Home Ice Advantage

[BGhockeyfan94]

I will check and see if there are any new ones posted. I am also going to the Falcon Fanatics meeting next week, and they are going to help me spread the word around campus, because they want to get alumnus more involved during the hockey games as well, they just don't know how to do it.

[musicman2343]

Please stop the stupid "C-Ya" when an opponent goes into the penalty box! I believe UM started doing this first in the CCHA. Although I'm pretty sure they stole it from another school.

And on our goal count, please just leave it after several "We Want More!" "It's all Your Fault" and "Seive" don't need to be on the end of this. Again, our original goal count didn't have these and we're just copying other schools in doing so.

At the end of the goal count we would always sing one "Ay Zig" for each goal. So it would be, if memory serves:
1) Long "ohhhhhh"
2) Count the goals
3) "We Want More!" four times
4) "Go!" five times
5) Sing one "Ay Zig" for each goal getting faster each time

I never heard the "It's all your fault" cheer out of our fans. I have out of other schools...

Granted, I've only been around since 2006, so if any of that wasn't original, I wouldn't have any idea.

[BGhockeyfan94]

I never heard the "It's all your fault" cheer out of our fans.

Sometimes the students say it, and sometimes it just sounds like a bunch of mumbling from the student section. It needs to get back to what it originally was nonetheless.

[BGFan]

I never heard the "It's all your fault" cheer out of our fans.

Sometimes the students say it, and sometimes it just sounds like a bunch of mumbling from the student section. It needs to get back to what it originally was nonetheless.

I'd rather not hear it....not original.

Back in the day....1 round of Forward Falcons by the band followed by the goal count followed by Go, Go, Go, Go, repeatedly pointing at the opposing goalie.

Only 1 round of the fight song is important because it allows everything to happen before the next drop of the puck. As it is now, they play 2 rounds of the song and wait for the announcement of the goal and the game is already back in action. It really doesn't have the same affect because, well, the crowd is back in to watching the game. Besides and because of that I've seen another goal scored before the celebration for the last goal even starts (and it's a real downer if it's an opposing goal).

On a different note, one of my biggest beefs today is that we don't always have a band! The band was always key to the chants because many were timed off the end of their play. They were always there! Any more we're lucky to see them at even half of the games. GET RID OF THE DJ, BRING BACK THE BAND TO EVERY FREAKING GAME AND LET THEM BE THE ONLY MUSIC WE HEAR AT THE GAMES, PERIOD! You will then see a dramatic change in audience participation.

[BGhockeyfan94]

So RIGHT AFTER we score a goal, the band plays forward falcons, and after that we do the goal count followed by Go, Go, Go, Go while pointing at the opposing goalie, and then we do one ay-ziggy-zoomba? I just want to be clear.

On a different note, one of my biggest beefs today is that we don't always have a band! The band was always key to the chants because many were timed off the end of their play. They were always there! Any more we're lucky to see them at even half of the games. GET RID OF THE DJ, BRING BACK THE BAND TO EVERY FREAKING GAME AND LET THEM BE THE ONLY MUSIC WE HEAR AT THE GAMES, PERIOD!

I will work on getting the band to all of, or almost every game. I haven't really been to a basketball game, so I have no idea if they play over there or not, and if we have conflicting game times...the sad truth is that they will probably be playing at the basketball game.

[footballguy51]

Once upon a time we had a student section that was inventive, clever, witty, etc. w/o being vulgar. I know, FF and I were a part of it. Now we have a student section that copies other school's chants, or when they do come up with something original it has a tendency to be vulgar. I truly have no desire to join in with them because of it.

I will join in if:
- The student section starts coming up with their own, witty, non-vulgar material
- The student section becomes as cohesive as they once were. To do so, someone will need to write down the standard chants and when and how they are given. When the pep band is there they need to work together with them.

When these things happen and the whole student section is on the same page, you will start to see the rest of the arena join in.

Bergeron openly talks about the times he came to the Ice Arena while a member of the opposition and how the place rocked and how he hopes to one day bring us back to that passion.

I agree with BGFan. Stop the vulgarities in the chants. How? Kick out the people yelling the vulgarities, prepare for the onslaught of students complaining in the BG News and continue to enforce the rules and eventually in a year or so, we could be rid of the vulgarities.

Being a recent grad, I can tell you that concept will not work. If there is anything college students hate, it is being told what to do and having restrictions placed on them. If the students have to follow special rules just to watch a hockey game, they won't go...unless the team is absolutely dominant. The current attraction for the hockey games is that you can hang out with your friends, watch people crash other people into the boards, celebrate when the goals are scored, and just have fun. The cheers and chants are part of that fun. If you start regulating the fun, the kids will stay home.

