Vette,
I don't think your speakers have anything to do with the amount of crowd noise your hearing. The balance of crowd noise to announcers (depending on the announcers that can be considered noise also), is decided by the audio mixer at the stadium. What speaker carries what sound is decided by the mode you have your receiver set to.
I'm watching my Indians vs.the Twins with my receiver set to Neo 6, and it's pretty cool (except that the Twins just hit a 2 run home run in the bottom of the 9th, with two men out, to tie the game. SHAZBAT!) The announcers are coming through the center, while the fronts and surrounds are providing ambiance and crowd noise. When the crowd reacts, it is really enveloping. It certainly sounds better than the sound coming from the TV speakers. Try experimenting with different modes on your receiver to see if you can find one you like.
When it comes to speakers, the room itself, and positioning are critical. How is your center positioned; on a stand? on a shelf? Above or below the TV? The ideal is to have the speaker in a position where no other surfaces influence it's performance. I had my VP150 kinda tucked in on shelf suspended just below the TV. So, it was pretty much surrounded by surfaces. I was dissatisfied with it's performance until I slid the speaker out a couple of inches, so there were no surfaces beside, above, or below the drivers. It looks sorta dumb, but it sounds considerably better. I'm now considering putting it on a stand on the floor to further reduce any influence from surrounding surfaces.
You might experiment with alternate positioning a little to see if things improve for you.
