Was a microphone in the Yellow Fever a good thing?

The microphone is how Sam Worthington gets his latest football news now. Rumors were spreading through the zone on the weekend that Brockie was leaving, and now Worthington posts and article saying the same thing. He obviously smuggled the mic in and reviewed the audio for potential news.

Good work.

Patrick, there's two more items to add to the list. 

Well done Lonegunmen for doing the legwork to identify them for Patrick. I am all for people making Patrick's job easier.

[/quTaking it for the team

I've spoken to my folks about this, they don't sit in the Fever Zone at games and they said that it definitely improved the atmosphere over in Aisle 30 and more people were singing and clapping along. They didn't know that it was coming out of the speakers, they thought we were just louder or the wind was carrying the sound over, so at least it was done subtely. 

From the sounds of it, I feel like the positives just edge the negatives of it.

I have to ask, why is there some opposition to this? I am struggling to see what the negatives of this could be/are.

I like the idea by the way . I would say take the mic's away if the crowd reaches over 10k

I understand that to help foster the FZ as defacto drivers of atmosphere at Westpac, you largely want people concentrated in or around the FZ and getting into it. By the same token, this is a Phoenix game, not a YF game and if the atmosphere is rubbish at Westpac, for whatever reason relating to the YF, FZ or none of them at all, the Phoenix have the right to try to generate a better atmosphere at Westpac. If piping the chanting around the ground creates a better atmosphere, how is that a bad thing? Is the end game to get everyone joining in in support of the Phoenix and if they are in aisle 301 or wherever and can hear it and get into it, does that not help? I can understand that there maybe a little territorialism at play and I respect that because a lot of effort has gone into it the FZ. I then ask delicately that is it not like the RBB where if you are not standing there, you can't chant or something like that - the kind of thing we seriously deride them for? Its almost a 'who do you sing for? The FZ or the Phoenix'

This is not a crack at anyone either. The effort put in is absolutely tremendous by everyone. I guess I am not sure why this is a bad idea when there are people that are actively trying to generate better atmosphere and the club are trying to create a larger/better/stronger atmosphere at the games by piggy backing on that. Perhaps I am missing something here.

I guess it feels a little invasive. 

I'm fairly sure it was a random person next to me who was mic'd up. Which explains how you could hear the kazoo on TV when we barely could standing right next to it. 

There are positives for sure, but it's still a bit odd. 

I really don't see a problem. Bit weird we didn't get warned though.

Yeah bit weird it just happened without anyone knowing. But when chants were more audible in aisle 24 and thus more people joined in, I can't see anything wrong with that.

Because then you would have noticed the ground level cameras in the zone as well.

The gut negative reaction to it, at least for me, comes from previous experiences.

One example is that when Bloc 5 were singing our heads off at Kingz games, Auckland rugby installed speakers on the old "terraces" at Eden Park, and piped in chants, expecting the crowd to join in, presumably in a quest to create somethign similar to the great atmosphere at Kingz games that was getting all the positive press at the time.

It felt like people were being TOLD to sing/chant. It didn't work. People actually moved from the terraces to the ASB stand to get away from the speakers.

In my mind it is the organicness of of the singing/chanting culture that makes it successful and enjoyable.

If it is top down instead of bottom up - people being TOLD what to sing/chant and when, then it falls flat.

So... any "piping" of songs/chants into crowds just gets my heckles up. But having said that, there is a significant diffference here, and that is that what the chants/songs are is still spontaneous - it's merely being piped from the Fever zone to elsewhere. That means that the humour and spontenaity of the chants, and their organic nature is preserved - as opposed to someone in a control room deciding to pump out "We are the champions" because they think that's a good idea right now.

Until I came across this thread I had thought the louder chanting through the tv was solely down to YF and the extra effort that was put in this season to increase it. 

If we had been told then everything would have been fine, I'm okay with it continuing at future games.

to be fair, we have always complained that microphones have been place as far away as possible from us in the past. From one extreme to the other it seems!

Pretty much this. Think Dome might have mentioned it to me so we may have been told.

How many pubs into 12 pubs was this?  :P

My only issue is that when my friend and I started a "Ernie Merricks yellow army" over in asile 23 and then the yellow fever joined the result was a really wierd echo over where we were. I recalll earlier posts where it was suggested that more people start chants, which we did but then it was ruined (well for us anyway) as the microphone didn't pick us up but just yellow fever hence the echo. Not against the idea just think there are some technical issues that need fixing.

Interestingly enough this mic has been at every game so far this season although it's been tinkered with each week trying to find what works best. Apparently there were some issues this past game thanks to the wind. I'd suggest passing the feedback on as Smithy suggested so the sound techs can work out which option works best.

Be warned "Big Brother"is listening in to what you say in the zone...? Use the secret handshake and finger signals.

Yeah that must have been a bloody sensitive microphone I swear I could make out someone ordering a weiner.

Hope the person with the mic didn't do this

God, Imagine if 20000 aucklanders are miked up at the garden of eden in a few days time. It will sound like anfield

and when 14k turn up?

Fixed

Does Anfield serve lattes then?

If only 14k turn up, you'll hear 6k less of apathetic noise...

This is quite a good retort btw. Well played.