Sports have been back for about a month now, and it's been great to have them back! So what if we can only watch on TV! Most of us are in agreement that, while we'd rather have the option of attending games live, being able to watch them is better than nothing. And the NHL, NBA and MLB have all been making up for lost time, showing games on national TV all day and night.
Every league that has returned (which also includes MLS, NASCAR, Indy Car and golf) deserves credit for what they've done to enhance these TV-only productions. They haven't missed a beat, which is especially impressive when you consider most of it's being done off-site. Some of these innovations have been great and may very well become permanent, while others haven't quite hit the mark.
FOX's virtual fans are probably the worst of these ideas. I decided to give them a chance, but, no, they're stupid! They aren't fooling anybody. Everyone knows the games are being played in empty stadiums. And, to make matters worse, the virtual fans are only in the outfield...and they're only on the live home plate camera. They aren't there on replays or in any other camera shots. It just looks dumb!
Likewise, I'm not feeling the videos of all the fans watching from home. I get what they're trying to do. They want the fans to feel involved even though they can't physically be there, and they want the players to feel like they aren't playing in an empty arena. But basically looking at a Zoom call for five seconds isn't suddenly going to make it seem like those fans are there. And the timing of it always seems forced. It's like they're doing it just to do it. It adds nothing and could easily be scrapped.
The announcers (for the most part) not being on-site has been hit or miss. The NHL is doing a mix. Some announcers are on-site inside the bubbles in Edmonton and Toronto, some are at NBC's headquarters in Stamford, Conn., and others (like Doc Emrick) are doing the game from wherever they are. Frankly, things have been so seamless, I can't even tell the difference. (NBC has done this with its Olympic coverage for years, and that experience shows.)
With baseball, though, some of the remote broadcasts have definitely been better than others. Some of the broadcasters are clearly less comfortable doing a game off a monitor, and you can tell they struggle with it. It can definitely be an adjustment if you're used to being in the ballpark and watching the game on the field, especially when what you can see is limited to what the director chooses to show on the screen. But don't make your discomfort obvious. Especially since broadcasters not being on-site could definitely be one of the permanent changes that comes out of this.
However, most of the stuff they've done has been good. Starting with the atmosphere. Even though there aren't any fans there, the gameday experience is no different. They still do PA announcements, in-game music, walk-up songs, scoreboard graphics, etc. Basically, everything is the same as it would normally be, minus the fans. Although, they do have fake crowd noise, which I though would be silly, but they're not overdoing it, so it's actually working out OK.
It's obviously necessitated by the fact that they're all at the same site, but the all-day scheduling in both the NHL and NBA has been a hit. After a spring and summer where there was absolutely nothing for sports fans to watch, we've now got sports overload. And it's great! It'll be difficult to do moving forward when teams are playing in their own arenas again (and mostly on weekdays), but it may be worth at least considering staggered start times for playoff games in the future.
Major props have to go out to the NHL for their entire setup, which has been exceptional in both Toronto and Edmonton. They made those massive, empty arenas seem intimate. The branding covering the seats really helped create that atmosphere, and those video screens have really added something. That's obviously something they couldn't do in a normal situation, but it really works here. I also love how they're playing every team's goal song and victory music, regardless of who the "home" team is for that particular game. It's a nice touch.
Since I'm not a fan of the NBA, I haven't seen as much of what they've done in their bubble. Although, I can say that I do like the things I've noticed. For one, the court is the same in all three arenas, so you can't tell the difference from one to another. They do put the "home" team's logo on the floor, though, which doesn't really matter in that it make absolutely no difference, but it's still nice to know who's "home" game it is, especially since the NBA lets them wear whatever jersey they want for every game now!
One of the first things I noticed that both the NBA and WNBA did to make the arena seem smaller was put up a wall behind the benches. This is something I've seen done plenty of times, but never at the professional level. Again, it's a smart and creative way to make it more intimate. It's even cooler that it's a full-length video board, which allows them to do all kinds of different things (including putting up those dumb Zoom fans).
Speaking of Zoom, virtual postgame interviews could definitely become the wave of the future. The media being completely cut off from having access to players and coaches is obviously not going to be permanent, but I can certainly see the benefit of them not needing to physically be there to get their interviews. At the very least, I can see a hybrid model where interviews can be done both face-to-face and remotely.
TV interviews need to go back to face-to-face, though. Because the microphone on a stick thing just looks awkward. Especially since the sideline reporter is holding their own mic, but can't share it because they have to maintain social distancing. Likewise, doing an interview through a mask is something that no one will ever be able to get used to.
Most of this stuff is obviously temporary. It's concessions that we were all willing to make if it meant the return of live sports, something we've been so greatly missing over the past few months. And, frankly, the leagues and broadcasters have gone above and beyond to create an atmosphere that's both familiar and different. We can't be there, so they want to give us something more, even though they're limited themselves.
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