INSIDE: Sam Houston St. coach predicts ‘moral victory’ versus Tigers … Miles’ fingers finally touch after months with clapping specialist … Was stadium expansion a covert fracking operation? … Hawthorne: ‘I’ve been blind since at least 1992’ … Peak inside Mike the Tiger suit reveals exhausted hamster on wheel … Report: TAF wants Tiger Stadium viewable from “mother (expletive) space” … Local dad sitting near student section says “earmuffs” NCAA record 437 times … PLUS: Should Kale Chips replace Tiger Dogs? Local Foodies weigh in!
This season, the home of LSU football will boast the first of a three-tiered sound controlling process to protect fans from long-term hearing loss. Step one is the installation of an acoustic dampening foam to be applied to most of the surfaces found in “Death Valley”—including but not limited to steps and ramps, goalposts and yard-markers, those volunteer boy scouts who help fans find their seats and even some slower-moving season ticket holders. “Septugenarians and over, mostly,” says Trey Moak, head of the university’s ticket office.
The result of a decades-long study into the effect the sounds of fans cheering inside Tiger Stadium can have on eardrums, scientists from the California Ear Institute moved swiftly this summer to ensure the necessary measures will be in place for this season’s home opener.