Let there be NOISE: Bombers fans are the CFL’s loudest

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This article was published 07/09/2014 (4079 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Take a bow, Winnipeg Blue Bombers fans — Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Corey Chamblin says you’re No. 1.

Well, in crowd noise, anyway.

Chamblin, who is a bit of an expert on noisy fans, working as he does in the zoo otherwise known as Regina’s Mosaic Stadium, repeated in Winnipeg on Saturday what he said earlier in the week in Regina — when it comes to raw decibels, there is no place louder in the CFL than Investors Group Field, site of this afternoon’s Banjo Bowl between the Riders and Bombers.

“I told someone this the other day — they asked, why do you think it’s the loudest, and I said because we’re always in it,” Chamblin said shortly after his team’s arrival in Winnipeg.

“It’s always a huge rivalry and so there’s always a lot of intensity there… and there’s a lot of hatred or whatever there. And the other thing is just the way (IGF) is built. The fans get excited and they’re going from start to finish.”

Now, before Bombers fans start dislocating shoulders patting themselves on the back, you should know this — not everyone on the Riders is so willing to hand over the trophy for loudest crowd to Winnipeg.

Riders QB Darian Durant, for instance, insists the title still belongs to the fans at Mosaic Field. “Of course,” Durant told reporters on Saturday. “I have to go with my home team and who I play for.

“But that’s not taking anything away from these fans here (in Winnipeg). They’re great — they make it tough on opponents. They’re loud as can be. But I’d never take anything away from our fans. That would be disrespectful and I wouldn’t do that at all.”

So just to be clear, Darian — it’s louder at Mosaic than IGF? “Yes. Yes it is.”

It will come as little surprise Bombers players don’t see it the same way as Durant, although Winnipeg linebacker Abe Kromah — who played for the Riders previously — is willing to concede fans at Mosaic are better at something other than just raw noise.

‘I have to go with my home team and who I play for. But that’s not taking anything away from these fans here (in Winnipeg). They’re great — they make it tough on opponents’

— Darian Durant.

“I would think the loudest (stadium) would be here, but the most hostile, I would probably have to give it to Saskatchewan because of things I maybe don’t have to say,” Kromah laughed Saturday after the Bombers held a light walk-through at IGF in front of a couple of thousand fans who’d turned out for free hotdogs and fan appreciation day.

Kromah said Riders fans have taken verbal harassment to a level unmatched anywhere, including Winnipeg.

“Over here, you don’t hear it as much. It doesn’t get as crazy in the stands,” said Kromah.

Bombers cornerback Chris Randle agreed with Kromah that you hear individual voices — and what they’re saying — more clearly in Regina, but the overriding roar of the crowd is second to none in Winnipeg.

“And either way, it’s just fun,” said Randle. “All that noise — as an opposing player, you just want to prove them all wrong. It gets in your blood and you want to show them.”

The only game the Bombers won at home in their inaugural season at Investors Group Field in 2013 was over Saskatchewan in the Banjo Bowl, suggesting the amped-up atmosphere for the most eagerly anticipated regular-season game of the year gave the home side a lift.

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Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea was asked if he could actually quantify the advantage a sold-out and very partisan crowd will give his team today.

“Just going on past experience, I’d say it’s worth a penalty or two — a time count or procedure, some kind of miscommunication. And even if it doesn’t turn out to be yardage or time, there will be some kind of miscommunication, hopefully,” said O’Shea.

All of which brings us back to Durant, who while maintaining Winnipeg fans take a back seat to Regina fans in terms of decibels, also had to admit they do make his life difficult enough on the field that the Riders have put some wrinkles into their offence this week to deal with it.

“We’ve made some adjustments. I’m not going to get into those, but we’ve definitely made some adjustments to deal with (the crowd noise) and be better with it,” said Durant.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @PaulWiecek