Cheerleaders

[thebrewxi]

On 21/09/2020 at 12:48, Dunbar said:

former US presidents were cheerleaders.

Trump, Bush snr and Carter? I really hope so!

[Sports Prophet]

On 22/09/2020 at 22:22, DavidM said:

I’ve been doing some research and the Manly cheerleaders are called Seabirds . I intend to look deeper into this 

I would be keen to learn more about the Mermaids too David.

[Tex Evans Thigh]

Entertainment value is negligible and (for the adult ones) there have been a fair few incidents that clubs can do without. I believe most NFL cheerleaders have contracts where they are not allowed to interact with players. I assume clubs have done a cost benefit analysis and figured it's not worth it. I doubt any fan has changed their opinion of a game day based on cheerleaders.

[Sports Prophet]

https://www.sharks.com.au/news/2020/09/28/round-20-with-the-minespec-parts-mermaids/
 

@DavidM, I thought the link above may be helpful in your research.

[unapologetic pedant]

I recall the Rabbitohs` cheersquad as pretty special. Russell Crowe is a latter-day Oliver Cromwell. Cruel and heartless.

[DC77]

On 21/09/2020 at 11:59, Sports Prophet said:

As unfathomably English it is to detest cheerleaders (to be fair, I don’t recall any English sports crowd needing a cheer leader per se, you are all far superior at making an atmosphere than Aussies), do you think it is at all possible that they add value/interest to a match day experience?

Dp any SL clubs have cheerleaders?

It’s tacky and plastic...ie. fake. It’s the equivalent of those ‘applause’ signs that appear in talk shows. It’s forced, manufactured. None of it is real. The fakeness is even more blatant with the ‘get on your feet’, or ‘make some noise’ signs that appear on signs around certain stadiums of certain sports.

Cheerleaders, pom poms, giving teams silly nicknames (Widnes ‘Vikings’, Newcastle ‘Thunder’, Leeds ‘Rhinos’), a plethora of gimmicky fakeness. Stuff like this belongs in fake stuff like WWE.

Of course all this fakeness comes from the home of fakeness. The worst aspect in a sporting context being teams relocating at the drop of a hat as they have zero connection to their community. Imagine saying to the people of Liverpool, “cheerio folks, we are leaving Anfield and relocating Liverpool FC 2000 miles away”....cue WWIII. Barcelona FC fans, we are renaming your club “Barcelona mavericks”, Real Madrid fans, your club will be known as “Real Madrid titans”. Cue rioting. Genuine passion, atmosphere and authentic identity beats fakeness every time.

The Aussies are very Americanized in their sports, and that’s seeped into the rugby codes here. Super League is basically a junior partner of the NRL and adopts so much of what they do.

[Robin Evans]

4 minutes ago, DC77 said:

It’s tacky and plastic...ie. fake. It’s the equivalent of those ‘applause’ signs that appear in talk shows. It’s forced, manufactured. None of it is real. The fakeness is even more blatant with the ‘get on your feet’, or ‘make some noise’ signs that appear on signs around certain stadiums of certain sports.

Cheerleaders, pom poms, giving teams silly nicknames (Widnes ‘Vikings’, Newcastle ‘Thunder’, Leeds ‘Rhinos’), a plethora of gimmicky fakeness. Stuff like this belongs in fake stuff like WWE.

Of course all this fakeness comes from the home of fakeness. The worst aspect in a sporting context being teams relocating at the drop of a hat as they have zero connection to their community. Imagine saying to the people of Liverpool, “cheerio folks, we are leaving Anfield and relocating Liverpool FC 2000 miles away”....cue WWIII. Barcelona FC fans, we are renaming your club “Barcelona mavericks”, Real Madrid fans, your club will be known as “Real Madrid titans”. Cue rioting. Genuine passion, atmosphere and authentic identity beats fakeness every time.

The Aussies are very Americanized in their sports, and that’s seeped into the rugby codes here. Super League is basically a junior partner of the NRL and adopts so much of what they do.

You're an old person,  right?

[RobertAM]

all this political correctness has done away with wet t shirts contests too..I remember going to one in the ballroom of the Queen Mary in Long Beach California..winner nearly took my eye out..

[Tommygilf]

1 minute ago, RobertAM said:

all this political correctness has done away with wet t shirts contests too..I remember going to one in the ballroom of the Queen Mary in Long Beach California..winner nearly took my eye out..

There was one in the basement of our hostel in Latvia last year which was up there with the weirdest things I've ever stumbled on

[wiganermike]

10 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

There was one in the basement of our hostel in Latvia last year which was up there with the weirdest things I've ever stumbled on

That has got to be the most low-rent of low-rent venues for anything. Gives the impression that a pipe had burst so the people in the room decided to fill the time while waiting for the plumber.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

21 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

There was one in the basement of our hostel in Latvia last year which was up there with the weirdest things I've ever stumbled on

If I had a pound for every dodgy contest I've been involved in in a basement in Eastern Europe, I'd be able to buy another leather mask and gag and... Actually, you won't be interested in what I got up to in a basement in Latvia last year...

