OTTAWA — The Ottawa Senators’ home arena was a bit too quiet, as it often is for regular-season games not involving the Toronto Maple Leafs or the Montreal Canadiens. The opponents last Tuesday night were the Detroit Red Wings, and most of the phlegmatic Senators crowd at Canadian Tire Centre sat and watched in hushed contemplation.
But not in Section 319 in the upper deck, where red-and-black-clad fans stood, beating on drums and raising a din all night. “Oh, when the Sens! Go marching in!” they sang again and again, between chants of “This is our house!” When Ottawa scored, the fans, mostly young men, jumped around with such reckless joy that they almost tumbled from their rows.
The raucous proceedings, taking place under the watchful gaze of club employees, are believed to be the first team-supported attempt to foster the atmosphere of an avid soccer crowd in the N.H.L. If it catches on, the Senators’ arena will feel less like a library.
“We’re not the loudest building in the league, and we’d like it to be a little louder,” said Cyril Leeder, the Senators’ president, explaining the initiative to enliven the mood and build attendance in one of the N.H.L.’s smallest markets.
The team has begun a 10-game experiment with Red Scarf Union, a fan group modeled after those popular in English soccer. For the designated games, the 295 seats in Section 319 are being sold through Red Scarf Union’s Facebook and Twitter pages or a special Senators email address, at discounts of 50 percent or more.
Fans who buy these tickets understand that the normal rules of North American fandom may not be observed in their section.
“For those games, fans in that section can bring in drums and flags, they can stand up the whole time and they can make as much noise as they want,” said Chris Atack, the Senators’ director for season-ticket and group sales. “They still have to respect the code of conduct — no profanity, no drunkenness, no abusive language, no throwing things — but otherwise, be loud and have fun.”
Patrick McSweeney, the president of Red Scarf Union, put it another way during the Red Wings game.
“We have a lot of work to do, cheering the building up,” he said. “But our passion is second to none, and we will keep the building rocking all night.”
The Senators have particular problems to overcome. When the franchise was founded in 1992, allegiances in Ottawa were strongly established with either the Maple Leafs or the Canadiens. When those teams, from much larger nearby cities, come here, their fans can drown out Senators fans — hence Red Scarf’s insistent chant, “This is our house.” Even a team like the Red Wings can have 1,000 or more fans making considerable noise.
Ottawa also has problems selling out regular-season games. The official attendance last Tuesday was 16,436, about 2,700 short of capacity. But a couple of thousand more seats were empty.
“Our challenge used to be: Get fans of Montreal and Toronto to cheer for Ottawa,” Leeder said. “Now we’ve got a younger generation of fans that only ever cheered for Ottawa. That’s the Red Scarf Union.
“Some of our research shows that what younger fans want to do at games is changing. When I first started going to games, you wanted to sit there, watch the game, not get distracted. Now most people would like to get up, move around, be part of something as opposed to just watching.”
Atack said the inspiration for the Section 319 experiment stemmed from three sources: the lively carrying-on at N.C.A.A. hockey games; the recent transformation of Major League Soccer stadiums across North America by European-style fan groups into roiling caldrons of fun; and a night during the 2013 playoffs when the Senators beat Montreal and the Ottawa fans spontaneously appropriated “Olé Olé Olé,” the favorite tune of Canadiens fans.
Leeder cited another source, recalling when the Senators traveled to Gothenburg, Sweden, for an exhibition game against Frolunda, the former club of Daniel Alfredsson, their captain at the time.
“Their fans were incredible, like they are at most European hockey games,” Leeder said. “They held up giant banners, sang, chanted all night, and at the end of the game, they wouldn’t let him go off the ice.”
Atack said the Nashville Predators, the Arizona Coyotes and other N.H.L. teams had expressed interest in the initiative. He will give a presentation on the effort to N.H.L. executives during Hall of Fame festivities next weekend in Toronto.
Back in Section 319 on Tuesday, Game No. 2 of the experiment, Graham Whitehead, a school bus driver originally from Nottingham, England, beat a drum. Once again, almost oblivious to the game below, he started singing, “Oh, when the Sens! Go marching in!” Red Scarf rowdies instantly picked it up.
At his station a few sections away, Paul Gallant, the Senators’ in-game entertainment director, kept an eye on the Red Scarf fans. During stoppages, he often refrained from playing recorded music or canned crowd prompts on the video scoreboard — a 180-degree shift from the norm at other N.H.L. rinks, where dead air is not tolerated.
“We met with the Red Scarf guys and went through their songbook so we can match what they’re doing,” Gallant said. “Nothing’s prearranged. If they’ve got a good song going and it spreads to other sections, we’ll keep quiet and let them go. Or sometimes we’ll cue them by playing one of their songs.
“The whole thing is meant to be organic, a total fan experience.”
Gallant added that Red Scarf’s enthusiasm improved the good-time feeling throughout the building, in the hope of attracting more fans in the future.
Club officials stood in the aisles to monitor Section 319 and escort any overwhelmed fans to different seats. Jade Fair, the Senators’ liaison officer for the Red Scarf fans, relocated a family whose small child could not take the loud drumming. A well-dressed couple accepted ear plugs, but they stayed.
McSweeney, the Red Scarf president, told some overly excited fans to stop cursing because children were nearby.
At the other end of the arena, where fans watched the game quietly, Red Scarf’s antics were little more than a distant echo. But Section 319 was anything but placid.
McSweeney, an account executive for Bell Canada, held a black dress shoe aloft and filled it with beer.
“Shoe beer! Shoe beer!” the fans chanted, and McSweeney chugged it as they roared.
“An old Ottawa Rough Riders tradition,” he said, slightly slurring the name of the former Canadian Football League team.
With about five minutes left in the third period, the Senators scored again, breaking a 1-1 tie en route to a 3-1 victory.
Once again the Section 319 fans almost toppled over in a joyous dogpile, but they righted themselves and sang for the rest of the game. For the most part, however, the enthusiasm did not spread from their sliver of the upper bowl.
At the final horn, the Senators’ players gathered on the ice to congratulate one another, then headed to the locker room without saluting their fans.
“They’ll learn — it’s still early,” said Shaun Kehoe, another Red Scarf ringleader. He looked forward to Game 3 of the experiment, on Sunday against Ottawa’s archrival, Toronto.
“We will not be outshouted in our own building!” Kehoe pledged to the emptying arena. “This is our house!”