The thrill of the live sporting event is something that the stay at home fans, can’t truly grasp, but it is the thing that keeps me shelling out the coin for those primo seats.
However, it wasn’t until I was heading to the Confederations Cup match in South Africa with a friend who had never attended a sporting event that I realized what it was that made me love the live experience so much.
As we passed through the ticket collectors and the handsy security guards–I am not complaining, it was a delight–I began to articulate to my virgin friend the “amazingness” she was about to behold.
I explained that there is a moment, every time I go, wherever I go, that is worth the price of admission. And as we walked through the tunnel toward the playing field, I declared that this was the moment.
The crowd noise level increases, as you get deeper into the stadium as the darkness of the tunnel gives way to the bright lights of the field. It is always larger than it looks on television and the grass is always greener. The moment, my moment, which I love is that final step into the stadium when the crowd, the field and all the glory of the stadium lies at your feet. It is refreshing and the enormity of the place will take your breath away.
At that point, she understood what I was talking about.
The rest of the event is just icing on the cake. Now, some people are infatuated with the icing, but I will take the cake any day. However, when the icing is good the cake is great and here is what I consider to be the icing at live sporting events.
The Sights at the Stadium
I love seeing the excitement on the faces of people, kids to adults, about what they are about to see. There is a hope that their team will be triumphant due to the fact that they were in attendance, as if they were their team’s lucky charm.
Another sight that must be witnessed live is when 90,000 people accomplish the wave. It is an amazing sight to see it crawl around the stadium as sections stand to their feat and cheer with reckless abandon, but don’t miss watching the people around you who sit with anticipation for their chance to participate. The dumbest thing often brings the greatest enjoyment and there is no better way to describe the wave.
The final sight that deserves mentioning is the wide-angle view you are given the opportunity to see. Whereas, on the television screen you are subjected to what a producer deems necessary to see, at the game you are the producer and able to tell your eyes what you want to spend your time focused on.
The Sounds at the Stadium
Rivaling the sights of the stadium are the sounds heard throughout the building starting with the outside vendors shouting, “COLD BEER!” There is just something about that melodious sound that says: You’re home.
The game noise is gripping as you don’t just see the coach barking at his players, but you hear what he is yelling. You hear what the players are saying to each other, the refs and to himself or herself.
And then you hear the sound of astonishment as a player does something so remarkable that it leaves the whole crowd in awe and only able to produce a reverent, “Ahh.”
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The final experience that completes the live game drama is the stranger high five. It is when the people sitting around you, who have joined in with your efforts to solidify a victory for the team, jump to their feet after an amazing play and you find yourself sharing high fives with the whole section. Never would you do such a thing in any other place than in the safety of stadium. Live sporting events bring people together … unless the bastards are cheering for the enemy.
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J.David has never won an award for his writing, but he is a former collegiate athlete for a small college where everyone makes the team. Currently, he is a grad student at the University of Southern California studying the archaic form called, Print Journalism. J.David is so demented; he once dedicated the Ugly Kid Joe’s song “I hate everything about you!” to a girl in college.
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