All fans love to have an advantage when it comes to their team. Whether it’s traditions that their team holds, going to the games or barstool sports talk, fans want something so that they can get behind with their team. The fact that they can get pumped up for their team yet write off their opponent is an integral and essential component of any sports fan. At the University of South Carolina, we are one of the best at creating a unique and exhilarating atmosphere, one that most fans want to go enjoy.
But there are a couple of things that we do that annoy me.
During kickoffs at football games, no matter the reason, we wave our rally towels to the sound of "Sandstorm" blasting through Williams-Brice.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all for an atmosphere that breeds fan hype and gets the team pumped up; however, we as Gamecock fans shouldn’t annoy the other team’s players and fans, and when we play "Sandstorm" after every kickoff, it starts to get stale for teams in the fight. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not as bad as Tennessee playing "Rocky Top" after anything happens (seriously, no need to chant it after a one yard gain), but it still runs dry after the 20th time of yelling and waving the towel in a single game. So dry that, on one Saturday evening against Georgia in 2014, hundreds of fans decided they didn’t need their towels anymore and lobbed them onto the field instead of the usual booing. This caused a delay in the game and a stern warning over the PA, something that caused a negative change in an already tense atmosphere.
But football games aren't the only sporting events where this happens.
During basketball, the student section heckles the opposing team’s players, coaches and fans with usually harmless yet humorous jeers (“Marshall Henderson wears crocs,” for example), but then the occasional spiteful and unnecessary comment slips, sending the security to come and escort the perpetrator out. Nobody wants to sit through that, whether the victim is on the court or in the stands, and it’s a buzzkill to see people escorted from their seats.
And now at soccer events, they will be handing out vuvuzelas to season ticket holders. There is a reason why they have been banned at almost every major soccer event — World Cup, Euro Championships and Champions League games, among others — after disturbing the 2010 World Cup experience: Nobody wants to hear a constant barrage of noteless horns blaring in their ears. Even watching on TV, it was irritating enough to mute the game. Now the vuvus will make their way into Stone Stadium, and it’s only a matter of time before almost everyone will be complaining.
We as fans want to cheer for our team and make them appear better than anyone else. I understand that. However, we can do better at the University of South Carolina.
Let’s change up the kickoff routine on Saturdays. Instead of yelling at or talking trash to our opponent’s fans, thank them for traveling to Columbia. Please, could we get a ban on noisemakers and have just organic noise? Let’s show hospitality instead of annoying them.
We should want the opposing team to come back into Williams-Brice or Colonial Life Arena or Stone Stadium, not torture them to the point where they don’t want to come back. As Gamecocks, we should want to garner a good reputation, not one where every other fan finds us annoying.