No More Cheering in Football

by Julie Wood

While at a Detroit Lions game on October 18, two super fans, known as Superfan and Detroit Dan were kicked out for cheering too loudly. These two fans have been to approximately 125 straight games to cheer on their favorite football team. The incident happened during the third quarter while the Lions were on defense. These two superfans were not being obnoxious, drunk, or out of control. They were simply cheering for their 0-5 Detroit Lions football team.

Superfan and Detroit Dan shared their experience and emotions immediately following ejection in this video:

No More Cheering in Football

So you’re telling me that two super fans got kicked out of a professional football game for cheering on a third down while their team was on defense? Erroneous! And what has the NFL been trying to do lately? BOOST ticket sales! I thought the NFL was trying to encourage the fan experience? After reading this article it doesn’t appear that they are doing a very good job selling that message. I literally had to read the article three times to fathom the fact that Detroit yes Detroit, would kick fans out for being loud and “unruly.” I could see this happening if it was a more conservative team like the Tennessee Titans, no offense to Titans fans for an organization that has created such a family oriented and boring experience. But we are talking about the Detroit lions, Detroit isn’t a conservative prissy city.

After reading some of the Facebook posts from the video posted from Superfan himself with the one who calls himself “Detroit Dan(That has to be the Greatest Superfan nicknames ever) was posted right after getting kicked out and everyone commenting was outraged. I read through some of the interviews and Facebook post, and I can’t gather any information that would come to the conclusion to kick the two super fans out.

Detroit Relies on Its Sports Teams

What really has me confused is this is all coming from a town that is financially struggling yet this town clings on to nothing more than Lions Football and Red Wings Hockey. My real question is who is in charge of event management? I mean you are kicking two guys out who have never had one complaint in 2 decades. Someone in this organization needs to take responsibility for this and make it right. Heck roll the red carpet out because we are talking about TWO DECADES of losing. These two guys are exactly what the NFL needs, dedicated fans that will come to 126 games consecutively. I can promise you no one is kicking New York Jets super fan Fireman Ed out of Metlife Stadium anytime soon!

Marketing Aspects

I know there is a fine line between cheering for your team and being obnoxious to the fact you are disrupting from other fans experiences. From a marketing aspect you need to make sure your buyers are well aware of the fact that they are going to a sporting event. Sporting events are loud and sometimes crazy but stadiums can have different sections for different types of fans. There are family sections, super fan sections, student sections, and other types of sections depending on what type of event. Teams can promote those certain sections for their buyers and help keep the fan experience a positive one for each type of fan to whom they are selling .

Julie Wood is a senior leisure, sport, and tourism studies major at Middle Tennessee State University.