Reducing the Volume of Crowd Noise at Sports Events

Great was the joy throughout China when, almost four years ago, Beijing won the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games. The city's impossible dream had finally come true, a victory the more sweet because the Chinese capital had barely lost out to Sydney in its bid to be awarded the 2000 Games.

Neither the nation or Beijing went into mourning at being pipped at the post by Sydney, which went on to organise one of the best Games since the start of the Modern Olympiad in 1896. Instead, a kind of cold determination set in among Beijing's Olympic officials that they would leave no stone unturned in bidding for the 2008 Games.

Bitterly disappointed though they felt about losing to Sydney, these officials neither sulked nor felt sorry for themselves - though it was recorded that many among them who were in Monte Carlo for the 2000 vote as part of Beijing's bid team cried virtually all the way on the flight back to Beijing. It was probably during those hours that their joint resolve hardened that, whatever it took, within the law, 2008 would see the Olympics mounted in Beijing.

And so it has come to pass, with the city and Beijing's 2008 Olympics Organising Committee (BOBICO for short) now being so far ahead of schedule in their preparations that the Olympic Organizing Committee (IOC) has asked Beijing to put something of a brake on the rapid progress being made.

If there is a major question mark over all this, it could well be over the Chinese public in general, sports enthusiasts especially, and how they as spectators will react when watching the Beijing Olympics. Recent years have started to condition them to witnessing great sports events of our time … the recent Johnnie Walker golf classic, the first China Open tennis tournament, pre-season games in China by the U.S's National Basketball Association, the International Skating Union's figure skating competition, a stage of the World Snooker Championship, won by a virtually unknown Chinese player against the best in the world.

It was spectators' behaviour at this latter event in particular that raised more than a few eyebrows in Beijing and elsewhere. Above all things, snooker is a "quiet" game during which, everywhere in the world, total silence is expected of the audience.

This is a totally different scenario to what the world players in Beijing had to face, and it says much for them that they tried to play their normal game despite constant disturbance from an audience largely ignorant of basic courtesy to those who were entertaining them at such a high level.

No shot was made by either player without comments, whispers and giggles among the audience, few members of which had switched off their mobile phones. And vehicle horns from outside the venue did not help players' concentration.

This unheard babble of background noise can to some degree be forgiven at this stage. It is not customary for Chinese audiences keep quiet, whatever the occasion, and many of them present at this time knew little about the standard environment for championship snooker.

The bottom line to audience behaviour is of course cultural and educational, as well as the need for Chinese especially to become familiar with the types of behaviour expected at differing sports events. The good news, perhaps, is that it was noticeable in Athens that when China's women's volleyball team was playing its joint heart out, their largely Chinese audience cheered them at the right moments, thus giving a boost to the team's confidence.

It is to be hoped that, come 2008, Chinese audiences will have learned when to cheer, and when to remain silent in all respects. It hardly matters if they yell their heads off during athletics events in the stadiums. Nobody will object to that, especially if they remain seated.

The real test will be whether competitors in, say, weight-lifting and gymnastics, who need to concentrate so hard that they appear hypnotised, will in 2008 be accorded an audience civility they deserve.

Meanwhile, the giant clock in front of the National Museum is counting down the days to the Beijing Olympics. Three more years still seems a long time to wait. But it isn't when seen in the context of what needs to be done where local crowd behaviour is concerned.