Its not a great crowd at times, but yeah, from my experience people are standing and loud during playoff games and most big games (sort of surprised to hear this week's crowd was a dud). Its still not going to be a super loud stadium.This really is the key.
We can ring our hands about the crowd noise and wish that the noise level in Foxboro was like Seattle, Denver or Baltimore. But I think a massive percentage of the difference is down to Stadium construction. It's fun to take shots at the spoiled fans and wine and cheesers but that's just not what it's like there based on my experiences over the years. In a stadium where the third deck is so high that the noise just does not travel downward to the players, you will not get the noise they get in those other locales.
It's a pity. Kraft et al created a gorgeous facility and did not give one second of thought to the noise aspect.
All that said, I'm not sure that the Foxboro location matters. Would Pats fans in Boston make more noise? I don't see why.
And last, no one is holding his breath on a new stadium. Or even adjustments to this one to address the noise issue. It is what it is....
I think you'd get better crowds for random games in Boston than you do in Foxboro, but dont have great evidence for it. The gameday experience of going to Foxboro blows.
The problem I have with the spoiled crowds as the primary factor is that you can go back to articles from the first year the stadium opened and find immediate commentary about how the stadium wasnt as loud as the old stadium because of the way it is designed.
Anecdotal, but Ill also add that the vast majority of fans I have encountered at the stadium who arent into the game arent "wine and cheese" yuppies, they're people who come in the 2nd quarter 10 beers deep, make three beer runs, and leave to tailgate by the start of the 4th quarter. Ive had the typical lol moment where someone says to sit down and be quiet on 3rd down, sure, but way more often even in the 300's we have six or seven empty seats by the 4th quarter from the here to get plastered crowd.
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