The wave or the Mexican wave (outside North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

) is an example of metachronal rhythm

Metachronal rhythm

A metachronal rhythm or metachronal wave refers to wavy movements produced by the sequential action of structures such as cilia, segments of worms or legs. These movements produce the appearance of a travelling wave. A Mexican wave is a large scale example of a metachronal wave...

 achieved in a packed stadium

Stadium

A modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event...

 when successive groups of spectators briefly stand and raise their arms. Immediately upon stretching to full height, the spectator returns to the usual seated position.

The result is a "wave" of standing spectators that travels through the crowd, even though individual spectators never move away from their seats. In many large arenas the crowd is seated in a contiguous circuit all the way around the sport field, and so the wave is able to travel continuously around the arena; in discontiguous seating arrangements, the wave can instead reflect

Reflection (physics)

Reflection is the change in direction of a wavefront at an interface between two differentmedia so that the wavefront returns into the medium from which it originated. Common examples include the reflection of light, sound and water waves...

 back and forth through the crowd. When the gap in seating is narrow, the wave can sometimes pass through it. Usually only one wave crest will be present at any given time in an arena. Simultaneous, counter-rotating waves have been produced.

Fenway Park

Some claim that the first appearenece of the wave was at Fenway Park

Fenway Park

Fenway Park is a baseball park near Kenmore Square in Boston, Massachusetts. Located at 4 Yawkey Way, it has served as the home ballpark of the Boston Red Sox baseball club since it opened in 1912, and is the oldest Major League Baseball stadium currently in use. It is one of two "classic"...

. As the legened goes the wave owes its existence to a section of tightly packed seats behind home plate at Fenway Park. These seats are so close together that whenever a fan had to stand up to, say, get a beer, everyone else in the row also had to stand. The fans in the next row, frustrated that they couldn’t see the game anymore, also got up. This created a domino effect with the entire section rising in rhythmic unison.

1960s

Observers report that the wave originated at Pacific Lutheran University

Pacific Lutheran University

Pacific Lutheran University is located in Parkland, a suburb of Tacoma, Washington. In September 2009, PLU had a student population of 3,582 and approximately 280 full-time faculty...

 in the early 1960s. Reportedly, a cheerleader named Bill T. Peterson would sprint along the basketball court during games, encouraging fans to rise and cheer as he passed and hence creating an early version of the audience "wave."

1970s–1980s

The wave was done later at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and adopted by the National Hockey League

National Hockey League

The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

 in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 in the late 1970s, then introduced to a wider audience (intentionally) in October 1981 at a Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

 game in Oakland, California, by Krazy George, and gained notoriety at U.S.American football games in Seattle, Washington's Kingdome stadium. The wave was created in Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

 by a marketing campaign for the local soccer team the Vancouver Whitecaps, in which they got the crowd to perform this for a commercial in which their slogan was "Catch the Wave."

On June 24, 1981, while waiting for President Reagan to take the podium at the U.S.A. Jaycees National Convention at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas, the Jaycee members and their guests—about 10,000 people—began doing the wave. It lasted for about three or four minutes before the Secret Service requested the U.S.A. Jaycee President ask the membership to stop the action, presumably because it made it difficult to monitor the crowd. This address by the U.S.A President was only the second or third major speech after he had been shot by John Hinckley Jr. on March 30, 1981.

Krazy George

Some claim that the first appearance of the wave was a section by section cheer at a Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

 game that was led by professional cheerleader Krazy George Henderson

Krazy George Henderson

Krazy George Henderson is a professional cheerleader and claimed inventor of the audience wave.Krazy George began cheerleading while a student at San Jose State in 1968, where he was also a member of the National Championship winning judo team...

 in Oakland, California

Oakland, California

Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

 on October 15, 1981, in an American League Championship Series

American League Championship Series

In Major League Baseball, the American League Championship Series , played in October, is a round in the postseason that determines the winner of the American League pennant...

 game between the Oakland Athletics

Oakland Athletics

The Oakland Athletics are a Major League Baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Athletics have played in the O.co Coliseum....

 and the New York Yankees

New York Yankees

The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...

