Fake Crowd Noise?

FYI: On the Comcast Sportsnet broadcast of the Wizards Pistons Game. 4:20 Left In The 3rd Quarter. Steve Buckhantz: "I tell you what Phil, I'm kind of surprised. They have the fake noise in here, as Stevenson scores. You know it's hard for me to figure that out in arenas that are as filled as this is on a regular basis."

When my girlfriend fakes it, I'm still happy. When an NBA crowd fakes it, I get no pleasure.

During the first few minutes of the Wizards-Pistons game, Antonio Daniels was walking the ball up the court. The score was something like 6-3 and there was like 10 minutes left in the first quarter. The crowd was going crazy. I could barely hear the announcers.

It was the first week of the NBA season. Many fans see it as a meaningless game. Definitely a meaningless first quarter. I figured that there must have been something on the Jumbo Tron, like a Wizards Suck or some hot chick. But all the fans at the arena were sitting down, and looked to be casually watching this boring basketball action. Then it happened again. At another moment when a crowd shouldn't be going crazy.

Finally the announcers brought it up that it was being played on the PA system. Are you kidding me? That may work at Colts games but not in the NBA. Are the Detroit fans really that awful? Probably not, I'm sure it wasn't their idea. They need to complain. If they do that at Verizon, I will be pissed.

The worst part of the fake crowd noise was that it took away from the essence of watching a basketball game. The ups & downs of the game are reflected in the crowd noise level. It makes the game exciting to watch. I felt like I was being cheated. Radio listeners must have felt like they were missing something.

After finding out from the announcers, I started to notice more things. The crowd is going wild! As a Wizard drives to the hoop he is fouled. At the moment of the whistle, a real crowd stops cheering. Not this fake crowd. It continued to cheer for another 3 seconds (someone forgot to cut it off in time). As the REAL FANS booed the call, the fake fans were cheering like it was game 7 of the finals! If you are gonna use it, at least do it in appropriate situations.

I'm curious if they did that because the game was a national game on NBA TV. I wonder if Detroit decided or if the NBA decided. Do they use the fake crowd noise every game? Whoever made the decision need to stop. NOW!