything about it, talked to your season ticket rep, etc?
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Almost every Iowa fan that has sat in my section fits the "that fan" description.
 

Whatever is Veritas' line, that's my line.
J/K ;)

I was regrettably probably that guy on some away trips in my college years -- but only in Madison & St. Cloud. Most memorably was a Gopher hockey at SCSU game. Not proud of my decorum that night. Went with a girlfriend I had just started dating with some of her friends. I'm honestly a little surprised we continued dating after that game.
 

Nokomis said:
Whatever is Veritas' line, that's my line.
J/K ;)

I was regrettably probably that guy on some away trips in my college years -- but only in Madison & St. Cloud. Most memorably was a Gopher hockey at SCSU game. Not proud of my decorum that night. Went with a girlfriend I had just started dating with some of her friends. I'm honestly a little surprised we continued dating after that game.
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She dug your passion.
 

Nokomis said:
Whatever is Veritas' line, that's my line.
J/K ;)

I was regrettably probably that guy on some away trips in my college years -- but only in Madison & St. Cloud. Most memorably was a Gopher hockey at SCSU game. Not proud of my decorum that night. Went with a girlfriend I had just started dating with some of her friends. I'm honestly a little surprised we continued dating after that game.
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Hey, you let her know early what she was in for. After that, it's on her, right?!

Actually, a one-game type thing is one thing, having season tickets next to that kind of person is a whole other deal altogether. I guess I was gearing more towards that than just a one game outlier. But the point still stands for some aspects.

This is another reason I almost never ever sell my seats that I can't use, and am a little particular about who I give them to. At least one of my season ticket teams made it pretty clear early on that you are responsible for those seats and all who sit in them and I'm not going to let some ass-clown fan sit in my seats and harass and offend the people that sit near me, whether I know them very well or not. Not cool!
 



Ogee Oglethorpe said:
Hey, you let her know early what she was in for. After that, it's on her, right?!

Actually, a one-game type thing is one thing, having season tickets next to that kind of person is a whole other deal altogether. I guess I was gearing more towards that than just a one game outlier. But the point still stands for some aspects.

This is another reason I almost never ever sell my seats that I can't use, and am a little particular about who I give them to. At least one of my season ticket teams made it pretty clear early on that you are responsible for those seats and all who sit in them and I'm not going to let some ass-clown fan sit in my seats and harass and offend the people that sit near me, whether I know them very well or not. Not cool!
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I guess I've never really encountered anyone that was constantly over the top. My only real pet peeve is when people cross the row or go up the aisle during play. Just wait for the whistle. I've taught my kids to crouch down if you get caught halfway down the stairs when play resumes.

My wife & I had basketball season tickets briefly after we got married. This guy in front of us would bring his baby and stow it under the seat like you would a coat. Not annoying but certainly peculiar. I was very careful not to spill my Coke on it, or worse nacho cheese.
 

For me, it's the fans who spend the entire game yelling at the refs. They almost never applaud a good play or recognize players for good effort. Just scream at the refs and complain about every call. it gets so freakin' old.

As someone who covers HS sports for a small-market radio station, some of the worst parents are at B-squad games. I mean, this is a developmental level to work on skills - and Mom or Dad spends the entire game just screaming "over the back" or "3 seconds" at the refs. There are days I just have to force myself to not stand up and tell these yahoos to shut the bleep up.
 





When I chose my seats at Target Field, I took advantage of the opportunity to sit in the seats before I chose them. Existing season ticket holders got to do that. Because of how the railings were built, if you were in row one, the railing blocked your view if you were below 5 foot 10. I’m not, but people I invite might be.
The ticket holder in front of me put all of his tickets on the secondary market. And they looked great in row one. But this meant EVERY game, we had to deal etiquette issues anew, like, if you can’t see, you don’t get to sit on the back of your chair. Or stand for a whole baseball game, or put your feet on the railing blocking the view of the person behind you. People were usually understanding when you asked nicely, but it was EVERY game.
Met the ticket holder once, five years into it, and he was incensed that the Twins had sent him a notice that complaints had been raised about the behavior of his guests. It wasn’t me who turned him in, but I told him that we’ve formed a nice group here of season ticket holders, and he was giving us a general admission experience every game.
 

saintpaulguy said:
When I chose my seats at Target Field, I took advantage of the opportunity to sit in the seats before I chose them. Existing season ticket holders got to do that. Because of how the railings were built, if you were in row one, the railing blocked your view if you were below 5 foot 10. I’m not, but people I invite might be.
The ticket holder in front of me put all of his tickets on the secondary market. And they looked great in row one. But this meant EVERY game, we had to deal etiquette issues anew, like, if you can’t see, you don’t get to sit on the back of your chair. Or stand for a whole baseball game, or put your feet on the railing blocking the view of the person behind you. People were usually understanding when you asked nicely, but it was EVERY game.
Met the ticket holder once, five years into it, and he was incensed that the Twins had sent him a notice that complaints had been raised about the behavior of his guests. It wasn’t me who turned him in, but I told him that we’ve formed a nice group here of season ticket holders, and he was giving us a general admission experience every game.
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You're a rat! I knew it!

