First post...
I sat through four years of games as a member of the PotSMB (95-natty) and six years as a member of the Basketball Pep Band. I have been across the country in both venues and am almost always depressed by the general fan reaction at games. You can count on the student section to be fairly vocal and make some noise, but Joe (needs a ) Six-Pack tends to be fairly docile.
At the same time, it is a trade-off. The University has a wonderful per-ticket donation rate; these people that come in and sit on their hands as if they are attending Easter Mass are also the ones funding the renovations, the scholarships, and the buy-out clauses. While I don't feel that gives them the right to lower the per-attendee decibel level average, they certainly think so and are fairly (non)vocal about their participation in the actual game atmosphere. Pardon the generalizations here; I have seen some bluehairs cursing up a storm at games but that was the exception rather than the rule.
I think this formula works well: The on-premises cheering participation of a UT fan is inversely proportional to the quality of seating area.
Neyland Stadium could easily be one of the loudest places in the nation to play, especially now that the horseshoe is closed in. Fans should be milking the place for all its worth, but when it's just the students and a low percentage of other fans cheering it's hard to get anything going.
