With the Flyers regular season concluding in Pittsburgh on Saturday, home playoff games are on the horizon. For my money, there is no better live sporting event to attend than a Flyers home playoff game. Flyers fans crank things up to the proverbial “11” for playoff games at the Wells Fargo Center.
However, since the franchise made the move from The Spectrum to the CoreStates/First Union/Wachovia/Wells Fargo Center something hasn’t been right. Yes, people have complained that due to the ticket prices and luxury suites the crowd just has just not been the same since the move. However, that’s not what I am talking about.
No, what I am talking about is a very simple and easily fixable issue. Somehow, in the course of the short move from where The Spectrum once stood to the WFC, Flyers fans somehow forgot the correct way to chant “Let’s Go Flyers.”
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The difference is fairly subtle but unmistakable. Check out the two clips below. The first is a "Let’s Go Flyers" chant from The Spectrum. The second is a "Let’s Go Flyers" chant from the WFC. Take a listen and see if you can pick up on the difference.
Spectrum
WFC
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The old school Spectrum version is slower and more deliberate. The fans don’t speed through it. It’s more of a “Letttt-s Go Flyyyy-ers, clap-clap-clapclap-clap” as compared to the more recent and rushed “Let’sGoFlyers, clapclapclapclapclap”.
What precipitated the change? I have no idea. How does a chant change? I don’t know. The E-A-G-L-E-S , EAGLES! chant did not change in the transition from The Vet to The Linc. I cannot explain how and why it changed, but it did.
I may be old school, but I think it’d be incredibly cool to go back to the pre-WFC way of doing it. It was unique and immediately identifiable with the orange and black. What better way to support the current Flyers team than with the chant we serenaded so many great Flyers teams of the past?
The WFC will likely never match The Spectrum in terms of providing an intimidating home ice advantage. Opposing teams used to dread coming here. Now? Not as much. Obviously, the larger, roomier building has a lot to do with that. Also, ticket prices have likely driven out a number of hardcore fans who used to sit in the upper reaches of The Spectrum who led those “Let’s Go Flyers” chants (as an aside, along with those fans, so went the smell of pot being smoked).
Whatever the reason, I say bring it back. If it was good enough for them, it’s good enough for me.
UPDATE
An astute reader correctly points out that the video from The Spectrum was shot after the Flyers had already moved into the new building - you can tell by the markings at center ice identifying it as The Wachovia Spectrum, which it was from 2003-2009. With that being said, and unless I am hearing differences between the two that are not really there, I am at a complete loss as to why the chant was done correctly at the old building - even after they'd already moved. Regardless, as many of you have confirmed, and video evidence aside, the fact remains that somewhere along the way the chant changed.