For a while, it looked like major sports leagues and tournaments would proceed despite the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, but with no fans admitted. This plan ended when players, coaches, and referees were found to have been infected by the virus.
I did watch one German soccer match played without fans. It was a Rhine derby between arch rivals Borussia Mönchengladbach and FC Köln (Cologne). Fans called this a “ghost match” and a few of them lined up outside the stadium dressed as ghosts.
The match did have an eerie feel to it. You could hear all of the instructions barked out by players and coaches. Unfortunately, I don’t understand German or I might have learned something.
When the home team scored its first goal, there was a ripple of applause from the bench and from maybe a dozen staff members and/or friends. When it started raining, you could hear the downpour. With all of the rainy British matches I’ve seen on television, I don’t ever remember hearing the rain.
As Gladbach closed in on a 2-1 victory, I finally heard singing, a staple of German matches. The announcers said it came from fans assembled just outside the stadium.
The players didn’t seem affected by the absence of a crowd. This match was between bitter rivals, both of whom are in contention for European competitions next season (Köln, only barely).
However, in all of the sports leagues I follow, teams have a home field advantage. As a rule, they win more at home than on the road.
Some of this may be due to eating and sleeping at home. And in some sports, knowing the home field might provide an advantage.
Yet, I doubt that these factors explain all of the home field advantage. Fan support probably plays a meaningful role, as well.
One of our readers played basketball for the University of Virginia. He was an important part of highly successful teams, including during the Ralph Sampson years.
It happens that he played two games in Tokyo. There were plenty of fans present, but they made no noise. The experience convinced him that fan noise affects the game. He writes:
Hard to overestimate how much removing spectators from live events changes the live events themselves. It changes the momentum-inducing emotional swings and also the officiating. A lot.
FWIW – In the 1980’s, UVA (with Ralph), Houston (“phi slamma jamma” with Drexler, Olajuwan, Michael Young) and Utah played a Christmas round robin in Tokyo. In front of maybe 15 thousand completely silent fans! The silence seemed like both a cultural thing and a lack of familiarity with the sport.
There were some mind-blowing spectacular dunks and plays, followed by….silence! Where normally there would be a deafening roar – instead you just heard the ball bouncing. You could clearly hear coaches talking to players, shoes squeaking, trash talking, officials making calls – really bizarre. Like practice.
In the game against Houston, our reader guarded the great Clyde Drexler. He recalls that Drexler “didn’t seem to be trying too hard.”
Virginia won both games handily despite Sampson sitting them out due to travel-related illness following Virginia’s win over Georgetown in Ralph’s famous showdown with Patrick Ewing. Houston would go on to make it all the way to the NCAA championship game, where the Cougars were upset by North Carolina State, the team that had eliminated Virginia in the Elite Eight.
Speaking of upsets, there’s a footnote to the Tokyo trip that I hope our reader won’t mind me adding. On the way home from Japan, the Virginia team stopped in Hawaii to play a school called Chaminade. The Silverswords upset the Number One ranked Cavaliers, 77-72.
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