Why is anyone surprised it has happened before it will happen agian. We are dealing with uneducated people who only have one thing to look forward to , there beloved Canadians, in there barren wasteland.

“gaaaave prooooof through the KNIGHTS!”

I’m a big, big singer of the National Anthem whenever given a chance, and I think what it boils down to is for some reason folks round here are just too self-conscious to sing. What a shame.

I moved to ATL from CHI almost exactly a year ago so I’m used to a loud anthem. What’s your guys’ opinion about how they yell/scream/shout/whistle/cheer through the whole thing.

Personally, I think it’s awesome and gets everybody jacked up. When everybody’s silent, it’s all calm and sullen – hardly the atmosphere I want for a sporting event.

I don’t think liberal/conservative has much to do with it. Anaheim (conservative Orange County) and San Jose (ultra liberal Bay Area) fans don’t sing along with the anthem that much in either building. It probably has more to do with the presumed sophistication (for lack of a better word) and heterogeneity (also for lack of a better word) of the audience in a particular city. People in Minnesota probably don’t care much whether anyone thinks they are “sophisticated” and when they look around the arena they probably see people who look like them and might very well be friends or neighbors which may make them more relaxed about joining in an anthem sing.
As a side note, having just had an opportunity to attend the last two games of the Ducks-Sharks playoff series (Sunday in San Jose and last night in Anaheim), its absolutely brutal to come back to Atlanta which has never seen anything remotely resembling an exciting playoff series. I’m convinced that the intensity of this kind of series and the lore and legend that grows up around it, is one of the major factors in keeping fans attention year over year, keeps them coming back to the arena. How much longer can the Thrashers hang on without building these kind of memories and loyalty among fans?

First off, patriotism is much more subdued in Canada, so the singing/booing of a national anthem is not considered to be such a serious matter. Secondly, the province of Quebec considers itself something of an island of Francophone culture in North American, surrounded by an overwhelming Anglo majority on three sides. That makes the residents somewhat defensive and rebellious.

Not advocating the practice, but it seems pretty mild in comparison to hometown fan behaviour in other areas of sport. College hockey crowds in the U.S. certainly don’t “mince words” in expressing their opinion of the opposing team in my experience. European football is a whole other dimension. Words are the least of their worries, it is the sticks, stones, homemade incendiary devices, sharpened objects, glass bottles, and weapons of various sorts, that opposing teams have to deal with. Not to mention constant racist chants.

What about all of the UNAMERICANS that shout “Night” during thae singing of our national anthem? Give it up, the Atlanta Knights are gone. Be respectful for the freedoms that we all have.

One of the main reasons the fans in Minny sing along with the anthem is that they used to have a regular anthem singer that would always say “join with me” before he would start singing. I’m fairly certain it started shortly after 9/11 and I want to say his name was Mike Schmidt. I think once he started doing it, the fans got used to it as a tradition that hasn’t died even though Mike moved away from Minnesota a couple years ago.