.

Krazy George believes that the wave originally was inspired by accident when he was leading cheers at a National Hockey League game at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. His routine was to have one side of the arena jump and cheer, then have the opposite side respond. One night in late 1980, there was a delayed response from one section of fans, leading to them jumping to their feet a few seconds later than the section beside them. The next section of fans followed suit, and the first wave circled the Northlands Coliseum of its own accord. Krazy George then perfected the method for initiating a wave cheer with the Edmonton fans, and carried the wave with him to other venues, culminating with the aforementioned televised Major League Baseball game.

University of Washington

Many claim that the first wave originated in Seattle at the University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

's Husky Stadium

Husky Stadium

Husky Stadium is an outdoor athletic stadium on the campus of the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the home of the Washington Huskies...

 on October 31, 1981, at the prompting of Dave Hunter (Husky band trumpet player) and Robb Weller

Robb Weller

Robb Weller is an American game show host and television personality and producer .He hosted Entertainment Tonight from 1984 to 1989. He currently appears as the co-anchor of FOX 11 Sunday Morning News with Gina Silva at KTTV in Los Angeles...

 (later Entertainment Tonight

Entertainment Tonight

Entertainment Tonight is a daily tabloid television entertainment television news show that is syndicated by CBS Television Distribution throughout the United States, Canada and in many countries around the world. Linda Bell Blue is currently the program's executive producer...

co-host, and then a television producer). Contrary to Weller's account, former Washington yell leader Tolly Allen has also claimed credit for the first wave. Weller, a Washington graduate, was the guest yell-king during the Huskies' homecoming football game against the Stanford University Cardinal (led by junior quarterback John Elway

John Elway

John Albert Elway, Jr. is a former American football quarterback and currently is the executive vice president of football operations for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League . He played college football at Stanford and his entire professional career with the Denver Broncos...

). Weller's initial concept for the wave was for it to travel vertically, from the bottom of the stands to the top, within the UW student section. Weller claimed to have done this at games when he was yell king. When that was met with limited interest, Weller then came up with the idea to move the wave from top to bottom.

This failed miserably, as it was necessary to turn backward to see the wave progressing downward. Weller then gave up and returned his attention to the game. However, some fans, including Dave Hunter, toward the open (East) end of the stadium on the student side started yelling "sideways". Weller did not hear them, but the students tried to initiate a "sideways" wave on their own. After a few attempts, and more yelling of "sideways" by students, Weller took notice. He instructed the crowd to stand as he ran past. He moved along the track toward the open end of the stadium, explaining to the student crowd what he would do, then ran along the track toward the closed end of the stadium, in front of the student section. After a couple of tries, this caught on, and continued around the entire Husky Stadium, and was repeated throughout the rest of the game and the season. Longtime UW band director Bill Bissell also claimed co-creator credit with Weller, suggesting that the wave was devised by both of them prior to the game. The following week, the wave appeared at Seattle Seahawks

Seattle Seahawks

The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle, Washington. They are currently members of the Western Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team joined the NFL in 1976 as an expansion team...

 professional football games in the Kingdome

Kingdome

The Kingdome was a multi-purpose stadium located in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood. Owned and operated by King County, the Kingdome opened in 1976 and was best known as the home stadium of the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League , the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball , and the...

. While the exact origins of the wave may be in dispute, Seattle was the first place to routinely perform it. It became ubiquitous at every single sporting event in the area in the early 80s, it has been a staple of Seattle sports ever since.

University of Michigan

In the early fall of 1983, the Michigan Wolverines

Michigan Wolverines football

The Michigan Wolverines football program represents the University of Michigan in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Michigan has the most all-time wins and the highest winning percentage in college football history...

 played the Huskies in Seattle and brought the wave back to Michigan Stadium

Michigan Stadium

Michigan Stadium, nicknamed "The Big House," is the football stadium for the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Michigan Stadium was built in 1927 at a cost of $950,000 and had an original capacity of 72,000. Before playing football at the stadium, the Wolverines played on Ferry Field...

 in Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor, Michigan

Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2010 census places the population at 113,934, making it the sixth largest city in Michigan. The Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 344,791 as of 2010...

