Posted on 05/14/2020 9:03:40 AM PDT by EdnaMode
Stadiums may be empty when/if football starts its season this fall, but some games probably won’t look or sound that way.
Fox is exploring ways to fill the empty National Football League venues with digitally-added fans and crowd noises, Fox Sports announcer Joe Buck said during an interview on Andy Cohen’s SiriusXM radio show.
“I think Fox and these networks have to put crowd noise under us to make it a normal viewing experience at home,” USA Today reports Buck said, adding that the audio component was “pretty much a done deal.”
He added: “I think whoever’s going to be at that control is going to have to be really good at their job and be realistic with how a crowd would react depending on what just happened on the field, so it’s really important.”
But having crowd noises without a crowd would be seriously weird, so Fox also is “looking at ways to put virtual fans in the stands, so when you see a wide shot, it looks like the stadium is jam-packed. And in fact, it’ll be empty” due to measures instituted to slow the spread of coronavirus, Buck said.
In addition to its Thursday Night Football match-ups (which start Oct. 8 ), FOX Sports’ NFL Sunday schedule includes at least 98 regular-season games. Fox Sports’ NFL slate is scheduled to kick off with a Tampa Bay Buccaneers/New Orleans Saints match-up on Sunday, Sept. 13. (Earlier this month, the NFL released its (optimistic) 256-game schedule, which kicks off in early September.)
A recent Sports Business Journal article examined why networks would want to fill the stands with pixels if they can’t do so with fans. “When you see events that don’t have fans, you really understand what is missing, said Jon Slusser, owner and partner of The Famous Group, a technology firm that deals with fan experiences.
Slusser said that his firm was in talks with nearly every major sports league and TV network: “It’s an incredible realization of how important fans and that energy are to live events, and what makes live events special and gives it the energy, gravity, importance and life.”
LOL.
What about the cheerleaders?
Why not? Even the most unfunny sitcoms have laugh tracks.
Didn’t Ronald Reagan have that job at one time?
But who will buy the merch?
The $6 hot dogs?
The $10 burgers?
The $12 beer
This sh*t needs to stop. What are we made out of? If sports is going to be this,I don’t want any of it.
Right, he did when he was a sportscaster. Al Schuss, sportscaster for the minor league San Diego Padres, did the same thing.[recreate games}
LOL. I thought I recognized that from the Star Trek episode where they were in a 20th century Rome, and Gladiator battles were televised from a studio.
Just have the players take turns on Madden 2021 and broadcast it.
How much will a virtual beer cost?
Why not use footage from previous games at the same venue?
“...Add Crowd Noises, Put ‘Virtual’ Fans in Stands …”
Why stop there? Just computer simulate the game, the season, the next Super Bowl!
I bet the owners would find out they would save a lot of money and there’s no one to bail out of jail! Electrons are rarely felonious on their own!
You are responsible for your own porn.
So, it’s ok for the players and coaches to be in close proximity but not for fans?
The fans aren’t smashing into each other, breathing in the trench or bleeding on each other.
Thats why we need to computer simulate it all!
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