At 9:40 AM -0500 2/4/97, Kevin C. Tompkins wrote:
> It's too bad this has changed.  When I was at Maine (early 80s), the
> students owned the balcony and we made NOISE!!  I remember one game in
> particular where we dumped then national powerhouse Clarkson in OT
> (with goalie Dean Mills) - the atmosphere was a near frenzy!  It was one
> of the greatest games I have ever attended.
 
As someone who has been to the Alfond a number of times since 1989 with
Merrimack, my view is that the renovation of the building has played a
major part in the noise level.  There is just a lot more open space than
before, and despite the additional crowd capacity, it is harder to make as
much noise in there.
 
Perhaps the one thing I have noticed that has changed is that it seems to
take more for the crowd to become a factor in the game.  This could be due
to a number of reasons.  But I vividly remember how we'd hear
"M...A...I...N...E...GO BLUE!" for what seemed like the entire game in the
past, and Sunday, I didn't hear it more than a couple of times - and it was
not very loud.
 
Midway through the third period on Sunday, the crowd did get going and
seemed to give the Black Bears a lift, resulting in the go-ahead goal.
This reminded me of a game a couple of years ago in which Merrimack led 4-3
with 8 minutes left, but then the crowd got going and Maine responded,
scoring three quick goals to win 6-4.  I felt that the same thing was
happening again.  So the crowd can still play a part.
 
But once Maine did go ahead, it felt as if the fans believed the game was
over.  Heck, I thought it was too, and I was as surprised as anyone at the
way it turned out.  But for whatever reason, the crowd was mostly not into
the game, at least not in the way it has been in the past.  Maybe this is
complacency; maybe subconsciously the crowd sort of expects nothing less
than a dominating showing by the home team and will not respond if they
don't get it.  Maybe the years of success have resulted in some of the fans
becoming a bit jaded.  Hard to say.
 
Perhaps the best way I can sum it up is, in the past I remember the team
feeding off the energy that the fans provided.  Now it seems to have
shifted the other way, in that the fans need to feed off of the team.  If
they're doing well, the fans respond; if not, the fans are mostly quiet.
 
Either way, I would still love to have the kind of crowds at Merrimack that
you folks get at Alfond. :-)  (wish we had a home game this weekend to
capitalize on the recent success.)
 
Maybe a conscious effort has to be made to cheer this team on for what it
is without regard to the wonderful teams that came before them.  Every team
is different; still, Maine fans have been lucky enough to have had teams
that have been consistently good and almost always met expectations or
achieved beyond them.  It may sound simplistic, but just show them you
appreciate them.  They do give you a lot to appreciate.
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                [log in to unmask]               *HMM* 11/13/93
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