. A letter to the sports editor of The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

 claimed, "There are three reasons why the wave caught on at Michigan Wolverine games: It gave the fans something to do when the team was leading its opponent by 40 points, it was thrilling and exciting to see 105,000 people in the stands moving and cheering, and Bo Schembechler

Bo Schembechler

Glenn Edward "Bo" Schembechler, Jr. was an American football player, coach, and athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Miami University from 1963 to 1968 and at the University of Michigan from 1969 to 1989, compiling a career record of 234–65–8...

 asked us not to do it." The fans responded to his request by doing more waves, including "Silent Waves" (standing and waving arms without cheering), "Shsh Waves" (replacing the cheering with a "shshing" sound), the "Fast Wave," the "Slow Wave," and two simultaneous waves traveling in opposite directions. The following spring, fans who had enjoyed the wave in Ann Arbor introduced it to the nearby Tiger Stadium in Detroit. The Tigers

Detroit Tigers

The Detroit Tigers are a Major League Baseball team located in Detroit, Michigan. One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Detroit in as part of the Western League. The Tigers have won four World Series championships and have won the American League pennant...

 won the World Series that year

1984 World Series

The 1984 World Series began on October 9 and ended on October 14, 1984. The American League champion Detroit Tigers played against the National League champion San Diego Padres, with the Tigers winning the series four games to one....

 and appeared on many televised games throughout 1984, so people all over America saw it.

1986 FIFA World Cup

In June 1986, the wave was first brought to world-wide attention when it was displayed the 1986 FIFA World Cup

1986 FIFA World Cup

The 1986 FIFA World Cup, the 13th FIFA World Cup, was held in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia had been originally chosen to host the competition by FIFA but, largely due to economic reasons, was not able to do so and officially...

 in Mexico. For many people living outside of North America, this was the first time they ever saw the phenomenon, and it was dubbed the "Mexican wave".

Monterrey, Mexico

The wave was done in Monterrey, Mexico, during a football match between Tigres UANL and C.F. Monterrey. During the half time, the players were taking longer than expected to return to the field, the crowd grew anxious, and the organizers were trying to entertain the crowd and throwing match balls as presents. People were getting more and more creative with their cheer, and thus created "la ola" (the wind wave), which after a few attempts made its way all the way around the stadium.

In Mexico, the Mexican wave was popularized through a show called "Siempre en Domingo" (always on Sunday) by Raul Velazco.

Vancouver, Canada

August 16, 2011 was the first known occurrence of the so-called "Zombie Wave." Coordinated by a particularly zealous fan wearing a Joe Carter

Joe Carter

Joseph Christopher Carter is a former right fielder in Major League Baseball who played from to . Carter is most famous for hitting a walk-off home run to win the 1993 World Series for the Toronto Blue Jays....

 Toronto Blue Jays

Toronto Blue Jays

The Toronto Blue Jays are a professional baseball team located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Blue Jays are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball 's American League ....

 jersey, midway through a minor league baseball game between the Vancouver Canadians

Vancouver Canadians

The Vancouver Canadians are a minor league baseball team located in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Canadians are the Northwest League affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. The C's have previously affiliated with the Oakland Athletics between 2000-2010. They are the only Canadian team in the...

 and the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes

Salem-Keizer Volcanoes

The Salem-Keizer Volcanoes are a minor league baseball team in Keizer, Oregon, United States. They are a Short-Season Class A team in the Northwest League, and have been an affiliate of the San Francisco Giants since the Volcanoes' inception in 1997...

