Information about Audience Wave

A packed crowd in a stadium does the wave (in some places outside of North America known as the Mexican wave) when a wave is created in the crowd by successive groups of spectators briefly standing and raising their arms. Each spectator is required to rise at the same time as those straight in front and behind, and slightly after the person immediately to either the right (for a clockwise wave) or the left (for a counterclockwise wave). Immediately upon stretching to full height, the spectator returns to the usual seated position.

The result is a "wave" of standing spectators that travels rapidly through the crowd, even though individual spectators never move away from their seats (thus, the wave could be said to be a transverse wave, meaning following the longest path around the space, while each spectator involved has only a small role in the wave itself). In many large arenas the crowd is seated in a contiguous circuit all the way around the sport field, and so the wave is able to travel continuously around the arena; in discontiguous seating arrangements, the wave can instead reflect back and forth through the crowd. When the gap in seating is narrow, the wave can sometimes pass through it. Usually only one wave crest will be present at any given time in an arena. Simultaneous, counter-rotating waves have been produced.

Origin of "the wave"

The exact origin of the wave is disputed. Its growth may be traced to four different sports, across three different North American countries. It may be said that it was created (by chance) at a National Hockey League game in Canada in 1980, was introduced to a wider audience (intentionally) in October 1981 at a Major League Baseball game in Oakland, California and/or at an American Football game in Seattle, Washington. Whatever its origin, by the mid 1980s the practice was widespread throughout North America. Finally, it gained world wide notice, and the specific name Mexican wave, during the FIFA Football World Cup in Mexico in 1986. The wave was also believed to be created in Vancouver, British Columbia by a marketing campaign for the local soccer team the Vancouver Whitecaps, in which they got the crowd to perform this for a commercial in which their slogan was "Catch the Wave."

Although it was not associated with sports, Frank Zappa is credited by some with inventing a precursor to the wave in 1969 at the Denver Pop Festival in Denver Mile High Stadium when he assigned sounds and gestures to sections of the crowd and sequenced them with hand gestures.

Krazy George

It first gained popularity in the United States in the early 1980s. Some claim a section by section cheer at a Major League Baseball game that was led by professional cheerleader Krazy George Henderson in Oakland, California on October 15, 1981, in an American League Championship Series game between the Oakland Athletics and the New York Yankees, was the first appearance of the wave.^[1][2]

Krazy George points out that the original wave was created by accident when he was leading cheers at a National Hockey League game at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. His routine was to have one side of the arena jump and cheer, then have the opposite side respond. One night in late 1980, there was a delayed response from one section of fans, leading to them jumping to their feet a few seconds later than the section beside them. The next section of fans followed suit, and the first wave circled the Northlands Coliseum of its own accord. Krazy George then perfected the method for initiating a wave cheer with the Edmonton fans, and carried the wave with him to other venues, culminating with the aforementioned televised Major League Baseball game. Krazy George has been quoted as saying "If you don't believe me, ask (former) Edmonton Oilers superstar Wayne Gretzky. He was there."

University of Washington

Others claim that the first wave originated in Seattle at the University of Washington's Husky Stadium on October 31, 1981,^[3][4] at the prompting of Robb Weller (later Entertainment Tonight co-host). Weller, a Washington graduate, was the guest yell-king during the Huskies' homecoming football game against the Stanford University Cardinal (led by junior quarterback John Elway). Weller's initial concept for the wave was for it to travel vertically, from the bottom of the stands to the top, within the UW student section. Weller claimed to have done this at games when he was yell king. When that was met with limited interest, Weller then came up with the idea to move the wave from top to bottom. This failed miserably, as it was necessary to turn backward to see the wave progressing downward. Weller then gave up and returned his attention to the game. However, some fans toward the open (East) end of the stadium on the student side started yelling "sideways". Weller did not hear them, but the students tried to initiate a "sideways" wave on their own. After a few attempts, and more yelling of "sideways" by students, Weller took notice. He instructed the crowd to stand as he ran past. He moved along the track toward the open end of the stadium, explaining to the student crowd what he would do, then ran along the track toward the closed end of the stadium, in front of the student section. After a couple of tries, this caught on, and continued around the entire Husky Stadium, and was repeated throughout the rest of the game and the season. Longtime UW band director Bill Bissell also claimed co-creator credit with Weller, suggesting that the wave was devised by both of them prior to the game. The following week, the wave appeared at Seattle Seahawks professional football games in the Kingdome and has been a staple of Seattle sports ever since.