I suppose you could start new chants and hope they stick, but anything too complicated is often dismissed as being annoying and forced, and trying to alter the current chants to make them PG is seen as lame. For example, the current chant when the opposition returns to full strength is, "That's debatable. They still suck!" If you change it to just, "That's debatable," people will just add on the ending anyways. If you change it to, "That's debatable. They still are inadequate!" nobody will want to chant that. It's a lose-lose. If the hockey team becomes dominant again, then they can start imposing restrictions. Until then, let's worry about the team performance and not what the student sections says (that can't be understood more than 2 sections away from them).

[BGhockeyfan94]

Once upon a time we had a student section that was inventive, clever, witty, etc. w/o being vulgar. I know, FF and I were a part of it. Now we have a student section that copies other school's chants, or when they do come up with something original it has a tendency to be vulgar. I truly have no desire to join in with them because of it.

I will join in if:
- The student section starts coming up with their own, witty, non-vulgar material
- The student section becomes as cohesive as they once were. To do so, someone will need to write down the standard chants and when and how they are given. When the pep band is there they need to work together with them.

When these things happen and the whole student section is on the same page, you will start to see the rest of the arena join in.

Bergeron openly talks about the times he came to the Ice Arena while a member of the opposition and how the place rocked and how he hopes to one day bring us back to that passion.

I agree with BGFan. Stop the vulgarities in the chants. How? Kick out the people yelling the vulgarities, prepare for the onslaught of students complaining in the BG News and continue to enforce the rules and eventually in a year or so, we could be rid of the vulgarities.

Being a recent grad, I can tell you that concept will not work. If there is anything college students hate, it is being told what to do and having restrictions placed on them. If the students have to follow special rules just to watch a hockey game, they won't go...unless the team is absolutely dominant. The current attraction for the hockey games is that you can hang out with your friends, watch people crash other people into the boards, celebrate when the goals are scored, and just have fun. The cheers and chants are part of that fun. If you start regulating the fun, the kids will stay home.

I suppose you could start new chants and hope they stick, but anything too complicated is often dismissed as being annoying and forced, and trying to alter the current chants to make them PG is seen as lame. For example, the current chant when the opposition returns to full strength is, "That's debatable. They still suck!" If you change it to just, "That's debatable," people will just add on the ending anyways. If you change it to, "That's debatable. They still are inadequate!" nobody will want to chant that. It's a lose-lose. If the hockey team becomes dominant again, then they can start imposing restrictions. Until then, let's worry about the team performance and not what the student sections says (that can't be understood more than 2 sections away from them).

First off, the current chant when the opposing team returns to full strength is, "Who cares? They still suck!" which is stolen from another school. If we bring back the "That's debatable" chant, it is ours. We used it in the 70s and the 80s, we are just bringing it back.
Secondly, my whole post was to get the whole arena involved in cheering, to make the games more fun for everyone. We can worry about the team's performance, but we can't just sit back and HOPE they get better. From experience, if you have a whole arena cheering for you, and sold out games go crazy, the team will perform better. Who wants to try at a game where the chants suck, and it seems like they don't really put in effort for cheering for you?
I think that the reason bg hockey was so successful in the 70s and 80s is because that the fans were die hard fans, and we had a good team. We have a good team now, and I believe we need the old spirit back.

[musicman2343]

I will work on getting the band to all of, or almost every game. I haven't really been to a basketball game, so I have no idea if they play over there or not, and if we have conflicting game times...the sad truth is that they will probably be playing at the basketball game.

I wish you luck, but being a former band member, it probably won't happen. Until football season is over, or nearly over at the end of November, there will unlikely be a band at every game. Over the past few years it has been a success covering the first couple games with volunteers or even an alumni band.
Once the end of November rolls around, there should be a band at every hockey and basketball event. The only time there isn't is when it is over Christmas break.

We discussed this more thoroughly in this topic: Click

And believe me, it sucks. I wanted us to be there every game. I still do as an alumnus.

[musicman2343]

First off, the current chant when the opposing team returns to full strength is, "Who cares? They still suck!" which is stolen from another school.

I'd be curious as to when it became "Who cares?" because I just graduated less than two years ago and still sit in the student section at some games and it's always been "That's debatable, they still suck!"
I hear that all around the arena from other fans as well.

[footballguy51]

First off, the current chant when the opposing team returns to full strength is, "Who cares? They still suck!" which is stolen from another school.

I'd be curious as to when it became "Who cares?" because I just graduated less than two years ago and still sit in the student section at some games and it's always been "That's debatable, they still suck!"
I hear that all around the arena from other fans as well.

