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Fans, baby!

citygriz

Well-known member
Anybody watched MLB or the NBA lately?

I have. But only briefly.

Baseball with its cardboard fans and piped in sound effects looks silly. Like the best man at a wedding who forgot his pants.

Basketball looks like a glorified YMCA scrimmage. Without cheering fans to amplify a great play or boo the opposing team, it all looks lifeless, soulless, dead.

You've got four components to the sports universe: Management; players and coaches; the media; we fans.

I've always said, we fans are the most important element. We pay the bills. Without us, the whole structure of Sport comes crashing down. From scholarships to mega-buck salaries.

But now that the pandemic has taken us out of the stadiums and out of the arenas, our value is even more apparent.

Sure, if the Cats and Griz play this year in an empty stadium, I'll watch. I'll cheer. But without a stadium of full of cheering fans, marching bands, mascots and cheerleaders, it won't feel the same, and it won't look the same.

I hope management, players and coaches and the media have learned a lesson about the most important element in their universe.

We fans.
 
citay said:
Anybody watched MLB or the NBA lately?

I have. But only briefly.

Baseball with its cardboard fans and piped in sound effects looks silly. Like the best man at a wedding who forgot his pants.

Basketball looks like a glorified YMCA scrimmage. Without cheering fans to amplify a great play or boo the opposing team, it all looks lifeless, soulless, dead.

You've got four components to the sports universe: Management; players and coaches; the media; we fans.

I've always said, we fans are the most important element. We pay the bills. Without us, the whole structure of Sport comes crashing down. From scholarships to mega-buck salaries.

But now that the pandemic has taken us out of the stadiums and out of the arenas, our value is even more apparent.

Sure, if the Cats and Griz play this year in an empty stadium, I'll watch. I'll cheer. But without a stadium of full of cheering fans, marching bands, mascots and cheerleaders, it won't feel the same, and it won't look the same.

I hope management, players and coaches and the media have learned a lesson about the most important element in their universe.

We fans.
Even golf on TV without fans seems more like watching guys playing practice rounds.
 
maroonandsilver said:
citay said:
Anybody watched MLB or the NBA lately?

I have. But only briefly.

Baseball with its cardboard fans and piped in sound effects looks silly. Like the best man at a wedding who forgot his pants.

Basketball looks like a glorified YMCA scrimmage. Without cheering fans to amplify a great play or boo the opposing team, it all looks lifeless, soulless, dead.

You've got four components to the sports universe: Management; players and coaches; the media; we fans.

I've always said, we fans are the most important element. We pay the bills. Without us, the whole structure of Sport comes crashing down. From scholarships to mega-buck salaries.

But now that the pandemic has taken us out of the stadiums and out of the arenas, our value is even more apparent.

Sure, if the Cats and Griz play this year in an empty stadium, I'll watch. I'll cheer. But without a stadium of full of cheering fans, marching bands, mascots and cheerleaders, it won't feel the same, and it won't look the same.

I hope management, players and coaches and the media have learned a lesson about the most important element in their universe.

We fans.
Even golf on TV without fans seems more like watching guys playing practice rounds.

Someone might be putting themselves on too high a pedestal. W/out the players, who will the fans root for? Chicken or the egg. Wouldn’t really count the media as important either. They’re more like a wedding crasher then an invited guest.
 
PeauxRouge said:
I've watched a handful of games and have found it entertaining!
I mostly listen to baseball in the summer and at first I found it kind of strange not hearing any fan reactions. However, it has been really cool just hearing the sounds of guys playing the game, especially hearing the crack of the bat and occasionally some on-field banter. Very Sandlot, summer-time playing in the street feel. I actually quite enjoy it more than I though I would.
 
If you think it’s weird watching sports w/out fans, imagine fans watching an empty field. Not too much to cheer for I’d imagine.
 
citay said:
Anybody watched MLB or the NBA lately?

I have. But only briefly.

Baseball with its cardboard fans and piped in sound effects looks silly. Like the best man at a wedding who forgot his pants.

Basketball looks like a glorified YMCA scrimmage. Without cheering fans to amplify a great play or boo the opposing team, it all looks lifeless, soulless, dead.

You've got four components to the sports universe: Management; players and coaches; the media; we fans.

I've always said, we fans are the most important element. We pay the bills. Without us, the whole structure of Sport comes crashing down. From scholarships to mega-buck salaries.

But now that the pandemic has taken us out of the stadiums and out of the arenas, our value is even more apparent.

Sure, if the Cats and Griz play this year in an empty stadium, I'll watch. I'll cheer. But without a stadium of full of cheering fans, marching bands, mascots and cheerleaders, it won't feel the same, and it won't look the same.

