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The "audience wave" (also called a Mexican wave, particularly in the United Kingdom, or simply "the wave") is a phenomenon that commonly occurs in the audiences of sporting events, and sometimes in other large crowds.
Description
A wave is a coordinated sequence of actions taken by the audience members in which a group of spectators lying along a radial line extending outward from the sport field all stand up and raise their arms, then return to a normal seated posture again as the neighboring group of spectators takes their turn to stand up.
The result is a "wave" of standing audience members that travels rapidly through the audience, even though individual audience members 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 audience member involved has only a small role in the wave itself). In many large arenas the audience is seated in a circular arrangement all the way around the sport field, and so the wave is able to travel continuously around the arena; in non-circular seating arrangements, the wave can instead reflect back and forth through the audience. 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.
It must be noted, however, that despite the spectaular sight of an entire stadium performing the wave, it is often a signal of an uninteresting performance of the actual sporting event, which forces the audience to seek for something to entertain themselves.
Origin of "the wave"
The exact origin of the wave is disputed. Its growth may be traced across three different sports, spread over 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 (by intent) at a Major League Baseball game in the United States in 1981. Whatever its origin, by the mid 1980s the practice was widespread throughout North America. It gained international notice at a FIFA Football World Cup game in Mexico in 1986 (hence it being known as a Mexican wave by some).
Krazy George
It first gained popularity in the United States in the early 1980s, with the Oakland Athletics baseball team reporting that the first appearance of the wave at a Major League Baseball game was led by professional cheerleader Krazy George Henderson in Oakland, California on October 15 1981, in an American League Championship Series game against the New York Yankees. *
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 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
Whitney and her dad Warren claim that the first wave originated in Seattle at the University of Washington's Husky Stadium on October 31, 1981, [http://espn.go.com/ncf/bowls01/s/holiday_uwhistory.html at the prompting of Robb Weller (later Entertainment Tonight co-host). Weller, a 1972 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. When that was met with limited interest, Weller then came up with the idea to move the wave horizontally. After a few attempts, the wave quickly spread around the entire stadium, and then was repeated ad nauseam throughout the rest of the game and the season. Longtime UW band director Bill "Theofilou" Bissell also claimed co-creator credit with Weller, suggesting that the wave was devised by both of them prior to the game. It is not clear if the vertical or horizontal wave resulted from the reported collaboration. Very soon after, the wave appeared at Seattle Seahawks professional football games in the Seattle Kingdome.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 audience 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 audience made the wave during the athletes' parade.
Largest recorded wave
The largest recorded wave was at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 where 110,000 people made an inverse Mexican 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.
Audience 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 audience 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 an audience wave is about 15 seats wide. These observations appear to be applicable across different cultures and sports, though details vary in individual cases.
External links
La Ola | 파도타기 응원 | Vågen (hyllningsgest) | 人浪
"Audience wave"