Australia's loudest crowd?
Channel 7 will measure the decibel reading of the Power crowd at Saturday night's blockbuster against the Bombers at Adelaide Oval
That’s what Channel Seven wants to find out, because it reckons Port Adelaide’s 45,000+ crowd at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday night will be the loudest in Australia.
After televising the Power’s Round 10 game against Hawthorn, Seven’s commentary team decided Port Adelaide’s true believers – a South Australian AFL record crowd of 52,233 – was the loudest in the country.
Seven will try to decide it for certain in Saturday night’s blockbuster against the Bombers at the Adelaide Oval, where the Power will again look to draw a massive attendance to get its side over the line, by hiring Adelaide-based acoustic consultants Marshall Day to measure the decibel reading of the stadium in-game.
The roar of Port Adelaide’s crowd typically starts when Rudimental’s Not Giving In signals the entrance of the Power playing group to the arena before the game.
Marshall Day’s acoustic consultant Alex Morabito will be right there when that happens.
“We’ll be set up from before the game starts, for the players’ run out, so if everyone can be sitting in their seats when the players come out at 7pm we’ll be able to get a good reading then,” says Morabito.
“General crowd noise in a ground like Adelaide Oval is about 90-95 dBA, heavy metal rock concerts can be up to 160 dBA, and the Seahawks was around the 137 mark.
“We’ll measure the crowd noise right up until the final siren and report it back during and after the game, we’ll be looking for the roars of the crowd when goals are kicked and, hopefully for the Power, a good result at the end.”
No one knows the loud factor of the Power’s faithful army more than its own favourite son, Robbie Gray.
In the best form of his career, Gray infamously failed to hear the half time siren in the club’s drought-breaking win over Geelong in Round 6.
It led to the pitch of the Adelaide Oval siren being raised to be heard above the Port Adelaide crowd.
Gray believes if the Power can get a big crowd on Saturday night, it could rival the 137.6-decibel world record for a sports crowd set by the American NFL team Seattle last year.
Purchase your tickets to Saturday night’s game and be part of history
“The way the Adelaide Oval’s been rebuilt seems to keep the noise inside the stadium and at times it’s been hard for us as players to hear each other out there,” Gray told portadelaidefc.com.au.
“Our crowd support has been fantastic so far this year and gives us a real boost on the field at the Bulldogs game two weeks ago, even though it wasn’t as big as previous weeks, it was still amazing.
“Every week we’ve noticed it and it’s been fantastic for the club.
“Against the Cats I took a mark outside 50 and went back looking for an option inside 50, and while I was doing that the siren apparently went.
“Obviously I didn’t hear it at all and I ended up kicking it in short just after the siren sounded – they had to turn it up after that, because the crowd was so noisy.
“This Saturday night is another massive opportunity to fill the place up with our supporters for a big game against a big Vic club and see how loud we really are on the decibel reader.”
Ticket sales for the night blockbuster continue steadily, with less than 250 reserved seat daily tickets available via Ticketek and current general admission ticket sales limited to standing room only.
3-game memberships remain one of the best value options for supporters to access not only Saturday night’s clash, but also other marquee night games at the Adelaide Oval against Sydney and Carlton.
Get your 3-game membership and see the Power play the Dons, Swans and Blues at Adelaide Oval.
Port Adelaide’s huge night game entertainment spectacle gets underway with the March from the Mall at 5:30pm, before the players run out onto the Oval at 7:00pm and the first bounce at 7:10pm on Saturday night.
Louder than a?
On Saturday night we’ll know where the Port Adelaide crowd stacks up compared to these noises:
60 dBA - normal speaking
80 dBA - alarm clock
105-106 dBA - rock concert
120 dBA - thunder and lightning
137.6 dBA - Seattle Seahawks record crowd noise
160 dBA - Metallica