. After repeated standard waves, fast waves, and slow waves, spectators in Section 10 of the Scotiabank Field at Nat Bailey Stadium developed an apparently new variation of the wave. The term "Zombie Wave" was coined by a local sports fan named Sean Sanderson, who at the sight of the slow moving wave shouted out, "Zombie Wave". This was picked up by the wave coordinator and disseminated to the rest of the crowd who then followed suit by rising in a protracted manner with crooked arms and postures, swaying and bumping into each other at random, all while producing zombie-like groans and facial expressions. The zombie wave was then repeated several times, with participation from the other sections of the stadium, and was momentarily noted by players on the field.

Global broadcasts

The 1984 Rose Bowl

1984 Rose Bowl

The 1984 Rose Bowl game, played on January 2, was the 70th Rose Bowl game. The UCLA Bruins defeated the Illinois Fighting Illini by a score of 45-9. Rick Neuheisel, UCLA quarterback, was named the Rose Bowl Player Of The Game. He completed 22 of 32 passes for 298 yards and four touchdowns...

 was broadcast outside North America on January 2, 1984, introducing other countries to the wave as UCLA

UCLA Bruins Football

The UCLA Bruins football program represents the University of California, Los Angeles in college football as members of the Pacific-12 Conference at the NCAA Division I FBS level. The Bruins have enjoyed several periods of success in their history, having been ranked in the top ten of the AP Poll...

 and Illinois

Illinois Fighting Illini football

The Illinois Fighting Illini are a major college football program, representing the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. They compete in NCAA Division I-A and the Big Ten Conference.-Current staff:-All-time win/loss/tie record:*563-513-51...

 fans kept it going around the Rose Bowl Stadium

Rose Bowl (stadium)

The Rose Bowl is an outdoor athletic stadium in Pasadena, California, U.S., in Los Angeles County. The stadium is the site of the annual college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl, held on New Year's Day. In 1982, it became the home field of the UCLA Bruins college football team of the Pac-12...

.

The wave got its first real taste of international exposure during the 1984 Olympic football final between Brazil

Brazil national football team

The Brazil national football team represents Brazil in international men's football and is controlled by the Brazilian Football Confederation , the governing body for football in Brazil. They are a member of the International Federation of Association Football since 1923 and also a member of the...

 and France

France national football team

The France national football team represents the nation of France in international football. It is fielded by the French Football Federation , the governing body of football in France, and competes as a member of UEFA, which encompasses the countries of Europe...

 on August 11, when it was done among the 100,000 in attendance at the Rose Bowl

Rose Bowl (stadium)

The Rose Bowl is an outdoor athletic stadium in Pasadena, California, U.S., in Los Angeles County. The stadium is the site of the annual college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl, held on New Year's Day. In 1982, it became the home field of the UCLA Bruins college football team of the Pac-12...

, Pasadena

Pasadena

-Places:Places in Australia:*Pasadena, South Australia, a suburb of AdelaidePlaces in Canada:*Pasadena, NewfoundlandPlaces in the United States:*Pasadena, California*South Pasadena, California*South Pasadena, Florida*Pasadena, Maryland...

.

The 1986 FIFA World Cup

1986 FIFA World Cup

The 1986 FIFA World Cup, the 13th FIFA World Cup, was held in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia had been originally chosen to host the competition by FIFA but, largely due to economic reasons, was not able to do so and officially...

 in Mexico was broadcast to a global audience, and the wave was popularized world-wide after featuring during the tournament. The finals in Mexico was the first time that many people living outside North America had seen the phenomenon, and as a result it was named the "Mexican wave". In Brazil, Germany, Italy, and other countries the wave is called "la ola" (or simply ola) from the Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

 word for "wave".

Current appearances

Today, the wave is often seen during FIFA World Cup

FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...

 events when the spectators want to show appreciation for the match or during a lull in the action on the sports field to amuse themselves. There is some controversy as to when the wave is appropriate to perform during a sporting event. Some feel that the wave can be performed at any time, and is often done so.

In Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, waves commonly travel in a counterclockwise direction. Prior to the redevelopment of the Melbourne Cricket Ground

Melbourne Cricket Ground

The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...

 between 2002 and 2006, spectators seated in the Members' Stand (reserved for members of the Melbourne Cricket Club

Melbourne Cricket Club

The Melbourne Cricket Club is a sporting club based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1838 and is regarded as the oldest sporting club in Australia....

