Cyclone Alley
- Thread starter Luth4Cy
- Start date
Touche, you got me there...
Im not necessarily disagreeing with your position, I just think you dont have to be drunk to enjoy a game.
As a current student, I'd like to know the details about this. Can you explain how this worked? Every student who showed up got a randomly assigned seat?
When you signed up for season tickets, they gave you assigned seats in groupings. I think there were three groupings. For a group of 4-5 games, you had close seats. For 4-5 games, you had mid-range seats. For the others you had high balcony seats.
They did a good job of separating popular games in each grouping. For instance, you never had close seats for both Kansas and Iowa, but would have good/decent seats for one of them.
I didn't see this answered. PM me if you must. I would like to show up and give them my 2 cents. I'm a very level headed person.
I dont remember exactly, but you season tickets had a number on them, on depending on what the number was, you were able to go claim your seats at a certain time at the ticket office. I only ever recall it being done for the Iowa, KU, and Tech (when Bobby Knight was coaching) games when I was a student.
OK, here are my gems:
1. Use cell phones strategically. As much as I hate seeing so many folks looking down at their phones, I know that some are just checking CW's tweets! So, CW (or other CF-ers) should use Twitter to take over Cyclone Alley. Occasionally, CW should tweet and ask the student section to do something particularly unique or crazy.
2. Do the free throw arm wave thing before they shoot. About half the time, the arms don't do anything until after the ball is in the air. Maybe the breeze will make a difference. Or maybe we need to mess with the shooter before he lets go of the ball.
3. Be smart. Well-informed fans can get away with much more. For instance, the guy with the "SHOWTIME" sign never got it taken away during the Baylor game. He knew that it was Vaughn's nickname. If CA leaders are smart, they could have kept the cheers going just by using his nickname rather than his real name. Of course, it probably would have led to the sign being taken away, but it also would have made a big impression that a whole student section knew his name. Also, CA leaders should have known that signs would be taken away, so why did they encourage everyone to make them?
4. Be resourceful. For instance, just because a few signs get taken away doesn't mean that we shouldn't have had any signs. There are hundreds of posters out in the foyer. A resourceful student section would be out in the hall making more signs.
5. Honor the heroes. Instead of worrying about whether the giant Niang was going to block somebody's view, we should just celebrate the great contribution that these guys made.
6. Card stunts. I really like the idea of card stunts. This is the sort of thing that a CAC can really help with. Make a set with Fred's face. Have a set that says "Commit now" (generic, yet useful, particularly if everyone points at the recruit afterwards.
7. Respond to steals. Every team has something they do after free throws or 3-point baskets. How about doing something special after a steal?
8. Personalized chants. Some of the things I've read about guys personalizing their chants for opposing players are incredible. Hearing your sister's name being called out when you are shooting a free throw has got to be impacting.
9. Leaders lead. It never ceases to amaze me at how difficult it seems for some leaders to really lead. At Wells Fargo, thousands of towels were distributed, but no one waved them, partly because no one on the floor was doing it.
10. No seat saving. If the seats are general admission and you have to wait at the door, then the seats should be first-come, first-served. You should only get the front row if you earn it. The CAC should be roaming around anyway helping to stir up the section.
That is all. Thanks for asking.
1. Use cell phones strategically. As much as I hate seeing so many folks looking down at their phones, I know that some are just checking CW's tweets! So, CW (or other CF-ers) should use Twitter to take over Cyclone Alley. Occasionally, CW should tweet and ask the student section to do something particularly unique or crazy.
2. Do the free throw arm wave thing before they shoot. About half the time, the arms don't do anything until after the ball is in the air. Maybe the breeze will make a difference. Or maybe we need to mess with the shooter before he lets go of the ball.
3. Be smart. Well-informed fans can get away with much more. For instance, the guy with the "SHOWTIME" sign never got it taken away during the Baylor game. He knew that it was Vaughn's nickname. If CA leaders are smart, they could have kept the cheers going just by using his nickname rather than his real name. Of course, it probably would have led to the sign being taken away, but it also would have made a big impression that a whole student section knew his name. Also, CA leaders should have known that signs would be taken away, so why did they encourage everyone to make them?
4. Be resourceful. For instance, just because a few signs get taken away doesn't mean that we shouldn't have had any signs. There are hundreds of posters out in the foyer. A resourceful student section would be out in the hall making more signs.
