Sporting Game Environments: Are Bigger Crowds Truly Better?
Is a bigger crowd truly better? Or, do more people lead to unruly crowds and social inhibition? Today, we will be exploring these questions and more as we dive deep into the world of sporting game environments.
School sporting events, in many circumstances, can positively bring the community together. However, depending on your community, and how serious they take their sporting events, crowds can become a nuisance. Some believe that the bigger the crowd is, the bigger the advantage your team has; as it can feel like you have the whole town backing you up each step of the way. On the other hand, some people prefer to not have to deal with the stress of having a big crowd. They may feel that the pressure increases exponentially, and that if they do one wrong thing, the whole crowd will judge or laugh at them. Meanwhile, others tend to believe that having a big crowd is too obnoxious, and takes away from those playing in the game. Thus, us reporters, Bruce Molhan and Kayla Husband, set out to on a mission to dive deep into students’ opinions on the topic.
The first person we interviewed was sophomore Bobby D’Ambra. D’Ambra is a member of the varsity football team and is a frequent attendee of boys’ and girls’ basketball during the off season. We asked D’Aambra about his thoughts on the EWG sport environment; and he believes that sports teams perform better “when [they] have a good student section…cheering for [their] team”. He stated that, when playing football, he prefers to have a big, lively crowd. He expressed that this type of crowd makes him feel like he has “an army behind him” and feels “unstoppable on the field”.
“[A large crowd] definitely affects the performance of the team; it’s morale, and it brings energy.”
Jacob Roberts, Team Captain of the EWG football team
The next person we interviewed was Jacob Roberts. Roberts was a captain for the Scarlet Knights football team this past season. In his senior campaign, he was one of the first team “All Divison Wide-Receivers” for the Knights. Roberts was known to be an electrifying member of multiple EWG sporting crowds, that brought energy and life to any crowd he was a part of. When asked what he thought a large crowd could bring to the table, he stated: “[a large crowd] definitely affects the performance of the team; it’s morale, and it brings energy.”
When it comes to what type of crowd is better, it really depends on a player’s personal preference. Some players feed off of the energy given to them, while others dwindle under the peer pressure. When it comes to EWG though, we always show up when it matters the most.