Seahawks, CenturyLink Field to Attempt Guinness World Record

Photo: Mike Russell, mikerussellfoto.com

There is no question that CenturyLink Field is one of the loudest stadiums in the National Football League. Now, the 12^th Man will have the opportunity to have that title documented for the world to see.

“Volume 12,” a Seahawks fan group not officially associated with the team, has filed paperwork to the Guinness Book of World Records to break the record for “loudest crowd roar at a sports stadium.” Guinness has accepted the application and has sent proper materials to the group in order to successfully provide evidence of the 12^th Man breaking the record. The record will attempt to be broken when the Seahawks host the San Francisco 49ers in our primetime home opener on September 15th.

The current record holder is the Turk Telecom Arena in Istanbul, Turkey. During a soccer match between Galatasaray SC and Fenerbahce SC, the crowd reached a decibel level of 131.76. The Seahawks have documented an official mark of 112 decibels on their team website, and I personally have seen unofficial marks that the 12^th Man reached 131 decibels during the 2005 NFC Championship Game.

If you talked to most Seahawks fans about the crowd noise inside the stadium they would probably tell you that the atmosphere is electric and is already the best experience in the National Football League. I agree with these statements, however I do believe it could be bigger, better, and louder. When it comes to cheering and screaming, it is nearly impossible to reach 100 percent participation when you have 67,000 plus people in a stadium. If you took out the people who do not scream at Seahawks games, you could easily take out a few thousand people. The people who do scream definitely make up for those who choose to cheer in other ways besides screaming.

Just imagine how much louder CenturyLink Field could be if EVERYBODY participated in screaming. This world record attempt is a perfect way to motivate the 12^th Man to achieve noise levels that we have never experienced before. The fact that the world record attempt has been filed for the home opener against San Francisco makes it that much sweeter. The game will be nationally televised against the defending NFC champions and the Seahawks are on a mission to prove all the offseason speculation right; that we are deserving of the NFC West title and could make a Super Bowl run in 2013. The crowd noise always plays a factor in whether the Seahawks win at home or not and this night surely will be no different. My only hope is that this world record attempt does not make the actual game an afterthought. The focus should be screaming to help the Seahawks win first and foremost. There is no question that the 12^th Man can break this world record and I do believe that we will.

If you have tickets and will be in attendance for the Seahawks home opener against the 49ers on September 15^th, make sure to prep your voice for this big day, because your voice may be the difference between us breaking the world record and winning the game, or not.