I hope management, players and coaches and the media have learned a lesson about the most important element in their universe.

We fans.

I can honestly saw that I have not watched one second of the NBa since the re-launch. I have been watching MLB and NHL almost every day. I am not nearly the NBA fan that you are, citay. I plan to cancel my NBA package permanently. I like college hoops, but the NBA has almost zero interest for me personally, probably cause me team is a permanant joke and no reason to care anymore, but I have been losing interest in the NBA steadily. It's a horrible brand of b-ball, IMO.
 
citay said:
Anybody watched MLB or the NBA lately?

I have. But only briefly.

Baseball with its cardboard fans and piped in sound effects looks silly. Like the best man at a wedding who forgot his pants.

Basketball looks like a glorified YMCA scrimmage. Without cheering fans to amplify a great play or boo the opposing team, it all looks lifeless, soulless, dead.

You've got four components to the sports universe: Management; players and coaches; the media; we fans.

I've always said, we fans are the most important element. We pay the bills. Without us, the whole structure of Sport comes crashing down. From scholarships to mega-buck salaries.

But now that the pandemic has taken us out of the stadiums and out of the arenas, our value is even more apparent.

Sure, if the Cats and Griz play this year in an empty stadium, I'll watch. I'll cheer. But without a stadium of full of cheering fans, marching bands, mascots and cheerleaders, it won't feel the same, and it won't look the same.

I hope management, players and coaches and the media have learned a lesson about the most important element in their universe.

We fans.
Like you, I'm a HUGE proponent of fans at these games. If I was allowed, I'd be at any venue watching anything in person TODAY. And I think fans have major impacts on sports. But the proof is in the pudding. If fans were truly the most important part of sport, than no sports would be played right now until fans were allowed. But all of them are finding ways to play without us.

Personally, I have been enjoying all of them these days, regardless of no fans. I really noticed in the beginning, but honestly I can hardly tell anymore. I watch baseball every night and don't even notice there are no fans. I also love the extra inning rule starting a baserunner on 2nd to speed up the game.

NBA took me a bit longer to get used to. I'll concede that it's not EXACTLY like it is with fans. But I watched several of the playoff games that started yesterday and I thought they were great. That Laker-Blazer game last night was awesome. The energy is there and you can tell the players certainly don't feel like it's a glorified scrimmage.

Maybe I'm just taking what I can get. I'm making the absolute most of being able to watch sports because for me, the months of March, April, May and June were dreadful without them.
 
Zirg; Cats:
I gotta confess, I watched the PGA tournament and enjoyed it, fans or not.
And while I missed the Blazer-Laker game last night, I'll probably be watching from now on.
In baseball, I'm even getting used to the fake noise and cardboard fans--even when one of the "fans" gets plunked in the head with a home run into the bleachers and makes no effort to defend itself.
A lot of the tech companies now think they can have all their employees work from home--no doubt saving the overhead of their pricey rents.
But I maintain, home is a refuge--often from the problems and pressure at work. The workers will be back--and so will the fans.
 
citay said:
Zirg; Cats:
I gotta confess, I watched the PGA tournament and enjoyed it, fans or not.
And while I missed the Blazer-Laker game last night, I'll probably be watching from now on.
In baseball, I'm even getting used to the fake noise and cardboard fans--even when one of the "fans" gets plunked in the head with a home run into the bleachers and makes no effort to defend itself.
A lot of the tech companies now think they can have all their employees work from home--no doubt saving the overhead of their pricey rents.
But I maintain, home is a refuge--often from the problems and pressure at work. The workers will be back--and so will the fans.

Totally agree. The thing I like best so far about the bubble in the NBA is it's a great neutralizer. I think the Lakers beat the Blazers 9 out of 10 times last night if that game is played in LA. Without the fans, players need to create their own energy. They do that with great play. I think it's going to make for some great playoffs the next couple months.

It took me a while for baseball too. Now I actually like the fan cutouts and think they should try and sell a lot more. I also thought they should sell huge blocks of seats for fans to "buy" fairly cheap, and any homerun or foul ball that lands in their section they get it sent to them. After sanitizing of course! It's be a good way to generate a little more money, and it would involve the fans a bit if you were watching the game and knew where your chunks of seats were.

Basically I'm happy with the effort all these leagues are putting forth for fans like me to get my fix. I remember in March when they announced March Madness would be played without fans. I thought that was a joke and was pretty bummed. I thought it would ruin the tourney. Well, as we all know the tourney was cancelled all together. I changed my tune quick! I would have done anything to have the tourney played, fans or not. :lol:
 
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