5. Honor the heroes. Instead of worrying about whether the giant Niang was going to block somebody's view, we should just celebrate the great contribution that these guys made.
6. Card stunts. I really like the idea of card stunts. This is the sort of thing that a CAC can really help with. Make a set with Fred's face. Have a set that says "Commit now" (generic, yet useful, particularly if everyone points at the recruit afterwards.
7. Respond to steals. Every team has something they do after free throws or 3-point baskets. How about doing something special after a steal?
8. Personalized chants. Some of the things I've read about guys personalizing their chants for opposing players are incredible. Hearing your sister's name being called out when you are shooting a free throw has got to be impacting.
9. Leaders lead. It never ceases to amaze me at how difficult it seems for some leaders to really lead. At Wells Fargo, thousands of towels were distributed, but no one waved them, partly because no one on the floor was doing it.
10. No seat saving. If the seats are general admission and you have to wait at the door, then the seats should be first-come, first-served. You should only get the front row if you earn it. The CAC should be roaming around anyway helping to stir up the section.
That is all. Thanks for asking.
Don't have the time to go back and read all this so I don't know if this has been said...The student section opposite where the opponent is shooting free throws should bang on the chairs. Every once in a while in a big game this gets started and it is so loud. I think it would be awesome if we did it more often!
I find this amusing, because I have always had the view that the words "bro" and "tool" are synonymous.
A few card stunts. Maybe ISU on one side, and CYCLONES on the other.
One section for CA with t-shirt color enforced, and the other side just for students to do what they like without CAC doing anything.
For the KU, and Iowa, and really any big games i'd go for no seats (or benches) in the bottom sections, and just have a hand counter to ensure that every row has only about 5 extra people in it than normal.
We should encourage a person or two to run around in front of the bottom row of student seating and get the students pumped up.
Instead of having every timeout filled with ads, games, and the band, we should have one timeout given to the whole student section to do something together. I'd go for a chant, or some sort of singing without the band, but more on that below.
There will always be people who don't really want to get hyped up and yell, but these people shouldn't be seen as representing the students as a whole if we want to have one of the best home courts in the country.
Give people a reason to get amped up (like for instance, there is a basketball game) and minimal directions like "no throwing stuff or entering the court" and see what happens. If nothing improves then try going back to how it's been, but give all the CAC naysayers a chance to do something organically.
I like the idea of giving out a list of things to make fun of the other teams players for, but also put down embarrassing losses for the team. Other things to put on this are a list of all suspensions from their past with reasons why, and how much they're paying their coach. Any interesting recent tweets about girls or parties, arrest records, if they played really poorly in their last game give their stats. Coaching staff's marital problems. What other sports we've beat them at recently. Anything that a student could yell would be perfect.
Thoughts for the students in general:
Also, I would enjoy hearing the ACTUAL WORDS to the fight song without the band every once in a while, maybe even during the game play. Just get everybody to belt it out during a timeout or even during the game.
I don't know how it would work, but an iowa state dance like UNI's interlude would be cool to have.
The traditional american "OOOOOOO" is a start, but it could be a lot better.
The way they sing at soccer games in Europe during the whole game is sweet, but I don't think we can just get everybody to sing something. This is probably more than CAC is capable of, but if somebody could write a few of these up and get the students together one night to practice it would be awesome. Something like midnight yell practice at aTm. Pairing singing with blatant disrespect for the opponents would be excellent, but a "He scores when he wants, He scores when he wants, Georges Niang, He scores when he wants!" would be nice too. The students can't really stand united as a student section currently, because there's nothing like a song to bring us together. This is more of a european thing, but why not take it like we take chants from other schools?
Just to give people an idea of what I'm talking about, try listening to a few chants from this site.
Arsenal Fanchants, football chants lyrics submitted by pre
Thoughts on the band:
I for one like the band's chants, because if I were shooting free throws and heard whatever it is that they say I would be distracted and wonder what they're going on about. I think that they have to try to get everybody riled up, and we shouldn't need that, but we do. The only problem is that it doesn't work for most students. They play the fight song too much, and that takes away from it's effect. If it were up to me, once before and after each half, and the under 4:00 timeout is all. Everybody should know and sing the alma mater and the bells at least once each game. If we could take one before the game, and the other during the timeout in the 2nd half that would be perfect. The shhhhhh, WHOOO! chant should be done every game. Don't just play music to have a background atmosphere, just about ever song should have an action to go with it (or a vocal song) to get the crowd more involved.