I'm kidding. I don't have any issues with my AZ Cardinals tickets; I sit front row, club level, on the aisle, I literally don't have to deal with hardly any bullshit, and club level there is pretty civilized folks.

My Vegas Golden Knights tickets I'm generally okay; older couple have the 4 seats behind me, and they have some peccadillos but they're super nice, HOWEVER, they sometimes bring someone (a daughter I presume) that is a screamer like nothing I've ever heard. It's off the charts. I deal with it, although I've talked to my season ticket guy about it.

Interesting note about the farming out seats on the secondary market like you mentioned. A lot of VGK fans were upset the first year with so many visiting fans in the arena all season. Never bothered me, good grief, Vegas is a destination city, we're going to get that a lot, and they bring all their money and leave it in the casinos. Totally fine with that. But enough people bitched, and sure there were a lot of people that bought them as an investment to just sell them, make money, etc. Sucks, but whatever.

Anyway, before the second season, they actually decided that if you had a home/billing address that was not in southern Nevada, and you sold more than half of your seats, they pulled your season tickets, no warning, no nothing. Holy shit! Rankled a few people for sure, but I guess they got their point across. I guess with the electronic tickets and how they are transferred and sold, it wasn't terribly hard to see how was basically scalping their tickets. Sounded pretty damn brutal though, Yikes!!!
 

Ok, here's one. A former boss of mine had really good season Gopher basketball tickets -- center court, couple rows up, among all the big time donors. These old ladies cheering were super annoying. They had kiddy nicknames for all the players and would cheer like you would encourage a toddler learning to walk. "Come on, Benny. You can do it. Good try, Benny!" Constantly for the whole game. I wanted to tear to ears off. Maybe that's why he let us use his tickets so often.
 



Nokomis said:
Ok, here's one. A former boss of mine had really good season Gopher basketball tickets -- center court, couple rows up, among all the big time donors. These old ladies cheering were super annoying. They had kiddy nicknames for all the players and would cheer like you would encourage a toddler learning to walk. "Come on, Benny. You can do it. Good try, Benny!" Constantly for the whole game. I wanted to tear to ears off. Maybe that's why he let us use his tickets so often.
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You made me think of an incident where I was the "bad fan" several years ago. Co-worker's parents had season tickets to "U" woman's basketball and this is when things were really cooking-Whalen and McCarville era. Whalen had graduated, but McCarville was a senior and in the game she laid out the opposing point guard with a pick in the back court as Shannon Schonrock was bringing the ball up-I mean a real de-cleter, flying in the air sort of pick. I rise out of my chair and bellow out a loud "Yeah!" with a fist pump; opposing point guard remains on the ground for a few minutes clearing the cobwebs. Many disapproving looks directed my way, as the surrounding Gophers fans expressed their concern for her. First and last time that I was invited to join them for a game :).
 

coolhandgopher said:
You made me think of an incident where I was the "bad fan" several years ago. Co-worker's parents had season tickets to "U" woman's basketball and this is when things were really cooking-Whalen and McCarville era. Whalen had graduated, but McCarville was a senior and in the game she laid out the opposing point guard with a pick in the back court as Shannon Schonrock was bringing the ball up-I mean a real de-cleter, flying in the air sort of pick. I rise out of my chair and bellow out a loud "Yeah!" with a fist pump; opposing point guard remains on the ground for a few minutes clearing the cobwebs. Many disapproving looks directed my way, as the surrounding Gophers fans expressed their concern for her. First and last time that I was invited to join them for a game :).
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You mean the playoff game against Virginia? I was there too! Felt like the whole arena got the wind knocked out of it. And then McCarville just stares her down. Classic!

 

Nokomis said:
You mean the playoff game against Virginia? I was there too! Felt like the whole arena got the wind knocked out of it. And then McCarville just stares her down. Classic!

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No, this was non-conference against like UW-Green Bay or some team like that.
 

We had 4-8 Season tickets at the Dome. When they ran deals we'd buy 4-8 more. When the Badgers were here we got 2 more for friends. Under the goalposts. Problem was that's where the Badger fans were. A whole lot of loud and mean. Morning game but they'd still been drinking all day.

Friends left in the 3rd Quarter. After she, who's 5'4 and about 12lbs, was told to shut-up if she "wanted to walk out of here in one piece".

Kinda liked when they didn't sell beer at TCF. 😇
 
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Iceland12 said:
We had 4-8 Season tickets at the Dome. When they ran deals we'd buy 4-8 more. When the Badgers were here we got 2 more for friends. Under the goalposts. Problem was that's where the Badger fans were. A whole lot of load and mean. Morning game but they'd still been drinking all day.

. 😇
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You mean they'd been drinking all week.
 

My brother, who has since passed away, loved to go to North Star playoff games out at the Met. At one particular game he got a beer, start yelling like crazy and soon he spilled some of the beer on the woman sitting in front of him. He apologized profusely and she retorted with, "I can handle the beer being spilled on me, but when you're yelling the spit is REALLY hard to take".
 


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