Why Can’t I Just Watch the Game?

October 22, 2016

I recently went to an NFL game that surprised me somewhat—not surprised by the outcome but more by the surroundings and ambiance of the stadium. The stadium is a few years old and has state-of-the-art functionality.

The scoreboard is not a scoreboard but a colossal television that is amazingly clear even during the daytime. The Wi-Fi is free, and concessions are wide-ranging in choice. Unfortunately, there hasn't been much improvement in stadium seating over the years. They are still hard on the rear end are crammed together with little leg room making carrying and balancing your beer and hot dog a circus act. You still put your butt in someone's face while you bust through the line of spectators in your row. Some things will never change, which is the least of my gripes at the shiny new and pricy stadium.

Can you imagine being in a football stadium with the only noise generated is the crowd and the public address announcer? Well, that was a foregone era reserved now only for high school football. Between every play and break of play, it seems the stadium is engulfed in bombastic blasts of music and sound effects. It's not any music but short bursts of heavy metal. I don't mind a "We Will Rock You" now and then because it was the first song to be used worldwide. Now you will listen to various tracks from ACDC and Gary Glitters, Rock N Roll part 2, Guns N Roses, Welcome to the Jungle, and a list of other arena jams. At the game I attended, the owners sometimes bypassed the music to unleash war drumming along with the PA announcer yelling it was third down. The main question here is, why do I need to be pumped up into a frenzy? Everybody stands, which I hate, especially when I have a plate of nachos.

Teams think fans need to be pumped up with the ear-shattering sonic sound bombs while the big screen tells us to make noise. The idea of making the other team lose their hearing rarely works except in places like the cavernous confines of the Seattle stadium. I know everybody has to be excited to stand up and bellow out "Defense," but when you have to raise the decibels to damaging levels, and if the defense doesn't take a stand, now what? We blew out some of the cilia in our ear canals for nothing. Sorry for the anatomy term; cilia are the tiny hairs in your ears part of our hearing system.

Maybe this is an age thing, perhaps. On the contrary, do we want our children exposed to the sound levels in these arenas and stadiums? Hearing loss is an accumulative condition spread over years of exposure. Sports venue noise is only one of many issues that society presents when it comes to hearing damage. A large portion of today's youth uses earphones and earbuds, which will show up as hearing problems in the future if not managed. I like my earphones as well, but I try to keep them at lower levels so I can notice some outside noise. The last thing I want in this world is not to hear my loved ones tell me how much they love me or not. Happy listening.