Alma Mater - Iowa State University Alumni Association
One section for CA with t-shirt color enforced, and the other side just for students to do what they like without CAC doing anything.
For the KU, and Iowa, and really any big games i'd go for no seats (or benches) in the bottom sections, and just have a hand counter to ensure that every row has only about 5 extra people in it than normal.
We should encourage a person or two to run around in front of the bottom row of student seating and get the students pumped up.
Instead of having every timeout filled with ads, games, and the band, we should have one timeout given to the whole student section to do something together. I'd go for a chant, or some sort of singing without the band, but more on that below.
There will always be people who don't really want to get hyped up and yell, but these people shouldn't be seen as representing the students as a whole if we want to have one of the best home courts in the country.
Give people a reason to get amped up (like for instance, there is a basketball game) and minimal directions like "no throwing stuff or entering the court" and see what happens. If nothing improves then try going back to how it's been, but give all the CAC naysayers a chance to do something organically.
I like the idea of giving out a list of things to make fun of the other teams players for, but also put down embarrassing losses for the team. Other things to put on this are a list of all suspensions from their past with reasons why, and how much they're paying their coach. Any interesting recent tweets about girls or parties, arrest records, if they played really poorly in their last game give their stats. Coaching staff's marital problems. What other sports we've beat them at recently. Anything that a student could yell would be perfect.
Thoughts for the students in general:
Also, I would enjoy hearing the ACTUAL WORDS to the fight song without the band every once in a while, maybe even during the game play. Just get everybody to belt it out during a timeout or even during the game.
I don't know how it would work, but an iowa state dance like UNI's interlude would be cool to have.
The traditional american "OOOOOOO" is a start, but it could be a lot better.
The way they sing at soccer games in Europe during the whole game is sweet, but I don't think we can just get everybody to sing something. This is probably more than CAC is capable of, but if somebody could write a few of these up and get the students together one night to practice it would be awesome. Something like midnight yell practice at aTm. Pairing singing with blatant disrespect for the opponents would be excellent, but a "He scores when he wants, He scores when he wants, Georges Niang, He scores when he wants!" would be nice too. The students can't really stand united as a student section currently, because there's nothing like a song to bring us together. This is more of a european thing, but why not take it like we take chants from other schools?
Just to give people an idea of what I'm talking about, try listening to a few chants from this site.
Arsenal Fanchants, football chants lyrics submitted by pre
Thoughts on the band:
I for one like the band's chants, because if I were shooting free throws and heard whatever it is that they say I would be distracted and wonder what they're going on about. I think that they have to try to get everybody riled up, and we shouldn't need that, but we do. The only problem is that it doesn't work for most students. They play the fight song too much, and that takes away from it's effect. If it were up to me, once before and after each half, and the under 4:00 timeout is all. Everybody should know and sing the alma mater and the bells at least once each game. If we could take one before the game, and the other during the timeout in the 2nd half that would be perfect. The shhhhhh, WHOOO! chant should be done every game. Don't just play music to have a background atmosphere, just about ever song should have an action to go with it (or a vocal song) to get the crowd more involved.
Alma Mater - Iowa State University Alumni Association
Take a look at other great student sections and learn from them. Here's a good start. The common themes are rowdiness and organized chaos. Some groups are top-down (like CA), and others are more organic. While I prefer organic groups, I can see pros and cons for both. Either way, the group leaders shouldn't be directing the group, but rather organizing and facilitating the group, so the best fans and best ideas are allowed to thrive.
* There has to be fans in the front row that lead and fire up the rest of the section. While I'm not a student any more, I would've liked a point/merit system that rewards dedicated fans. It has less to do with costumes (although they can sometimes be helpful), and more to do with attitude.
* Try different chants/cheers to see what works best. Use an email group (or FB group) to brainstorm and vote on new ideas. Desperately need some new ideas here.
* Get rid of teetotaler type rules. Get rid of most rules... just facilitate and organize.
* There has to be fans in the front row that lead and fire up the rest of the section. While I'm not a student any more, I would've liked a point/merit system that rewards dedicated fans. It has less to do with costumes (although they can sometimes be helpful), and more to do with attitude.
* Try different chants/cheers to see what works best. Use an email group (or FB group) to brainstorm and vote on new ideas. Desperately need some new ideas here.
* Get rid of teetotaler type rules. Get rid of most rules... just facilitate and organize.
