How can a better stadium environment affect the play of a sport
team?
team?
The Importance of a Stadium's Enviornment
When it comes to sports, it is not only the players or coaches who can be responsible for a team’s performance. Stadiums and Fields are a big contribution to the outcomes of a team’s season if someone was to look at the big picture. In most minds it is thoughts come to mind about how a stadium environment affects sports play. With this one could think about how fans bring support, but the fans need to be drawn in with a reason to show up which an appealing stadium could help. The actual field’s conditions will directly affect player who is participating on it. Then there are updates and improvements that would benefit stadiums and teams who play there. The environment in which a team plays in can affect how they play.
Sporting events bring in fans who want to see teams compete in sports. There are different types of fans, there are parents and friends who go to see someone who plays from little league to college and then there are the people who go to games because it is their favorite team which is typically around college and professional sports. In both these cases the fans go to support the team, they go because they want to see their team win. They try to contribute to the outcome by cheering for their teams and showing that they are there for support. With this contribution fans have been able to affect the outcomes of games. This can be proven when Mark Bowden says, “But in the NFL, around the time of Kosar’s disaster in Miami, crowd noise had become something more than emotional support. It had started messing with outcomes.” (Bowden, 2013, p.3). Kosar’s disaster was an occurrence during a football game that the linemen were unable to hear to the quarterback which messed up the play. Communication on a field is important, but it gets complicated when they can’t hear one another. Communication is understood to be impacted when John Alt a former NFL player says, “It took away a lot of your offense. You couldn’t audible the way you normally would. This proves that fans can be a big contribution to the outcomes of sport event. With fans the players receive support and are motivated to do their best.” (Bowden, 2013, p.4) Most professional players want to put on a good show for their fans. With fans most players feel like they have a reason to play. With better stadiums come better outcomes of games because of fans appearances. The support from the fans is brought by noise which is cheering for their team to do the best they can at what they are doing. This would mean whether the team is trying to score or if they are trying to prevent the other team from scoring. For football there are typically eleven men on the field for each team. Fans bring up the idea of the twelfth man, which summarizes that fans are a part of the game. A stadium that really uses their fans to their advantage is the CenturyLink Field; this is the home of the NFL Seattle, Seahawks and Seattle Sounders FC of Major League Soccer. This stadium was created with a certain structure that the fans noise is more powerful and loud. The noise the fans make can be real substantial and I know this when Lindbom says, “On September 15, 2013, during a game against the San Francisco 49ers, the fans broke the Guinness World Record for loudest crowd roar at an outdoor stadium with 136.6 decibels” (Lindbolm, 2013). This is something the Seahawks use to their advantage. With a better stadium comes more fans, which will affect the game because of the fans’ support.
Another way sports teams are affected during a game is the condition of the field. This is not typically looked at as a problem for most professional teams because they have the money to pay for a good stadium and keep it managed well. Although there are some professional teams that do not have the same benefits like the Oakland Raiders who have practice fields that are not kept up to good standards. The Oakland Raiders practice fields suffer from being uneven and from goose droppings, “Still, the depths of the struggle might not have truly hit McKenzie until several months after his hiring, when he changed into his workout gear and headed to the back of the team's Alameda training facility, where his long jog around the practice fields was spoiled by wildly uneven footing and goose droppings” (Trotter, 2013. P.2). This caused professional football players to miss games which could affect how a team plays during the duration of that injured player. There are certain players that play a key part in a team’s success and without those players, it could turn a team for the worst. With these conditions, the practice of the Oakland Raiders will be affected and can acquire possible injuries and this can be proven when Reggie McKenzie (General Manager of the Raiders) says,
“In the previous two seasons alone, running backs Darren McFadden and Marcel Reese, wide outs Jacoby Ford and Denarius Moore, defensive tackles Richard Seymour and Tommy Kelly and linebacker Rolando McClain had been hobbled by or missed significant time because of lower body injuries” (Trotter, 2013,p.2).
