I remember a Maine Road derby (2001, Beckham free kick, 0-1 United win) where the tannoy/speaker system broke down about 45mins before kick off and Maine Road was bouncing pre-game (helped by the fact we hadn't played United for four and a bit years due to being in the darkness of our late 90's days!). Since then we've not replicated that pre-match atmosphere, and thus what carried on into the game, because we play music over any chanting that starts up.

I think, just once for a big game, Wire should cut the music pre-game and just see what we can create in the stands.

The pre-match music is played loud so that it drowns out any expletive ridden chanting. Its the only way the clubs have of controlling this behaviour.

Rubbish. Where do you get that from? There's more chance of expletives during the game where they can't drown out it out with music.

Liar for the South Stand. The West would have to be the Chicken Coup!

Drums are e, a lot of people beleive this (myself included) and we never needed them at Wilderspool. However, we aren't there anymore. We are at HJ that has recently had a poor atmosphere and is really reliant on the drum. People will have to accept that without a drum there is no atmospere.

I say we get more drummers. An entire back row of drummers. Blast the place out and have a caldron of noise for the Wire (I am only half joking)

Both the railway end and the fletch at wilderspool generated great atmospheres. Even large numbers of visitting fans generate an atmosphere in the West. What do they all have in common..................behind the sticks. I never remember there being a "big atmosphere" along the terracing infront of the BB stand at Wilderspool.

The thing about wilderspool is the atmosphere was generated due to the corrigated iron

1) people banged, kicked it and makes one hell of a racket

2) due to the texture it reverberated the sound better

Now unfortunately we do not have that help and the drummer boys arr needed.

How about vuvuzelas

It has made me laugh reading this thread today....

Some people on here are sounding as desperate as Chelsea FC in their attempts to create atmosphere in the ground.
You can't create an atmosphere by having flags, less music, drums etc.
Certainly not the sporting atmosphere you are talking about.

Unfortunately modern day sport will never have the same atmosphere as it did back in the 80's and 90's purely because of the design of the new grounds.
The seated stadiums and the push for a more family orientated experience at the matches also has an effect.

But the most important aspect and the atmosphere I think we are referring to in this thread can only come from game itself.
In this respect, Warrington have become a victim of of their own success.
Last season at Wire, the majority of games we played were complete walk overs. We were expecting to win, we did win and it wasn't even close.
Some times when a big win isn't expected (i.e. Huddersfield in the cup) it can be a great atmosphere, but when you expect to win and the opposition are unable to mount any kind of challenge, what is there to get excited about???

And that is the key phrase here, getting excited. That is what creates atmosphere in a tight game when a player makes a good break or you have 5 minuutes of pressure on the oppositions line and look like a try is coming. It is in these situations that the crowd get excited and start shouting and getting nervous etc, and that is what creates the atmosphere.

And it is in these tight games when you come through and get a victory against the odds that suddenly the man in the crowd who never joins in with the songs suddenly starts singing along because his heart is racing and he has got caught up in the atmosphere.

Unfortunately that is only likely to happen in the big games against Saints, Wigan, Leeds, Bradford.
Against the "lesser" teams we are expected to win, so if we are winning no one gets excited and if we are losing we get a negative atmosphere.

Atmosphere is not about singing or music or drums. The best atmosphere I have ever experienced at this new stadium was against Leeds when Andrew Johns was kicking a conversion from the sidelines and the entire stadium went silent. There was no noise at all but you could feel the atmosphere it was that good!

How about a trumpeter leading the singing, ala English cricket. Paid for by the club ?

I agree that the music is played too loud and for too long on a matchday. For the last 10-15 minutes before a big game such as v Wigan and Saints they should just stop playing music and allow the fans to generate an atmosphere. It would really get the place going. Instead the first chance for the crowd to generate an atmosphere is after kick-off. Against Sts they scored after 2 minutes which meant that the ground was quiet before it had even had chance to get going.

Agree with most of that and you're right in saying less music won't create an atmosphere but more music will definitely stop it from taking off.

I said the same last season about watching walkovers every week. The best atmospheres, celebrations and victories are always the ones in the face of adversity. When you're the underdog, come from behind to win or last minute trys/goals.

Surely you can recall such high class tunes from our neighbours as "ohhh w**ky w**ky" and so on and "s**t Helen" from our fans plus various others, which when sung by a large numbers come across as as bit neanderthal, especially when the good folk from tv land are there.

Me i just want to go and watch a good game the atmophere is what it is.

Ahhh but when you hear such banter it gives the perfect opportunity for the (fairly recently rolled out) "We're not w##ky, we're not w##ky anymore".

couldn't agree more.