A silent summer of sport

By Milo O’Neill

Extreme measures have Been taken by different sports to limit the spread of Coronavirus this summer.

We live in a weird world right now. And the worst part is, we are getting used to it. Wearing a mask every time we go outside is becoming habitual, and regular school is beginning to feel like a distant memory. For some, even going outside is a rare event.

On the other end of the spectrum, sport fans are becoming more and more accustomed to watching sports with few to no fans. Some sports are beginning to use artificial crowd noises, cardboard cut-outs and live video broadcasts of supporters watching the matches, in order to try and fill in the gap that the lack of supporters leaves. However, it just isn’t the same.

“Observing sport without a crowd is akin to distance learning without the face to face collaboration with your teacher,” says Mr Lee Burns, who is the head of the RCHK PHE department and is a DP sports science teacher. “Yes, it can be done, but it does not have the same chemistry, flair and level of human, social interaction.”

Sports around the world have taken different precautionary measures to keep functioning this summer. 

Football: cardboard cut-outs and virtual fans

Major football leagues, including the Premier League, Serie A and La Liga, and major cup competitions such as the Champions League and Europa League concluded behind closed doors. Matches in the leagues still took place at the home venue of one team, and clubs such as Borussia Moenchengladbach and Leeds United took to placing cardboard cutouts of supporters in their stadiums, in order to try and fill the empty seats. In Spain, TV broadcasters used ‘virtual fans’, which were computerised fans that were photoshopped onto the empty seats. However this received criticism from the media, who stated that it was ‘ridiculous’, ‘really awful’ and ‘look[ed] like a Wii sports remake’.

Speaking about the artificial crowd noises that some sport broadcasters have been using, Burns says: “For me, the attempts that have been made to reduce the missing aspect of spectators are successful to some degree but there is no substitute to the authentic, voracious cries of 'green army' from those that enter the turnstiles and shout from the hallowed stands of the local football ground. Sport has been hijacked and led astray but it will not survive without the love and desire of the common supporter." 

As for the Champions League and Europa League, the teams competing in them were sent to Lisbon, Portugal and the state of North-Rhine Westphalia respectively, where the teams were not allowed to leave their hotels, and all the players were subjected to coronavirus testing.

Basketball’s Disney ‘bubble’

The NBA was temporarily suspended on the 11th of March, however basketball supporters would have been pleased to see the league resume over the summer holidays. 

The NBA used a ‘bubble’ format in order to ensure that the spread of Coronavirus could be as limited as possible. All NBA matches over the summer took place at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. Twenty two teams travelled to Orlando, where they were all tested for coronavirus and were not allowed to leave their ‘bubble’. The teams followed strict anti-coronavirus measures and ensured that they trained safely by following stringent training rules. 

All of the matches took place without spectators, and the players’ families were not allowed to join them until the first round of the NBA playoffs had taken place.

This approach has worked for several other sports too with considerable success.  

UFC: safety on ‘Fight Island’

The Ultimate Fighting Championship, otherwise known as the UFC, a mixed-martial art competition, has taken its own approach to the coronavirus. Over the summer, all UFC events took place at Yas Island, which is an island off the coast of Dubai. 

Photo by Bruno Bueno, courtesy of Pexels

The island has been dubbed ‘Fight Island’, and it was created in order to ensure that fighters that couldn’t enter the USA due to coronavirus restrictions could still be a part of UFC events.

All of the fighters participating in the events were required to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine upon arrival at the island, and they were all tested for coronavirus before the events took place. A ‘safety zone’ was established within the island, and it included a hotel, an arena and training facilities. The fighters were not allowed to leave the safety zone, and all of the fights took place without fans in attendance.

For now, we will have to live with the consequences of coronavirus on sport, and we can only hope for a quick return to normal.

“Sporting activities by design are wide and varied; they encompass a multitude of social and/or individual interactions,” says Burns, “I am confident (that) some sports can be maintained with little or no risk of direct infection.”

“An interesting observation that does stand out is how sport - which was once fueled by the spectator - is now led by economics, broadcasting rights, and commercial sponsorship,” says Burns. 

That is the case at the moment, and it will be interesting to see how long these measures will last.