Time To End Cyclone Alley!

**HesHeatingUp** · 12-03-2009, 10:49 AM

Originally Posted by CylentButDeadly

Obviously you two are missing the point. While I agree that it is up to the students to cheer, what we're saying is that the directives of CAC have killed the atmosphere. Telling us what we can chant and what we can't? My senior year I would say "you suck" after the 5 claps, and every game, some tool from CAC would tell me that I couldn't say that and I had to be respectful. When we played Texas A&M my soph or jr year, can't remember which one, there was a bull **** foul and just like everyone else, I started chanting bull ****, just like every other student section in the country does. Sure enough, some dork from CAC got in my face and threatened to kick me out because there were little kids in the CA for some charity CAC was doing (Side note, why the hell little kids were in the student section is beyond me. Guess what, people drink before games. College kids swear. Way to think that one through CAC).

The point is, CAC tries to control chants & cheers and tell the students when and how they should cheer. Like I said earlier, you can't guide and direct cheering, but you can kill it, and CAC has done that.

But please, go on and place the blame elsewhere. CAC is a massive failure and needs to be done away with. You may not be the sole reason Hilton Magic is dead, but you're the main accomplice in the murder.

2008-2009 CAC, nor this year, did no such thing as far as controlling chants while I served

I will say that the way CAC is run is not good. When I was running for the co-chair spot for this season, one of my main points was that I wanted to change how CA is structurally run and implement a "stubhub" type of system that would allow a ticket/t-shirt exchange. The problem is SALC, which oversees CA, does not like change.

**Stewo** · 12-03-2009, 10:50 AM

Originally Posted by 4429 mcc

As a member of Cyclone Alley, I promise to...

--not recreate or redesign my official Cyclone Alley T-shirt in any way
--display positive sportsmanship and refrain from directing offensive language toward game officials, visiting teams, and visiting fans at all Cyclone Alley events
--Q: How will this section of seating be different from the student section?
A: Everyone sitting in the Cyclone Alley section will be wearing his or her Cyclone Alley T-shirt. Cyclone Alley members will be given props and cheer supplies and participate in special activities with the cheer squads and band.

= lame-O

Sounds like something that high school cheerleaders are told prior to having their parents sign their permission to participate slip. There is just no killer instinct with kids anymore(I'm 26).

**dtclones** · 12-03-2009, 10:51 AM

From my experience with dealing with SALC, which CAC is a part of, they are a bunch of people who just love having authority. They love being able to tell people what they can and can't do. Even when they know they're wrong, they refuse to back down for the greater good because they are too arrogant to admit their way of doing things sucks. I wanted to be on CAC for a while until I had saw they way they go about things. Cylentbutdeadly gives a very accurate account of how they function.

**4429 mcc** · 12-03-2009, 10:52 AM

I left out the part of being under the influence of anything...besides MT DEW

**Stewo** · 12-03-2009, 10:53 AM

Originally Posted by 4429 mcc

I left out the part of being under the influence of anything...besides MT DEW

Iowa State is a college with college aged kids, right? Maybe I'm wrong?

**CylentButDeadly** · 12-03-2009, 10:54 AM

Originally Posted by HesHeatingUp

2008-2009 CAC, nor this year, did no such thing as far as controlling chants while I served

I will say that the way CAC is run is not good. When I was running for the co-chair spot for this season, one of my main points was that I wanted to change how CA is structurally run and implement a "stubhub" type of system that would allow a ticket/t-shirt exchange. The problem is SALC, which oversees CA, does not like change.

You didn't have to. The tools before you effectively eliminated any reason to.

**MNCyGuy** · 12-03-2009, 10:55 AM

You know what I think it comes down to? Even if CAC doesn't think they broke it, they do need to acknowledge they are in the best position to fix it. It's not your job to be cheerleaders? You already started doing it anyway, you might as well go all in trying to get people into the game and not half-*** it. A crazier student section=more fun experience for students=more butts in seats. If that is CA's main purpose you guys should be all over that. Encourage crazy and recognize the people that get into the game. The underclassmen will take those cues and adjust to the new attitude.

**Stewo** · 12-03-2009, 10:57 AM

Originally Posted by MNCyGuy

You know what I think it comes down to? Even if CAC doesn't think they broke, they do need to acknowledge they are in the best position to fix it. It's not your job to be cheerleaders? You already started doing it anyway, you might as well go all in trying to get people into the game and not half-*** it. A crazier student section=more fun experience for students=more butts in seats. If that is CA's main purpose you guys should be all over that. Encourage crazy and recognize the people that get into the game. The underclassmen will take those cues and adjust to the new attitude.

Exactly. Come for the show, stay for the basketball game. The 'leaders' of CA obviously have no idea how they affect every facet of the game.

**HesHeatingUp** · 12-03-2009, 10:57 AM

Originally Posted by MNCyGuy

You know what I think it comes down to? Even if CAC doesn't think they broke, they do need to acknowledge they are in the best position to fix it. It's not your job to be cheerleaders? You already started doing it anyway, you might as well go all in trying to get people into the game and not half-*** it. A crazier student section=more fun experience for students=more butts in seats. If that is CA's main purpose you guys should be all over that. Encourage crazy and recognize the people that get into the game. The underclassmen will take those cues and adjust to the new attitude.