This quote shows how injuries can be field induced and will impact a team. These injuries could have been prevented if the fields were in better condition. With these injuries occurring to some of their best players, the team would have to use their backups who weren’t as good and could have affected whether the team won or not. A field with poor conditions not only affects players and causes injuries because these factors lead to the play of teams not being up to par and will cause losses. Losses will affect the teams overall season and that overall season will determine whether or not the team will qualify for playoffs to take the league title. Like Jim Trotter says,
“Instead, the work (grounds keeping) was outsourced to a local company—astounding considering that the difference between the playoffs and a pink slip could easily come down to a turned ankle, a jammed toe, a tweaked knee or a pulled hamstring” (Trotter, 2013,p.2).
This is said to General Manager Reggie McKenzie who would have to deal with the either have to deal with the practice fields the way they were or use money to get the field held to a satisfying point. He is trying to say that either the team will have to deal with terrible field conditions and have to put up with the consequences of injured player. Also that the team is going to have to make an investment into the practice field because the practice fields affect the francize. Repairing the field would cost a good amount of money, but with better conditions come better chances of being one of the best in the league which could apply to other sports as well. Field conditions will affect how a team plays; this is why stadiums should try to be upheld to their best possibility.
Professional stadiums have begun to advance and local stadiums have also begun to improve, but in some cases stadiums are just upheld to poor standards. The owners of the fields don’t do much to benefit the teams that play their but just try to bring in money. This had to do with my Capstone project which has to do with the up keeping of Dillon Stadium. This is a stadium where it is held to low standards even though there are many sports teams and high schools that play there. The Hartford Parks Department hasn’t put much effort into improving the field because they know they can make money off of the high schools that play there. They are planning to put money toward getting turf, which is a great investment so they would have to save a lot of money to get a turf that will last and look good for all the teams and sports who play there. My project is to try and get the stadium updated because it is just a run-down place right now, but has potential to be a great stadium. Updates of Stadiums are along the lines of putting in turf, better stadium lights, advanced scoreboard, and the stands for the audience being improved. These improvements could affect how a team plays because it could bring in more fans with support and player may will feel better playing in a stadium that they are proud to be playing there. Fans should have a go to more games to support their favorite teams but they should be encouraged not only by the team but also by the stadium and this is proven when Jerry Jones says, “He likes to point out that just 7% of National Football League fans have ever set foot in an NFL stadium, and he figures that the way to push that percentage higher is to make the stadium experience better than what you get at home.” (Lacayo, 2009,p.2) Teams need to attract more fans and an ideal way to do that is by having a good stadium that everyone is attracted to. More fans comes with more support and encouragement of the team they are watching.
Players should have a sense of pride when playing at their home field because they should feel as if they have their own field which is unique. This is something that will encourage players to play better due to them being housed by a good stadium. Improvements that should be made don’t have to be huge and expensive but just enough and noticeable like how Lacayo says, “Not many of the architectural features of the new stadium are ground breaking in themselves. The best of them are small adaptations, well deployed.” (Lacayo, 2009,p.4). Small improvements could make a substantial difference on how a stadium is viewed and/or its actual physical appearance. Small improvement that could happen at Dillon stadium are possibly keeping the grass upheld, fixing the lights, and the scoreboard isn’t at its best. These few things have not really been worked on for a while. It will make them play better because they will like how the environment feels and won’t have any excuses about being hesitant when playing. Again I mention this idea of making the stadium feel like home, which could be by putting the teams name on the field post cushions or putting a school’s name on the score board for home. Although these things would have to be made in order to be replaceable and made for each school and team that play there this way each team can get the pride of playing at home field.
There are people who jump to the conclusions and decide to put blame on sports coaches or players when there are other factors that do apply. There is the environment around the player has he participates in a game. The player should receive support from fan, be able to play on a field with good conditions and deserves to play in a stadium constantly improved and updated so that it is not a low standard place of play. Fields are an important part to sports because it is what they have to play on. With a better stadium environment indirectly comes possibly s better team and a better season. The environment in which a team plays in can affect how they play.
