No Fans? No Football.

I can't stop thinking about this.

If the NFL wants to proceed with the 2020 season even if it means no fans in the stands, I have to say...

NOPE.

As much as I want Seattle Seahawks football this Fall, if it means without fans, no thanks. There is no other professional sport that needs the energy of the fans in the stands other than the NFL to me. Baseball? Meh. Sure, go ahead. It wouldn't be that different without fans. But imagine the Seahawks playing a critical division game against the Rams or 49ers in late December...

To an empty stadium.

Puh-leeeeeeze.

It would be like watching practice every week, even knowing the games counted. How surreal. How, um, yuck.

So here I am. A season ticket holder since 1997 saying, if the solution is playing games to empty stadiums this Fall then forget it. I'll wait it out until 2021 thank you very much.

Aros":19wk439a said:

I can't stop thinking about this.

If the NFL wants to proceed with the 2020 season even if it means no fans in the stands, I have to say...

NOPE.

As much as I want Seattle Seahawks football this Fall, if it means without fans, no thanks. There is no other professional sport that needs the energy of the fans in the stands other than the NFL to me. Baseball? Meh. Sure, go ahead. It wouldn't be that different without fans. But imagine the Seahawks playing a critical division game against the Rams or 49ers in late December...

To an empty stadium.

Puh-leeeeeeze.

It would be like watching practice every week, even knowing the games counted. How surreal. How, um, yuck.

So here I am. A season ticket holder since 1997 saying, if the solution is playing games to empty stadiums this Fall then forget it. I'll wait it out until 2021 thank you very much.

Click to expand...

I Respectfully disagree. I get the fans are a HUGE HF advantage here in Seattle but.....
We need football IMHO.

I think it will start with no fans but will be they will eventually be back bit by bit this season as it rolls along.

I totally get the opposition to my position. ANY sports sounds d@mn good right now.

But I remain steadfast in my position. Without fans it's just silly to me. If I want to watch scrimmage-looking football (even if it's not) I can watch training camp footage. And that's all it will look without fans. I don't care if the effort is there, it just won't be the same.

I think right now, we need all the entertainment and distractions we can get. If no fans is the cost of an NFL season, I say do it.

A huge majority of Seahawk fans rarely, if ever, get to attend a game at Link during the entire season. But that fact in no way means they are lesser fans. Watching the games on TV is the only option for all but the relatively few who have the advantage of being able to attend. If you could capture the sound of all those yelling and screaming in the privacy of their home every play it would...shake the earth!
There may be football without fans in the stadium, but there will be no football without fans.

Well Aros, if the season happens, there are several outcomes.

1 The stadiums capacity will be reduced to perhaps 15K fans, at least 6 feet apart.

2 Die hard fans forced out of lower bowl seats will pony up serious coin to move up a level. :mrgreen:

3 Concession lines will become longer, but with fewer people in line. Same for restrooms. :shock:

4 Die hards simply say screw it, i am going. I might wear a mask, or not. Hawk football is more important than the chance of exposure. :irishdrinkers:

5 The NFL money machine takes over, fills stadiums to capacity, reason being, if a current ticketed fan gets sick, there are 3 ready to replace them. :sarcasm_on:


tongue in cheek post.

Sports Hernia":2wofejyy said:

Aros":2wofejyy said:

I can't stop thinking about this.

If the NFL wants to proceed with the 2020 season even if it means no fans in the stands, I have to say...

NOPE.

As much as I want Seattle Seahawks football this Fall, if it means without fans, no thanks. There is no other professional sport that needs the energy of the fans in the stands other than the NFL to me. Baseball? Meh. Sure, go ahead. It wouldn't be that different without fans. But imagine the Seahawks playing a critical division game against the Rams or 49ers in late December...

To an empty stadium.

Puh-leeeeeeze.

It would be like watching practice every week, even knowing the games counted. How surreal. How, um, yuck.

So here I am. A season ticket holder since 1997 saying, if the solution is playing games to empty stadiums this Fall then forget it. I'll wait it out until 2021 thank you very much.

