The Sociology of NBA Arenas
When I was visiting my mom in DC recently and we went to the Wizards-Hawks game, I was struck (as I often am at NBA games) by the huge amount of enthusiasm shown by the crowd for everything but the actual game. In some ways, I get it. The game is long and you’ve got to pay attention to what’s going on, while the little interludes during timeouts are short enough to get excited about. Oh look, a boy of about 9 trying to make a free throw! A spaniel catching frisbees! An utterly insane mascot throwing down 360 tomahawks off a trampoline!
A lot of the people at stadiums are not necessarily huge fans, but rather groups of kids, women with their husbands, corporate guests, and so on. So, in effect, you get the same phenomenon that’s seen in houses around the country during the Super Bowl: everyone mills around chatting while the game is on but then rushes into the TV room and hisses at everyone to be quiet during the commercials.
I have no real problem with this, other than the fact that I feel bad for the players. When I lived in Boston, this feeling was especially acute because there was such a tangible sense that basketball was not king in Beantown and the Celtics weren’t the Red Sox/Patriots (people seem to have changed their tune a bit now though). So it always pissed me off when the largest applause of the whole night was for a Pats player eating popcorn on the Jumbotron. Meanwhile, no one could give a shit about the guys actually playing sports in front of them!
But as I say, I don’t really mind when people get excited for the entertainment interludes, because to be honest they can be pretty funny. One of my favorite things in the world is the Kiss Cam, where “couples” are framed on screen until the kiss each other. It always results in some laughs, especially when you see people who are clearly cheating on their partners. In fact, the only knock on the Kiss Cam is that it’s a bit heteronormative, and the subtext of the classic cameraman move of framing two players on the opposing team’s bench is that it would humiliating if they were gay.
At the Verizon Center, one of the most mind-boggling traditions of all is the Chipotle burrito handout. People go absolutely nuts for this. It’s as if the (faux?) Chipotle employees were handing out rations during the war and no one had eaten for days. I like burritos, but even if I was ever in the lower section (the people who need these burritos the least, by the way), I wouldn’t be grabbing at them like I was raised by wolves. It’s unfathomable behavior.
One final thought: during the “t-shirt toss,” when all the cheerleaders shoot crap roll-up tees out of souped-up Nerf guns, the Wizards mascot literally throws t-shirts into luxury boxes. I mean, what is this guy doing in a ridiculous blue suit, dunking off trampolines night after night? He could probably throw from center field to home plate with no bounce. Amazing athlete.
