Surely BOP had undertaken some research and learnt that the Vuvuzela detracts from the experience of a sporting fixture.
I love this time of year. It’s rep season and there really is something special about rep footy.
So it’s such a shame the Bay Of Plenty Steamers are souring this time of year with noise pollution.
At the dawn of a new name for the once NPC and the dusk of its current structure our leading domestic rugby compression has been beset by the first lame marketing campaign of the year.
The ITM Cup kicks off this week and all over the country fans are hoping their team does well enough so that at season’s end they are in the “top seven” which will ensure them a place at the big boys table next season.
Just like last year, when fear of relegation, amalgamation and possible annihilation was affecting teams, the fans came out and cheered on their teams in great numbers.
No gimmicks, no gadgets, just “come on lads, we’re right behind you.”
Sadly in 2010 the BOP Steamers feel they need more.
Block your ears, because here comes the Vuvuzela.
That’s right the genius’s at the Steamers have 1000 of these annoying noise makers for fans to blow.
Blow them they might, but the idea sucks.
BOPRU marketing manager Dirk Merwe said the union ordered them long before they became the famous annoyance of the recent football World Cup. This just highlights the ineptitude of those involved.
Surely BOP had undertaken some research and learnt that the Vuvuzela detracts from the experience of a sporting fixture.
Like many marketers of our game, and I’ve made this point before, the boffins at BOP have failed to grasp the concept that manufactured ideas to stimulate the crowd are lame.
The Vuvuzela works for your average South African Football fan. It’s been part of their sporting culture since they were first made - Made by fans, not produced on mass by 12-year-old kids in China.
Therefore it is a crowd inspired concept.
Take the Waikato “Mooloo Bell”. Some fans outside the Waikato hate it. I love it. It is a fitting representation of the udder-fondling nature of the province and most of all I love it because the fans came up with the idea themselves.
BOP trying to manufacture support is as ill-advised and thoughtless as the Blues attempt to get Eden Park fans to stop making noise when an opposition player is having a kick at goal.
This idea, taken by Irish fans and the South African Vuvuzela are specific to their own microcosm of sporting culture.
To emulate them shows a lack of thought and is essentially plagiarism.
Our grounds are abused enough in the noise department with pathetic ground announcers who turn up the music every time a point is scored.
The git who follows the All Blacks around is especially annoying.
Fans will cheer, fans will yell, some will ring cow bells and others will simply do what Kiwi rugby fans do better than any rugby fan in the world can do.
- Watch the game, decipher it and when compelled to, turn to the person sitting next to them and discuss it.
It might not be that exciting, and whilst “Hurricanes, Hurricanes” and ‘Black, Black, Black” might be the best we can do when it comes to chants, that’s who we are.
Can the current games promoters please leave us be? Better still, leave the game altogether.
Despite the damage the PC brigade the current administration have caused, Rugby, the game, is still entertainment enough for most of us.
And if the marketers don’t like it, I’ve only got one thing to say to them.
“Blow it out your horn!”