Exactly. I was going to reply with the same thing, but started doubting my hearing. I was at a few games last year and "debatable" was in the chant then. Glad I'm not the only one that heard debatable.

[Redwingtom]

Please stop the stupid "C-Ya" when an opponent goes into the penalty box! I believe UM started doing this first in the CCHA. Although I'm pretty sure they stole it from another school.

And on our goal count, please just leave it after several "We Want More!" "It's all Your Fault" and "Seive" don't need to be on the end of this. Again, our original goal count didn't have these and we're just copying other schools in doing so.

At the end of the goal count we would always sing one "Ay Zig" for each goal. So it would be, if memory serves:
1) Long "ohhhhhh"
2) Count the goals
3) "We Want More!" four times
4) "Go!" five times
5) Sing one "Ay Zig" for each goal getting faster each time

I never heard the "It's all your fault" cheer out of our fans. I have out of other schools...

Granted, I've only been around since 2006, so if any of that wasn't original, I wouldn't have any idea.

Never heard the Ay Zig before, but that is certainly not our original cheer.

It was just followed by the go's and the pointing as mentioned above.

[Redwingtom]

First off, the current chant when the opposing team returns to full strength is, "Who cares? They still suck!" which is stolen from another school.

I'd be curious as to when it became "Who cares?" because I just graduated less than two years ago and still sit in the student section at some games and it's always been "That's debatable, they still suck!"
I hear that all around the arena from other fans as well.

Exactly. I was going to reply with the same thing, but started doubting my hearing. I was at a few games last year and "debatable" was in the chant then. Glad I'm not the only one that heard debatable.

YES! That's another one I loathe. The "They Still Suck" needs to go away. It's just "That's Debatable" and nothing else! Again, I believe another one started by scUM (that they copied from somebody) and we don't need to copy any of their crap. We were the standard in the CCHA before they started winning again. Seems to me that Michigan started all these things the year after they were on the road at Harvard in the NCAA playoffs. And us old timers are well aware of the Harvard student section shenanigans.

[BGhockeyfan94]

First off, the current chant when the opposing team returns to full strength is, "Who cares? They still suck!" which is stolen from another school.

I'd be curious as to when it became "Who cares?" because I just graduated less than two years ago and still sit in the student section at some games and it's always been "That's debatable, they still suck!"
I hear that all around the arena from other fans as well.

My hearing could just be bad, but I have been hearing "who cares? They still suck!" I just don't remember hearing "That's Debatable! They still suck!" But either way, I just want it to become, "That's debatable!"

[pdt1081]

First off, the current chant when the opposing team returns to full strength is, "Who cares? They still suck!" which is stolen from another school.

I'd be curious as to when it became "Who cares?" because I just graduated less than two years ago and still sit in the student section at some games and it's always been "That's debatable, they still suck!"
I hear that all around the arena from other fans as well.

Exactly. I was going to reply with the same thing, but started doubting my hearing. I was at a few games last year and "debatable" was in the chant then. Glad I'm not the only one that heard debatable.

YES! That's another one I loathe. The "They Still Suck" needs to go away. It's just "That's Debatable" and nothing else! Again, I believe another one started by scUM (that they copied from somebody) and we don't need to copy any of their crap. We were the standard in the CCHA before they started winning again. Seems to me that Michigan started all these things the year after they were on the road at Harvard in the NCAA playoffs. And us old timers are well aware of the Harvard student section shenanigans.

Actually, the scUM students that were there are quite proud of the fact that they stole all of them from CORNELL. There was a thread on USCHO some time ago about that.

[Falcon Fanatic]

On a different note, one of my biggest beefs today is that we don't always have a band! The band was always key to the chants because many were timed off the end of their play. They were always there! Any more we're lucky to see them at even half of the games. GET RID OF THE DJ, BRING BACK THE BAND TO EVERY FREAKING GAME AND LET THEM BE THE ONLY MUSIC WE HEAR AT THE GAMES, PERIOD! You will then see a dramatic change in audience participation.

Agree, but part of the problem with the band today is that the person directing it does not understand the game like they did in the past! We need RUIT ("Right Up In There" is his screen name) to come back and show the youngins how it's done!!! (Are you reading this Mark?) Another issue that I have been told about is that the director is told WHEN TO PLAY AND WHEN NOT TO PLAY...which is when they play the stupid canned music! THIS is a huge problem if we expect the band to play at all the appropriate times during a game, times when the band should be playing AZZ and getting the crowd pumped up. Maybe the new Coordinator of Promotions and Fan Experience for BGSU Athletics can help with that! He replied to the thread I started on the BGSU Hockey Facebook page and is interested in getting a Section A reunion together! (Craig, are you reading this?)