[Tommygilf]

19 minutes ago, wiganermike said:

That has got to be the most low-rent of low-rent venues for anything. Gives the impression that a pipe had burst so the people in the room decided to fill the time while waiting for the plumber.

It was a bar as well too tbf but it was suitably odd

[Tommygilf]

16 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

If I had a pound for every dodgy contest I've been involved in in a basement in Eastern Europe, I'd be able to buy another leather mask and gag and... Actually, you won't be interested in what I got up to in a basement in Latvia last year...

Maybe its a Hull thing?

[The Hallucinating Goose]

4 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Maybe its a Hull thing?

Yeah I'm sure it's fun in the Hull of a ship but I have a phobia of still water so you probably wouldn't get me on board. 

[gingerjon]

5 hours ago, Robin Evans said:

You're an old person,  right?

Also wrong in pretty much every way it's possible to be.

[DC77]

“GO TEAM GO....RA RA RA”

Code for: “WITH THE ABSENCE OF REAL PASSION IN THE CROWD, LETS MANUFACTURE AN ATMOSPHERE”

The lack of genuine passion (among many spectators) is why fans of sports teams there are transient, have a passing interest, hence why a team can relocate without any bother. It’s not entrenched in the community like here (good book on this very subject that appeared on this site a year or two back). A supporter here is for life, there its for Christmas. When Wimbledon FC left for Milton Keynes, the whole U.K. was disgusted...”you’ve ripped the heart out of the club”, “how can you take the club away from its community”. There’s none of that there. A team just up sticks and leaves, and plops itself down into another area. If it doesn’t make enough money, it will then move again. These are “franchises” (cold, clinical concept)...the objective is to make money, and moving is not an obstacle. The owner (no not the players, or the coach) gets to pick up the trophy. Contrast that to this:

“At a football club, there's a holy trinity – the players, the manager and the supporters. Directors don't come into it. They are only there to sign the cheques.”

- Bill Shankly, Liverpool FC

Besides the lack any authenticity with cheerleaders etc. you’d need to have a very high threshold for embarrassment to embrace this. Aussie crowds are dead, so it’s no surprise they have adopted it. The rugger at Twickenham has cheering prompts (signs that go right around the stadium to tell the toffs to ‘make some noise’)..as it too is devoid of any atmosphere. Telegraph article says the biggest cheer on the day of an Eng vs NZ test was when Beckham appeared on the big screen.

[Oldbear]

On 21/09/2020 at 06:12, Dunbar said:

Is that a mixed group dkw or girls only?

In the US there is much less political/social pressure on cheerleading as groups are mixed and have been for many many years.

In Canadian University sport cheerleader groups are also mixed. It’s actually quite scary when you see how high the guys toss the girls, then nonchalantly catch them like it’s a breeze, of course if it goes wrong there is the potential for catastrophic injury! Mind you most of the cheerleaders are gymnasts on scholarship so perhaps it is a breeze to them.

Also my eldest sons (gridiron) football team has 2 horses as mascots, real live horses ridden by expert riders. At one home game 2 seasons ago, after I think the teams 6th or 7th touchdown as the horses did their customary gallop round the stadium one stopped to do a large dump in the end zone, the cheerleaders were charged with clearing up the ######! My son said both teams gathered together at halfway to laugh and most of the 6,000 or so crowd got out their cellphones to film the whole thing. Adds a new twist to enhancing the game day experience!

[Oldbear]

Also the cheerleaders squad at Western is around 30-40 strong so displays look impressive, and they are aged 18-23 years old. There’s nothing worse than a poorly choreographed group of about 6-8 school kids, it looks cheap.

Now my other son plays RU for Brock University and there’s no cheerleaders at their games, mind you if a squad of 30-40 cheerleaders did show up it would add about 50% to the crowd as they rarely draw more than 75 spectators!

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

22 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:

https://www.sharks.com.au/news/2020/09/28/round-20-with-the-minespec-parts-mermaids/
 

@DavidM, I thought the link above may be helpful in your research.

