If you ’ve ever watch a Seattle Seahawks home game on telly , you ’ve for certain heard the commentators talk about how loud it is at CenturyLink Field . ( " By golly , Jim , it ’s loud in here , " or something to that effect . ) It ’s true — the stadium is remarkably noisy . Last season it was awarded the Guinness World Record for the brassy open - melody bowl in the reality when it reached 137.6 decibels during a Monday dark game against the Saints . Is that loud ? Yeah , it ’s pretty loud .
This haphazardness is n’t just for pose world records . Because of the clamor of shrieks , tinker’s damn , and roaring , the Seahawks have the best home landing field advantage of any team in the NFL . Opposing offenses ca n’t hear play calls , and because of this they rack up false commencement penalties at an highly high charge per unit .
Butwhyis CenturyLink so loud ?
Is it because Seattle ’s fans love their team more than you love yours and they ’re able-bodied to scream louder because of this ? Are their lung more sinewy because of the crisp Pacific Northwest air , which allows them to press out more impressive shriek ? In short : not just .
While Seattle ’s fans are enthusiastic , CenturyLink achieve those record - break dB level because of its design . Paul Allen , the billionaire owner of the team , explicitly wanted a stadium that would be loud , so he approach architect Jon Niemuth with this petition . The place , which was build in 2002 , is constructed to be gimcrack .
CenturyLink posture on the small step of any stadium in the NFL . Despite this , it ’s not small . It hold back 67,000 rooter , and they are piled steeply to form a tube of twiddle sound . As NiemuthtoldSports Illustrated , “ If you ’re trying to create a container , the giving the cup you’re able to make it the good . ”
speech sound get off upwards in open - air bowl ( it ’s why domes are always so loud ) , so to counter this , about 70 % of CenturyLink ’s rear end are covered by canopy . These canopy are determine likeparabolas , and they point the sound back at the field . Adding to all this are the Al bleacher that fill the stands by the north end zone . When stomped on , these create an all-powerful racket .
Put all these factors together , and you have a formula for one loud stadium .