Click to expand...

I Respectfully disagree. I get the fans are a HUGE HF advantage here in Seattle but.....
We need football IMHO.

I think it will start with no fans but will be they will eventually be back bit by bit this season as it rolls along.

Click to expand...

I'm with Sports Hernia on this one. Yes it would be different to season ticket holders. But to the rest of us, it would be like watching every game at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. No HFA for anyone, but that also helps on the road. Football is still football, whether the players get a boost from the crowd's energy or not. I'm suffering as is waiting for football. Your imaginary critical division game is not enough reason for me to wait another year.

Appyhawk":276hdsri said:

A huge majority of Seahawk fans rarely, if ever, get to attend a game at Link during the entire season. But that fact in no way means they are lesser fans. Watching the games on TV is the only option for all but the relatively few who have the advantage of being able to attend. If you could capture the sound of all those yelling and screaming in the privacy of their home every play it would...shake the earth!
There may be football without fans in the stadium, but there will be no football without fans.

Click to expand...

Yeah.. this is the key here.

NFL isn't local anymore.

I get the sentiment of fans who go and how they enjoy that experience. But for most football fans, it's a televised event.

Watching soccer, an experience devised to appeal directly to the match going audience, without fans... is weird.

But the game plays and it's still good entertainment.

NFL will be fine... for awhile... without fans.

You both are right. We need football and we need fans. Therefore we will have both.

Aros":84y351qn said:

There is no other professional sport that needs the energy of the fans in the stands other than the NFL to me. Baseball? Meh. Sure, go ahead. It wouldn't be that different without fans. But imagine the Seahawks playing a critical division game against the Rams or 49ers in late December....

Click to expand...

The NBA is in the same boat. Late season and playoff games without fans is unthinkable. And the fans are right up on the court. Even the nosebleeds aren't that far away. I actually like going to NBA games better than NFL games at this point because unless you're really willing to pay serious cash to sit close at a game, it's actually better on TV.

Baseball? It's boring. I realized after many years the point was to just go hang out and get drunk and eat some crap. It's not a "thinking man's game" any more than any other sport (watching formations and calls at an NFL game and then the breakneck execution is way more mentally stimulating). Baseball without fans isn't that weird because almost all game, every game, the fans are just chilling in the stands, often just clapping and many just not paying attention.

But even without fans I think the challenge to having games even with just players and staff are insurmountable. We still have no treatment for the disease, much less a vaccine. There are enormous staffs that have to functions in addition to the players, and they aren't all lower risk profiles.

It all boils down to the following:

1) What happens when players or staff start testing positive? Do they go on the injury list for weeks? What if it spreads in a single team? Do they have massive injury lists due to exposure? Can teams function when many staff members were exposed and now have to sit at home?

2) What happens if a player or staff member falls seriously ill and is permanently medically damaged or dies? Where I work we've lost some effectiveness, but we're lucky in that we can continue to operate remotely in a reasonable capacity. We're starting to try to phase some people back into the buildings for critical functions. But if someone just decided that everyone should just go back, and I didn't oppose that decision (I'm responsible for a good number of the people), and someone dies or has long-term injuries because of it, I'd have a hard time living with that.

Until we get a serious medical breakthrough on the treatment front, I'm just not seeing things going well. They might even try to start it up with no fans. But even in Germany, where they've had amazing contact tracing and containment, they recently started up their soccer league again. And they have a single team with multiple cases. We're not on Germany's level, and we think 32 teams from across the country are going to just operate? Even if we sequester all 32 teams in a secure facility for 17 weeks, it's a hard thing to do.

Once we hit March and it was clear where the world was headed with this, I've been very careful to be overly optimistic. I'm just not seeing any professional sports starting and keeping operating, even without fans, until there's a significant change in our ability to treat this disease.

A photo taken 102 years ago is as relevant as ever.



