With government approval, both Serie A soccer and the Korean Basketball League are opting to broadcast regularly scheduled games played in empty stadiums and arenas rather than postponing or canceling them in response to the growing coronavirus threat.
Stewards stand at a gate of the San Siro stadium in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020. Ludogorets is playing Italian club Inter Milan in a Europa League soccer match on Thursday that is scheduled to go ahead in an empty stadium due to the coronavirus outbreak.
“It could be a viable option, and depending on the situation, maybe the only safe option by then,” said Dae Hee Kwak, an associate professor and director of the Center for Sports Marketing Research at the University of Michigan. Games have been played and televised from empty stadiums before for varying reasons. But they’ve always been exceptions.
“I live in Boston now and I’m in church the other day, on Ash Wednesday, and I run into a Siena guy at the end of the mass. We wind up talking for an hour about ’89 and how it was one of the greatest experiences of our lives. ... “The first time you walk into an empty gym for a real game, it feels like a high school scrimmage. You can hear the coaches screaming — every word — and there’s no other energy to feed off, so you’ve got to rely on each other,” he added. “We were lucky to have a tough-minded team.”
That’s unlikely, but sports-marketing experts say the television-only model could have staying power.
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