Editing Wave (audience) (section)

== Current appearances ==
[[File:Big Day Out (8392285402).jpg|thumb|The wave performed at the 2013 [[Big Day Out]] music festival in [[Sydney, Australia]]]]
Today, the wave is often seen during sports events, sometimes during a lull in the action on the field when the spectators want to amuse themselves. There is some controversy as to when the wave is appropriate to perform during a sporting event.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://media.www.dailynebraskan.com/media/storage/paper857/news/2002/09/12/SportssportsOpinion/Wave-Goodbye.To.Stadium.Fad-1724487.shtml |title=Daily Nebraskan - Wave goodbye to stadium fad |publisher=Media.www.dailynebraskan.com |access-date=2010-06-09 }}{{dead link|date=January 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>  Many fans feel that the wave should not be performed in important situations during the game.{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}}

Prior to the redevelopment of the [[Melbourne Cricket Ground]] between 2002 and 2006, spectators seated in the Members' Stand (reserved for members of the [[Melbourne Cricket Club]]) would refuse to engage in the wave, and would be booed by other spectators at the ground, before the wave would resume on the other side of the stand.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2003/s1016484.htm |title=AM - Waugh set for last stand at MCG |publisher=Abc.net.au |date=2003-12-26 |access-date=2010-06-09 |archive-date=2017-05-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170512065621/http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2003/s1016484.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Sociologist John Carroll described the practice of "booing the Members" as dismissive of any claim to authority or superior social status on the members' part, although good-natured and based on the egalitarian nature of watching sports.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ausport.gov.au/fulltext/2001/sportsf/s366728.htm |title=Sports Factor - 14/09/01: Sports Sacred Sites |publisher=Ausport.gov.au |access-date=2010-06-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090109162945/http://www.ausport.gov.au/fulltext/2001/sportsf/s366728.htm |archive-date=2009-01-09 |url-status=dead }}</ref> (As a postscript to the "booing the Members" phenomenon, even when the Members stand was closed due to the reconstruction work, the crowd would still boo, despite the Members' stand being completely empty. When waves were banned (see below), large sections of the Members participated in the protest waves.) Such a feature is also observed at [[Lord's]], another cricket ground, where the Members in that arena also rarely participate and are booed by the crowd.{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}}

[[Cricket Australia]] formally banned the wave at home games in 2007 on the grounds that liquids and other objects thrown in the air during the wave posed a danger.<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://www.smh.com.au/news/cricket/cricket-chiefs-ban-mexican-wave/2007/02/01/1169919460640.html|title = Cricket chiefs ban Mexican wave|date = February 2007|access-date = 2018-05-11|archive-date = 2018-05-12|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180512043603/https://www.smh.com.au/news/cricket/cricket-chiefs-ban-mexican-wave/2007/02/01/1169919460640.html|url-status = live}}</ref> The move was not well-received and in some cases served to increase the prevalence of the wave at those games. In one such example, [[Adam Gilchrist]], the Australian [[wicketkeeper]], participated in the banned wave from the playing field. The ban continues to be intermittently imposed and lifted by Cricket Australia and Australian police.{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}}

=== Metrics ===

In 2002, Tamás Vicsek of the [[Eötvös Loránd University]], [[Hungary]] along with his colleagues, analyzed videos of 14 waves at large Mexican football stadiums, developing a standard model of wave behavior (published in ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]''). He found that it takes only the actions of a few dozen fans to trigger a wave. Once started, it usually rolls in a [[Clockwise and counterclockwise|clockwise]] direction at a rate of about {{cvt|12|m/s|ft/s km/h mph}}, or about 22 seats per second. At any given time the wave is about 15 seats wide. These observations appear to be applicable across different cultures and sports, though details vary in individual cases.<ref>{{cite journal |author1 = I. Farkas |author2 = D. Helbing |author3 = T. Vicsek |date = 12 September 2002 |title = Mexican waves in an excitable medium |journal = [[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume = 419 |pages = 131–2 |issn = 0028-0836 |url = http://angel.elte.hu/wave/download/article/MexWave.pdf |access-date = 2007-02-10 |doi = 10.1038/419131a |issue = 6903 |pmid = 12226653 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070202223956/http://angel.elte.hu/wave/download/article/MexWave.pdf |archive-date = 2 February 2007 |arxiv = cond-mat/0210073 |s2cid = 4309609 }}&nbsp;Details of the research are at [http://angel.elte.hu/wave Mexican wave (La Ola) A quantitative analysis of the propagating human wave] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514141453/http://angel.elte.hu/wave/ |date=2011-05-14 }}</ref>

=== Records ===
During the 2010 [[Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear]], an event hosted by comedy TV show hosts [[Jon Stewart]] and [[Stephen Colbert]], about 210,000 people participated in a wave led by ''[[MythBusters]]'' hosts [[Jamie Hyneman]] and [[Adam Savage]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.necn.com/news/new-england/_NECN___Mythbusters__Try_Giant_Wave_at_DC_Rally_NECN-247335371.html|title='Mythbusters' Try Giant Wave at DC Rally|date=26 February 2014 |access-date=2016-03-31|archive-date=2016-04-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413001208/http://www.necn.com/news/new-england/_NECN___Mythbusters__Try_Giant_Wave_at_DC_Rally_NECN-247335371.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 23 June 2019, during the [[Rocket League Championship Series]] (video game e-sports) Season 7 Finals at the [[Prudential Center]] in [[Newark, New Jersey]], the audience set a new record for a longest continuous wave lasting for 28 minutes and 35 seconds.<ref>{{Citation|last=Rocket League Esports|title=RLCS Season 7 World Championship {{!}} Day 3|date=2019-06-23|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PspyaDI4c-Q&t=21918|access-date=2019-06-24}}</ref> The previous record was 17 minutes and 14 seconds set by [[Tube (band)|Tube]] and their fans at a concert at the [[Koshien Stadium]] in [[Nishinomiya, Japan]] on 23 September 2015.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/longest-mexican-wave-(timed)|title=Longest Mexican Wave (Timed)|website=Guinness World Records|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-06-24|archive-date=2019-05-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190527005807/http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/longest-mexican-wave-(timed)|url-status=live}}</ref>