Fans at a Georgia Tech football game during 1918 pandemic. The photo was taken by graduate Thomas Carter.

https://www.king5.com/article/news/heal ... 04a12842cb

The tv deals are where the cash is made. Fans are on the lowest end of importance to the NFL. There will be a season and some select fans may get to attend.

KitsapGuy":2ux3q092 said:

A photo taken 102 years ago is as relevant as ever.



Fans at a Georgia Tech football game during 1918 pandemic. The photo was taken by graduate Thomas Carter.

https://www.king5.com/article/news/heal ... 04a12842cb

Click to expand...

Now those were fans, pandemic, concrete seats and masks.

Look at the bright side. There won't be people selling their tickets to fans of other teams, or the ridiculous scalping that goes on with tickets. No more $14 beers.


Not only that but the Clink has lost it's cloak of invincibility.

Most watch from a recliner anyway . Somebody will come up with a crowd noise app too .

Hey Seed, ( :lol #4..."4 Die hards simply say screw it, i am going. I might wear a mask, or not. Hawk football is more important than the chance of exposure."
The "Die hards" part of that might not be so accurate considering "the chance of exposure".

There have been multiple tries at getting spring football to the masses. Most, other than arena football, have failed. The next NFL season might be the next foray into spring football. If, as the experts say, a vaccine is 12-18 months to fruition, that puts the likelihood of a vaccine clearly in the spring to summer of 2021. If the research on one started with the beginning of the virus, then we are definitely looking at something in the December to June range.

So if a vaccine is developed and produced by January or February we could potentially see the season kick off in March. If this scenario plays out, then what happens with the actual 2021 season if the “2020” season begins in the spring of 21 and doesn’t end until July? There is no way that they begin the next season in September a mere two months after the end of the previous season.

Maybe they cancel the 2020 season. Maybe they bump the start back a few months. Bumping it back a few months completely changes the model of what we know as football in the fall. I’ve heard talk that the NCAA is considering a February start.

The dominos would fall to change a whole lot of things. If the 2020 season is just canceled, and regardless of what the NCAA does, there will most likely be a draft sometime before the 2021 season. That means that each team essentially doubles their rookie pool entering the 2021 season. How does that look? Better quality depth? Less marginal veterans? What about guys in their prime? They have essentially lost a year of vital production. How after a year of inactivity, do teams really assess their teams and personnel? Teams change a lot from one year to the next.

If this plays out, then it may be years before we see the traditional football season being played in the Fall. I can see them incrementally starting the season earlier each year in order to finally get the beginning of the season back to September. No matter what happens, it’s going to be an interesting ride.

I understand that thinking, but I really disagree and I'm sure you'll still watch.

I love football in any capacity; and what is happening in the crowd is always way, way, way down the list of things that I am paying attention to during a football game.

Think of some of the bonuses - amplified trash talk and chatter, and hits will be even louder. As viewers I think it could be the closest we'll ever feel to the game.

Erebus":afw5200i said:

Yes it would be different to season ticket holders. But to the rest of us, it would be like watching every game at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. No HFA for anyone, but that also helps on the road. Football is still football, whether the players get a boost from the crowd's energy or not. I'm suffering as is waiting for football. Your imaginary critical division game is not enough reason for me to wait another year.

Click to expand...

And who's to say that this Pandemic is going to be gone by 2021?
Sadly, the status quo is no more, We are merging into a brand new NORMALCY.

I'd watch the Hawks, but Thursday night football between the Browns and Bengals? No way.

I think the crowd does add a certain je ne sais quoi to the game environment. The ambient noise, roars after big plays, sudden en masse exhale after a big hit, players exhorting the crowd to bring noise, opponents fighting the barrage of sound to call plays. It will all be missed as being integral to the game we love.

But I'll watch because in the end the competition and athleticism are what's most compelling in football. The importance of every play. The mix of grace and toughness. That's going to keep me engaged, at least to watch the Hawks and other big games.

I'm hoping they can overcome some hurdles to get a reasonable number of fans into stadiums. Probably 10K max. it's ingress and egress, washrooms and concessions that are the choke points and need to be managed safely.