Very professional outfit

[Dunbar]

13 hours ago, DC77 said:

“GO TEAM GO....RA RA RA”

Code for: “WITH THE ABSENCE OF REAL PASSION IN THE CROWD, LETS MANUFACTURE AN ATMOSPHERE”

The lack of genuine passion (among many spectators) is why fans of sports teams there are transient, have a passing interest, hence why a team can relocate without any bother. It’s not entrenched in the community like here (good book on this very subject that appeared on this site a year or two back). A supporter here is for life, there its for Christmas. When Wimbledon FC left for Milton Keynes, the whole U.K. was disgusted...”you’ve ripped the heart out of the club”, “how can you take the club away from its community”. There’s none of that there. A team just up sticks and leaves, and plops itself down into another area. If it doesn’t make enough money, it will then move again. These are “franchises” (cold, clinical concept)...the objective is to make money, and moving is not an obstacle. The owner (no not the players, or the coach) gets to pick up the trophy. Contrast that to this:

“At a football club, there's a holy trinity – the players, the manager and the supporters. Directors don't come into it. They are only there to sign the cheques.”

- Bill Shankly, Liverpool FC

Besides the lack any authenticity with cheerleaders etc. you’d need to have a very high threshold for embarrassment to embrace this. Aussie crowds are dead, so it’s no surprise they have adopted it. The rugger at Twickenham has cheering prompts (signs that go right around the stadium to tell the toffs to ‘make some noise’)..as it too is devoid of any atmosphere. Telegraph article says the biggest cheer on the day of an Eng vs NZ test was when Beckham appeared on the big screen.

You do realise that different is not necessarily wrong, it is just different. 

You mock the US and Australian sporting culture but I am pretty sure that when they look at the UK football fans and see the hate filled mobs being physically kept apart by police in case they try to kill each other, they will assume they have a few things right.

[The Rocket]

13 hours ago, DC77 said:

 Aussie crowds are dead, so it’s no surprise they have adopted it.

I`ve been to a lot of Rugby League games in OZ over a very long time and seriously I don`t know what you are talking about. Never been to England so don`t know what crowds are like over there. I certainly know their a lot smaller.

But I can honestly say, that I have had many, many really enjoyable afternoons at the League. When I was a student we had a couple of English backpackers staying at our share house, my mates and I took them to Shark Park and we all had a great afternoon. I don`t think they were acting.

As far as Cheer leaders, over the years they come and go and to be honest I don`t think people take a lot of notice of them. People are there for the footy and apart for the half time break, which most people spend going to the toilet, bar, talking or stretching legs, the game is over pretty quick and all attention is on the game when it`s on.

[Sports Prophet]

For anyone who did watch the Mermaids on the link I left for DavidM they would notice a very skilful set of ladies.

Now grandpa @DC77 you will find that these girls are predominantly dancing when points are scored. Don’t worry, the crowds will cheer at those moments even without the Mermaids. However, I think these ladies are a great addition to the glamour and spectacle of a game.

Alternatively, they may dance around pre-game, much like the video or at HT to pass the time. I think the term “Cheerleader” is disingenuous of what they are delivering. 

[JohnM]

22 hours ago, DC77 said:

It’s tacky and plastic...ie. fake. It’s the equivalent of those ‘applause’ signs that appear in talk shows. It’s forced, manufactured. None of it is real. The fakeness is even more blatant with the ‘get on your feet’, or ‘make some noise’ signs that appear on signs around certain stadiums of certain sports.

Cheerleaders, pom poms, giving teams silly nicknames (Widnes ‘Vikings’, Newcastle ‘Thunder’, Leeds ‘Rhinos’), a plethora of gimmicky fakeness. Stuff like this belongs in fake stuff like WWE.

Of course all this fakeness comes from the home of fakeness. The worst aspect in a sporting context being teams relocating at the drop of a hat as they have zero connection to their community. Imagine saying to the people of Liverpool, “cheerio folks, we are leaving Anfield and relocating Liverpool FC 2000 miles away”....cue WWIII. Barcelona FC fans, we are renaming your club “Barcelona mavericks”, Real Madrid fans, your club will be known as “Real Madrid titans”. Cue rioting. Genuine passion, atmosphere and authentic identity beats fakeness every time.

The Aussies are very Americanized in their sports, and that’s seeped into the rugby codes here. Super League is basically a junior partner of the NRL and adopts so much of what they do.

Er.. How best to put my response without antagonising the sweary filter and the mods? 

Oh, I know... What load of ###############@@#

[JohnM]

1 hour ago, Sports Prophet said:

For anyone who did watch the Mermaids on the link I left for DavidM they would notice a very skilful set of ladies.

Now grandpa @DC77 you will find that these girls are predominantly dancing when points are scored. Don’t worry, the crowds will cheer at those moments even without the Mermaids. However, I think these ladies are a great addition to the glamour and spectacle of a game.

Alternatively, they may dance around pre-game, much like the video or at HT to pass the time. I think the term “Cheerleader” is disingenuous of what they are delivering. 

Grandad? Oh no... He's not bred has he?

[Robin Evans]

11 minutes ago, JohnM said:

Er.. How best to put my response without antagonising the sweary filter and the mods? 

Oh, I know... What load of ###############@@#

I think that just about covers it....