Sporting events bring in fans who want to see teams compete in sports. There are different types of fans, there are parents and friends who go to see someone who plays from little league to college and then there are the people who go to games because it is their favorite team which is typically around college and professional sports. In both these cases the fans go to support the team, they go because they want to see their team win. They try to contribute to the outcome by cheering for their teams and showing that they are there for support. With this contribution fans have been able to affect the outcomes of games. This can be proven when Mark Bowden says, “But in the NFL, around the time of Kosar’s disaster in Miami, crowd noise had become something more than emotional support. It had started messing with outcomes.” (Bowden, 2013, p.3). Kosar’s disaster was an occurrence during a football game that the linemen were unable to hear to the quarterback which messed up the play. Communication on a field is important, but it gets complicated when they can’t hear one another. Communication is understood to be impacted when John Alt a former NFL player says, “It took away a lot of your offense. You couldn’t audible the way you normally would. This proves that fans can be a big contribution to the outcomes of sport event. With fans the players receive support and are motivated to do their best.” (Bowden, 2013, p.4) Most professional players want to put on a good show for their fans. With fans most players feel like they have a reason to play. With better stadiums come better outcomes of games because of fans appearances. The support from the fans is brought by noise which is cheering for their team to do the best they can at what they are doing. This would mean whether the team is trying to score or if they are trying to prevent the other team from scoring. For football there are typically eleven men on the field for each team. Fans bring up the idea of the twelfth man, which summarizes that fans are a part of the game. A stadium that really uses their fans to their advantage is the CenturyLink Field; this is the home of the NFL Seattle, Seahawks and Seattle Sounders FC of Major League Soccer. This stadium was created with a certain structure that the fans noise is more powerful and loud. The noise the fans make can be real substantial and I know this when Lindbom says, “On September 15, 2013, during a game against the San Francisco 49ers, the fans broke the Guinness World Record for loudest crowd roar at an outdoor stadium with 136.6 decibels” (Lindbolm, 2013). This is something the Seahawks use to their advantage. With a better stadium comes more fans, which will affect the game because of the fans’ support.
Another way sports teams are affected during a game is the condition of the field. This is not typically looked at as a problem for most professional teams because they have the money to pay for a good stadium and keep it managed well. Although there are some professional teams that do not have the same benefits like the Oakland Raiders who have practice fields that are not kept up to good standards. The Oakland Raiders practice fields suffer from being uneven and from goose droppings, “Still, the depths of the struggle might not have truly hit McKenzie until several months after his hiring, when he changed into his workout gear and headed to the back of the team's Alameda training facility, where his long jog around the practice fields was spoiled by wildly uneven footing and goose droppings” (Trotter, 2013. P.2). This caused professional football players to miss games which could affect how a team plays during the duration of that injured player. There are certain players that play a key part in a team’s success and without those players, it could turn a team for the worst. With these conditions, the practice of the Oakland Raiders will be affected and can acquire possible injuries and this can be proven when Reggie McKenzie (General Manager of the Raiders) says,
“In the previous two seasons alone, running backs Darren McFadden and Marcel Reese, wide outs Jacoby Ford and Denarius Moore, defensive tackles Richard Seymour and Tommy Kelly and linebacker Rolando McClain had been hobbled by or missed significant time because of lower body injuries” (Trotter, 2013,p.2).
This quote shows how injuries can be field induced and will impact a team. These injuries could have been prevented if the fields were in better condition. With these injuries occurring to some of their best players, the team would have to use their backups who weren’t as good and could have affected whether the team won or not. A field with poor conditions not only affects players and causes injuries because these factors lead to the play of teams not being up to par and will cause losses. Losses will affect the teams overall season and that overall season will determine whether or not the team will qualify for playoffs to take the league title. Like Jim Trotter says,
“Instead, the work (grounds keeping) was outsourced to a local company—astounding considering that the difference between the playoffs and a pink slip could easily come down to a turned ankle, a jammed toe, a tweaked knee or a pulled hamstring” (Trotter, 2013,p.2).
This is said to General Manager Reggie McKenzie who would have to deal with the either have to deal with the practice fields the way they were or use money to get the field held to a satisfying point. He is trying to say that either the team will have to deal with terrible field conditions and have to put up with the consequences of injured player. Also that the team is going to have to make an investment into the practice field because the practice fields affect the francize. Repairing the field would cost a good amount of money, but with better conditions come better chances of being one of the best in the league which could apply to other sports as well. Field conditions will affect how a team plays; this is why stadiums should try to be upheld to their best possibility.