In the early fall of 1983, the Michigan Wolverines played the Huskies in Seattle and brought the wave back to Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. A letter to the sports editor of the New York Times claimed, "There are three reasons why the wave caught on at Michigan Wolverine games: It gave the fans something to do when the team was leading its opponent by 40 points, it was thrilling and exciting to see 105,000 people in the stands moving and cheering, and Bo Schembechler asked us not to do it. The fans responded to his request by doing more waves, including 'Silent Waves' (standing and waving arms without cheering), 'Shsh Waves' (replacing the cheering with a 'shshing' sound), and other variations on the wave theme." The following spring, fans who had enjoyed the wave in Ann Arbor introduced it to Tiger Stadium in Detroit. The Tigers won the World Series that year and appeared on many televised games throughout 1984, so people all over America saw it.

First International Appearances

The first appearance of a wave in front of a large international audience was during the 1984 Summer Olympics at the Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, California, during a semifinal football match played between Brazil and Italy (2-1) on August 8 of that year. A huge crowd of over 80,000 people participated in making several multiple and sometimes opposing running waves.

The wave was later on display at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. For many people living outside of North America, this was the first time they ever saw the phenomenon, and so they dubbed it the "Mexican wave". In Brazil, Germany, Italy and other countries it's called "la ola" (or simply ola) (Spanish for "the wave").

During the opening ceremony of the 1988 Winter Olympics the crowd made the wave during the athletes' parade.

Largest recorded waves

The largest recorded wave was at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 where 110,000 people made an inverse wave and two simultaneous opposite direction waves.

The wave makes regular appearances at University of Michigan football games. The team hosted 6 games in 2005 with more than 110,000 in attendance - the largest crowd being 111,591. The procedure at Michigan games generally follows a pattern (led by the student section) of sending the wave around counter-clockwise twice, then once in slow-motion, then once at double the original speed, then once around clockwise, and finally, splitting it into two counter-rotational waves.

At the 1986 Indianapolis 500, spectators performed a massive wave around nearly half the 2.5-mile oval, which holds approximately 250,000 seats.

At a Busch Cup race in 2001 at Bristol Motor Speedway, spectators performed a wave around the 1/2 mile oval, 6 times in succession.

Wave behavior

In 2002, Tamás Vicsek of the Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary along with his colleagues analyzed videos of 14 waves at large Mexican football stadiums, developing a standard model of wave behavior (published in the September 12 issue of Nature). He found that it takes only the actions of a few dozen fans to trigger a wave. Once started, it usually rolls in a clockwise direction at a rate of about 40 ft/s (12 m/s), or about 22 seats per second. At any given time the wave is about 15 seats wide. These observations appear to be applicable across different cultures and sports, though details vary in individual cases.^[5]

In Melbourne, Australia, waves commonly travel in a counterclockwise direction. Prior to the redevelopment of the Melbourne Cricket Ground between 2002 and 2006, spectators seated in the Members' Stand (reserved for members of the Melbourne Cricket Club) would not participate in a Mexican wave, and would be booed by other spectators at the ground, before the wave would resume on the other side of the stand.^[6] Sociologist John Carroll described the practice of "booing the Members" as dismissive of any claim to authority or superior social status on the members' part, although good-natured and based on the egalitarian nature of watching sports.^[7] (As a postscript to the "booing the Members" phenomenon, even when the Members stand was closed due to the reconstruction work, the crowd would still boo, despite the Members' stand being completely empty. When The Wave was banned large sections of the Members participated in the protest waves.)

Unique Wave at the University of Wisonsin

The student section at Wisconsin football games leads a well coordinated wave in the stadium, usually in the 2nd quarter. The first revolution around the stadium is normal, and then each following revolution has a unique twist (slow motion wave, fast wave, reverse wave, both directions). Its a tradition at Wisconsin, and 80,000 fans participate. Its amazing to watch, and fun to participate in. This tradition has been going on since the 80's, and continues to this day (2007). If a section fails to do its part, thereby ending the wave, the students clap their hands like a shark at that section.

Banning

Cricket Australia has banned the wave from all international grounds due to objects being, either unintentionally or deliberately, thrown into the air at the same time. These include plastic cups containing beer, hot food items, or even urine, which affects the other spectators around the person who threw it. Anyone who attempts to start a wave will be ejected from the ground.^[8][9] The banning of the Mexican Wave has been met with a mostly negative response from Australia's sports-going public, especially in Melbourne as the result of the much higher popularity of the wave at the MCG. This charge has been led by Matthew Newton, 22, of Springvale, who was one of the first to suffer eviction while promoting his "Save the Mexican Wave" campaign. While gaining large amounts of attention within the Australian media, it did not affect the position of Cricket Australia.

While the banning has been effective in reducing the number of items thrown in the air during a wave, it has done little to actually stop the wave occurring at the MCG and has seen an emergance of obvious opposition to the ban (as well as an increase in frequency and intensity of waves at the MCG).

The wave has also apparently been banned by the ICC during the 2007 Cricket World Cup held in West Indies.

There have also been rumors about banning the wave in Wrigley Field in Chicago.

References