And if I got the co-chair position, that is what I would have done

**CylentButDeadly** · 12-03-2009, 10:59 AM

Originally Posted by MNCyGuy

You know what I think it comes down to? Even if CAC doesn't think they broke, they do need to acknowledge they are in the best position to fix it. It's not your job to be cheerleaders? You already started doing it anyway, you might as well go all in trying to get people into the game and not half-*** it. A crazier student section=more fun experience for students=more butts in seats. If that is CA's main purpose you guys should be all over that. Encourage crazy and recognize the people that get into the game. The underclassmen will take those cues and adjust to the new attitude.

CAC's stance that it's not there to be cheerleaders tells me everything I need to know about that group. Let me get this straight, you're mandating every minute detail of the student fan experience is like at Hilton, right down to what type of clothing they have to wear and what instructions they need to follow during free throws, but you're going cower away and say you're not there to be cheerleaders?

You've already manifested and controlled every other aspect of the student fan experience, why stop at being cheerleaders?

Face it, CAC is flawed in every possible way and needs to be done away with.

**Clonegrad07** · 12-03-2009, 10:59 AM

Originally Posted by HesHeatingUp

Again...I was a former CAC member. CAC are not cheerleaders...cheerleaders are cheerleaders. It is not CAC's job to motivate you to be loud. It was our job to get you in the seats. It's your job as a student to get the section motivated. If you don't like the free throw distractions or anything else we do, email them, they do read it. And give them your solution.

BTW, Cyclone Alley looked pretty full last night. So I would say they did their job. But again, I'm a former member, ask a current CAC member to handle issues

This is horse ****. I am a former CAC member... from 04-05... when we weren't so structured, before Charles Fisher, SALC, and the athletic department screwed the Cyclone Alley up. Being part of CAC, you should want your cheering section to suceed aka be loud and nationally knnown. If they're not loud, it's your job to try and invigorate the crowd. That is the reason CA sucks now.. because of leaders who don't have the goal in mind... the goal is to be loud and create the best game day atmosphere in the Big 12/nation.

**MNCyGuy** · 12-03-2009, 11:00 AM

Originally Posted by HesHeatingUp

And if I got the co-chair position, that is what I would have done

Speaking from personal experience, I hope you would have and believe you would have intended to, but once you get into those types of positions it is way harder to make changes than you anticipate. I think that's why you see a lot of people taking the "throw the baby out with the bath water" stance on CA. It probably would be easier to just throw out everything than just identifying and eliminating the negative aspects.

**CA_Adviser** · 12-03-2009, 11:00 AM

When did I say anyone was an idiot? Don't put words in my mouth Flag Guy. Rather, I asked for your input and am eagerly waiting for it.

**HesHeatingUp** · 12-03-2009, 11:03 AM

Originally Posted by CylentButDeadly

CAC's stance that it's not there to be cheerleaders tells me everything I need to know about that group. Let me get this straight, you're mandating every minute detail of the student fan experience is like at Hilton, right down to what type of clothing they have to wear and what instructions they need to follow during free throws, but you're going cower away and say you're not there to be cheerleaders?

You've already manifested and controlled every other aspect of the student fan experience, why stop at being cheerleaders?

Face it, CAC is flawed in every possible way and needs to be done away with.

The ONLY thing we mandated was the shirt, for the 2008-2009 CAC and for the current season (I can't speak on behalf of any previous committee).

**aeroclone** · 12-03-2009, 11:14 AM

Originally Posted by Flag Guy

This. Which as Aeroclone so eliquently put is due to a culture ****, which as others less elequintly pointed out stemed from the rule book and CAC's enforcement of it, which as private conversations have concluded goes back to a particular group/person that bent over and became the AD's ***** and became a control mechanism for the AD department (even if they aren't now, the damage is done due to this underlying culture change)

Among other things. But fundamentally that is a big thing happened.

I mean seriously I was listening via radio last night, and after a bad call by the ref all I heard was silence and my first thought was, "Why isn't the student section all over this?"

This shift has done more than just calm down the student section, it is also part of the attendance issue. They have actually had to reduce the amount of lower level CA seating since CA started because they weren't filling it. Why? The AD reached out to the students to see if there was interest for CA at football games. The answer was a decisive NO. Why?

We aren't winning.... no. The student support has been very good for football in the 5 or 6 years since we made the move towards CA for bball. Yeah, we have had a lot more success to cheer on for football versus bball the last few years, ha! And as others have pointed out, some of the best years of the Magic were were some pretty poor teams. "But they won at home!" you say. Perhaps that wasn't because they were better teams, but because the crowd themselves willed the team to victory.

The decline in attendance and the reduced student involvement in bball games since the inception of CA is also a result of the cultural shift that CA brought to the student section in its initial years. All those effots to tame the section took all of the fun out of it! The football student section is doing well with poor teams because it is still fun!

No college student wants to be told how to dress and then told how to cheer nice. They spend all week reading, doing homework, sitting in lectures. They want to get away and have some fun. They are finally out on their own away from home, they don't want to be bossed around like a little child. Welch Ave is fun, football games are fun, and thanks to CA bball games are no longer fun. Did you see all the shots of CA during the game last night? Did those people look like they were having much fun? Even when we were winning? I don't think so. If you make it a fun place to be once again, people will show up in larger numbers and they will come ready to make some noise. Attendance issue solved. Crowd noise solved.

If we start winning it will magnify things even more, but it isn't a win first scenario. Our fans and our facility actually give us a chance to influence games at Hilton. We don't have the greatest ability to do that for football given the limitations of JTS, but in Hilton we really can turn Ls into Ws.