Professional stadiums have begun to advance and local stadiums have also begun to improve, but in some cases stadiums are just upheld to poor standards. The owners of the fields don’t do much to benefit the teams that play their but just try to bring in money. This had to do with my Capstone project which has to do with the up keeping of Dillon Stadium. This is a stadium where it is held to low standards even though there are many sports teams and high schools that play there. The Hartford Parks Department hasn’t put much effort into improving the field because they know they can make money off of the high schools that play there. They are planning to put money toward getting turf, which is a great investment so they would have to save a lot of money to get a turf that will last and look good for all the teams and sports who play there. My project is to try and get the stadium updated because it is just a run-down place right now, but has potential to be a great stadium. Updates of Stadiums are along the lines of putting in turf, better stadium lights, advanced scoreboard, and the stands for the audience being improved. These improvements could affect how a team plays because it could bring in more fans with support and player may will feel better playing in a stadium that they are proud to be playing there. Fans should have a go to more games to support their favorite teams but they should be encouraged not only by the team but also by the stadium and this is proven when Jerry Jones says, “He likes to point out that just 7% of National Football League fans have ever set foot in an NFL stadium, and he figures that the way to push that percentage higher is to make the stadium experience better than what you get at home.” (Lacayo, 2009,p.2) Teams need to attract more fans and an ideal way to do that is by having a good stadium that everyone is attracted to. More fans comes with more support and encouragement of the team they are watching.
Players should have a sense of pride when playing at their home field because they should feel as if they have their own field which is unique. This is something that will encourage players to play better due to them being housed by a good stadium. Improvements that should be made don’t have to be huge and expensive but just enough and noticeable like how Lacayo says, “Not many of the architectural features of the new stadium are ground breaking in themselves. The best of them are small adaptations, well deployed.” (Lacayo, 2009,p.4). Small improvements could make a substantial difference on how a stadium is viewed and/or its actual physical appearance. Small improvement that could happen at Dillon stadium are possibly keeping the grass upheld, fixing the lights, and the scoreboard isn’t at its best. These few things have not really been worked on for a while. It will make them play better because they will like how the environment feels and won’t have any excuses about being hesitant when playing. Again I mention this idea of making the stadium feel like home, which could be by putting the teams name on the field post cushions or putting a school’s name on the score board for home. Although these things would have to be made in order to be replaceable and made for each school and team that play there this way each team can get the pride of playing at home field.
There are people who jump to the conclusions and decide to put blame on sports coaches or players when there are other factors that do apply. There is the environment around the player has he participates in a game. The player should receive support from fan, be able to play on a field with good conditions and deserves to play in a stadium constantly improved and updated so that it is not a low standard place of play. Fields are an important part to sports because it is what they have to play on. With a better stadium environment indirectly comes possibly s better team and a better season. The environment in which a team plays in can affect how they play.
References
Bowden, M. (2013) THE SILENT Treatment. Sports Illustrated, vol. 119, issue 9
Lacayo, R. (2009) How ‘Bout That Stadium. Sports Illustrated, vol. 174, issue 12
Lindbolm, M. (2013) 136.6 decibels! Hawks fans break Guinness mark for loudest stadium, The Seattle Times
Patrick, D. (2012) Who’s Number One? Sports Illustrated, p4-7. 4p
Staples, A. (2013) Johnny on the Spot. Illustrated, vol. 119, issue 5
Trotter, J. (2013) The New Silver and Black. Sports Illustrated, vol. 118, issue 17
Lacayo, R. (2009) How ‘Bout That Stadium. Sports Illustrated, vol. 174, issue 12
Lindbolm, M. (2013) 136.6 decibels! Hawks fans break Guinness mark for loudest stadium, The Seattle Times
Patrick, D. (2012) Who’s Number One? Sports Illustrated, p4-7. 4p
Staples, A. (2013) Johnny on the Spot. Illustrated, vol. 119, issue 5
Trotter, J. (2013) The New Silver and Black. Sports Illustrated, vol. 118, issue 17