The Lions' Pride

You do realize the Blue Band played Sweet Caroline way before Guido arrived. Not to mention, the students have complained about the "microphone guy" as far back as the 1990's.

What is your idea of a major league game presentation? Having the students throw marshmellows during pregame and then progressing to cup wars for the game?

when i was a freshmen in 2002, those marshmallows were replaced with water bottles and full cups of soda.. after every touchdown you had to look back to make sure you didn't get pelted by something...

I understand people's frustration with Guido and share a lot of them. I think the problem is the presentation drifted to far to the rock music. But the students and many others love singing along to sweet Caroline etc...There needs to be a better balance between a traditional college football atmosphere and the event atmosphere Guido tried to impliment...He deserves some credit for making the white out a common theme in sports (yes I know Winnipeg did it for decades but we seemed to popularize it) also I think we may have been the first to use zombie nation in big time US sports and now its heard in every stadium/arena in the country. We still use the greatest show in college football tagline from SI, he deserves some credit for that but I also think it may have gone to his head.

Even worse is having a beer bottle launched and land a row behind you, exploding into a zillion pieces.

Just because other teams may be doing it, doesn't make it "right"

FWIW: I didn't downvote you on it

If I could live in a perfect world

1. No more microphone guy
2. The old end-zone scripted letters come back
3. 85% blue-band 15% piped in music. There are times for the piped-in (warm-ups for instance)
4. Ribbon is used for scores from around the league - not telling me to get one of those hotdogs or credit cards

If I look over your requests, you are basically asking for PSU to move more towards a high school presentation and not a minor or pro team presentation. Other than the elimination of the microphone man and maybe more Blue Band, PSU is not going to eliminate or change the other items. The scoreboards (video and LDC boards) are going to be sold or incorporated into "PSU partnership packages" For example, as part of the UniMart deal they will get in game static sinage, 10 mentions on the LCD boards and one "in game" live promotion and six radio spots on the official PSU football broadcast.

As for the endzones, they usually go with the "marks" that PSU sells and makes money from. So, in theory, you see the mark in the enzone, you then think I need a new tshirt with that mark on it. In theory, that also drives the brand. I can't see PSU putting any logo on mark on the field that they can't trademark or make money from unless it is a Big Ten logo or mark that the league mandates.

While we are just airing all of our complaints about game-day can I want to put the following out there.

1) I loathe "Twist & Shout" or whatever it is they play exiting half-time
2) And my god does Living on a Prayer irk me to no end.

I'll admit the first time they played CCR when it was raining, I thought it was kind of cool. But it was before the game & the students were just kind of having a good time. But I don't need Journey or some crap band from Jersey to get me fired up.

Remember folks - the stadium expansion has helped keep the noise in. We don't need AAA baseball antics - we need the blue band, a passionate fan base and old people to realize it's acceptable to stand-up and yell on 3rd down

Realistically though, that won't ever happen.

The older fanbase doesn't want to stand up that often, and they rarely ever do it.

PSU is intimidating because the student section is nearly deafening, not because its a joint effort of the 65-year olds hanging out across from the S-Zone.

Apparently they're worried about the structural integrity of the Beav, they don't think it can hold up to that many people jumping that often. I have no idea whether or not that's true, but that was the word that was passed along through the student section. TIFWIW.

The sing a longs can have a cool effect, especially when the cut the piped music and the student section is sober (or drunk) enough to keep it up. Knowing a few football players, I can tell you that they don't take it personally, and don't read that much into what the students are doing. As long as we're loud and having a good time, they're satisfied (with the student section).

I think that was one of the biggest issues with Guido and a lot of his changes. He made it much more about the students than the rest of the fans. He wanted to engage them and get them more involved. That at times put him at odds with "old school" alum that were used to the same old, same old each and every game. Guido and Joe knew that a better, more involved student section would help transform the entire stadium.

Some if it reminds me of being a student at PSU and watching games at Rec Hall. Although our basketball teams while I were there ran from terrible to average, Rec Hall was still fun to me and my friends because we were basically on the floor and within an arms reach of the Fab 5 or Bobby Knight. We stood the entire game. We made a lot of noise. However, I remember we used to fight with the alum that sat in the seats behind us because they did not want to stand the entire game. To us, the alum were out of touch and did not understand that it was OUR school and we were helping the team, while they were hurting the team by wanting to sit down and golf clap from time to time or yell out "We are Penn State" at timeouts.

I'm an alumni so obviously seeing fans sitting the entire game and refusing to stand up on 3rd down frustrates me to no end as well.

Believe me, there are fans that want to stand up and yell and cheer. But the second we do, old gradma or grandpa-blue yell and gripe to "sit down'" and "be quiet". Then they get an usher or complain to someone and we get told to sit down.

I'd love nothing more than to stand up the whole time or at least be able to stand up on 3rd and 4 and yell to my hearts content.