The Spanish soccer coach reckons games without fans is sadder than dancing with your sister.

Moving on from the inevitable off-colour jokes, is it really the case that football with no fans physically present is so bad?

Aren't we missing some very obvious tricks here? This is the age of the Internet after all.

I'd happily watch a game, fans or no fans. Sure, you lose that big sense of occasion, but I'm first and foremost a football (or any sport) fan as opposed to an 'occasion' fan.

I think it's do-able, but only if people at the top jettison old ways of thinking and start to think of football (and indeed most sports) as being primarily televisual / virtual as far as fans are concerned.

Here are the issues and some suggestions:

Atmosphere. Traditionalists are unhappy about the lack of atmosphere.

Money. Sports will go bust with no fans paying to get into grounds.

Solutions:
1. Change the mindset that, for fans, football / sports primarily exist in stadiums and accept the idea that (for fans) they can equally primarily exist virtually - and then start catering to that reality. There is a huge, pent-up, global demand for sport, and unfortunately too many sports organisations are this far showing themselves to be stuck in old ways of thinking.

2. Stop playing games in big empty stadiums. It's a massive waste of money and it makes for poor viewing. Play the games at a small ground, with a decent pitch, but with no stands. At least in the medium terms, car parks, stands, etc are obsolete. Play at a small open pitch with no stands; and that helps get rid of the weird sense of "000s of people missing" that seeing all those empty seats and terracing continually reminds you of.
You don't need to open up a vast stadium to play ball. All you need is a pitch.
3. Forget about home and away games. Just dedicate a few pitches in convenient locations and play the games there. Whatever is available and most convenient.

4. Get clever with TV production standards. Bring in people with proper film directing experience. Keep the camera angles tight to the confines of the pitch. Just as top of the pops in the past was a very small wee studio made to look better by clever camera angles etc, if you move the games out of the depressing big empty stadiums, you immediately would improve the visual aspect. For the rest, just bring back Pat, Joe and the gang and let them commentate on the entire game to provide a bit of background noise : ) Re-think this as a TV / Internet spectacle and stop being hobbled by the limitations of grounds that were designed primarily for physical fans. Seeing rows and rows of empty seats / terracing is a vibe killer; so stop showing them.

5. Virtual crowd roar: Get into the 21st century and allow fans to participate. Check this out:
https://hack-care.de/myapplause-app/
No reason why fans can't transmit boos, cheers, swears, advice to the ref, etc virtually and then this creates a virtual crowd roar online which is fed back through our TV or laptop speakers. Very do-able; we just need to "think outside the stadium" … After all, the fans are still watching, they still make noise (I shout at the TV); and provided we can hear everyone's racket, then you've got atmosphere back.

6. Pay per view. We should all pay to view on a per game basis. Make it easy for people to do so without locking them into contracts. Try to mirror the way people paid in to grounds. You didn't need to sign a 12 month contract to buy a ticket to get into Clones or wherever, and this should be no different. I'd have been paying in anyway. I'd happily pay a few quid for online access per game.

Done properly, I think this could work well. Thousands will disagree, and sure where would we be without all the nay-sayers to keep us in our place, eh?

I'll get my coat!

essmac (Tyrone) - Posts: 1141 - 25/05/2020 18:45:09    2279183

interesting family set up the spanish

lilypad (Kildare) - Posts: 1363 - 26/05/2020 00:45:33    2279197

essmac said "I shout at the TV"

Well, it explains your idea, I suppose.

lionofludesch (Down) - Posts: 475 - 26/05/2020 09:53:03    2279205

Games are filmed from a certain angle up in the stands that makes the game more appealing as a TV spectator so filming from the sideline of a random pitch would be quite a frustrating watch for the armchair spectator.

The overall idea of your post is right though, if a little mad sounding at times.

Soccer in Ireland, both North and South, has turned into a TV spectator sport already. The vast majority of soccer fans in this country don't, or extremely rarely, set foot inside an actual stadium to watch a match.

MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13704 - 26/05/2020 10:48:37    2279214

Breezy (Limerick) - Posts: 1236 - 26/05/2020 11:24:27    2279220

saw some bundesliga recently,it was crap.
sport without fans is so awful

perfect10 (Wexford) - Posts: 3929 - 26/05/2020 14:08:02    2279247

OhtobeARossie (Roscommon) - Posts: 1762 - 26/05/2020 14:57:29    2279257

Breezy (Limerick) - Posts: 1236 - 26/05/2020 15:42:29    2279263

I was pleasantly surprised by the 'no commentary' option when Amazon screened a few PL matches earlier in the season. It felt more like attending a real match. It highlighted how overrated football commentary was for me as well. Obviously the stadium atmosphere was a factor in my enjoyment of that game. Maybe if they took the mic from the commentators and hooked them up to the managers or better yet the players, that would definitely be worth tuning in for! Mind you the PC brigade would be having a field day

SaffronDon (Antrim) - Posts: 2385 - 26/05/2020 16:25:16    2279264

Joxer (Dublin) - Posts: 4700 - 26/05/2020 17:55:11    2279272