) would not participate in a Mexican wave, and would be booed by other spectators at the ground, before the wave would resume on the other side of the stand. 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. (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 the Mexican Wave was banned large sections of the Members participated in the protest waves). Such a feature is also observed at Lords, where the Members in the pavilion rarely participate to the boos of the crowd.

Metrics

In 2002, Tamás Vicsek of the Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 along with his colleagues analyzed videos of 14 waves at large Mexican football stadiums, developing a standard model of wave behavior (published in the September 12 issue of Nature

Nature (journal)

Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...

). 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 direction at a rate of about 12 m/s (40 ft/s), 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.

Size records

At the NASCAR

NASCAR

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...

 Sprint Cup Series Sharpie 500

Sharpie 500

The Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol is a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race held at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee. It is one of two Sprint Cup races held at Bristol, the other being the Food City 500, but it is by far the more popular of the two...

, held at Bristol Motor Speedway

Bristol Motor Speedway

Bristol Motor Speedway, formerly known as Bristol International Raceway and Bristol Raceway is a NASCAR short track venue located in Bristol, Tennessee. Constructed in 1960, it held its first NASCAR race on July 30, 1961...

, Bristol, Tennessee

Bristol, Tennessee

Bristol is a city in Sullivan County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 26,702 at the 2010 census. It is the twin city of Bristol, Virginia, which lies directly across the state line between Tennessee and Virginia. The boundaries of both cities run parallel to each other along State...

 on August 23, 2008, 168,000 people performed the wave to set a new Guinness World Record.

At the 1986 Indianapolis 500

1986 Indianapolis 500

The 70th Indianapolis 500 was held at Indianapolis on Saturday, May 31, 1986. After being rained out on May 25–26, the race was rescheduled for the following weekend...

, spectators performed a massive wave around nearly half the 2.5-mile oval, which holds approximately 250,000 seats.

At the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000

2000 Summer Olympics

The Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...

 110,000 people made an inverse wave and two simultaneous opposite direction waves.

At the Olympic Stadium of Helsinki

Helsinki Olympic Stadium

The Helsinki Olympic Stadium , located in the Töölö district about from the center of the Finnish capital Helsinki, is the largest stadium in the country, nowadays mainly used for hosting sports events and big concerts. The stadium is best known for being the center of activities in the 1952...

 on September 10, 2011, the crowd broke the world record with 31 rounds. The former record was 18 rounds.

During the 2010 Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear about 210,000 people participated in an experiment by MythBusters

MythBusters

MythBusters is a science entertainment TV program created and produced by Beyond Television Productions for the Discovery Channel. The series is screened by numerous international broadcasters, including Discovery Channel Australia, Discovery Channel Latin America, Discovery Channel Canada, Quest...

 hosts Jamie Hyneman

Jamie Hyneman

James Franklin "Jamie" Hyneman is an American special effects expert, best known for being the co-host of the television series MythBusters. He is also the owner of M5 Industries, the special effects workshop where MythBusters is filmed...

 and Adam Savage

Adam Savage

Adam Whitney Savage is an American industrial design and special effects designer/fabricator, actor, educator, and co-host of the Discovery Channel television series MythBusters. His model work has appeared in major films, including Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones and The Matrix...

.

Banning

Cricket Australia

Cricket Australia

Cricket Australia, formerly known as the Australian Cricket Board, is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket...

 has banned the wave from all international grounds due to objects being, either unintentionally or deliberately, thrown into the air at the same time. These include plastic cups containing beer

Beer

Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...

, hot food items, or even urine

Urine

Urine is a typically sterile liquid by-product of the body that is secreted by the kidneys through a process called urination and excreted through the urethra. Cellular metabolism generates numerous by-products, many rich in nitrogen, that require elimination from the bloodstream...

, which affects the other spectators around the person who threw it. Anyone who attempts to start a wave will be ejected from the ground. The banning of the wave has been met with a mostly negative response from Australia's sports-going public.