What would basketball games be like with no fans in stands?
If you’re wondering what games with no fans would be like, Bob Kesling recently shared his experiences that approximate that feeling of isolation.
Kesling, a play-by-play announcer on Tennessee’s Vol Network, remembered working a UT women’s basketball game at Mississippi State. Maybe 25 people were in the seats at tip-off, he said.
From his broadcast position behind the Lady Vols’ bench, Kesling inadvertently gave his listeners a false bit of information. One of the listeners was Nancy Darsch, then an assistant coach for Pat Summitt. Upon hearing Kesling’s mistake, she turned from the action and offered an immediate in-game correction.
Kesling also recalled a Lady Vols game at Georgia. Maybe about 200 people attended, he said. During the game, two players collided in front of the Tennessee bench. The impact left Lady Vol guard Pam Marr crumpled on the court.
“I’m starting to speculate on the injury,” Kesling said of his on-air reaction.
Again, clearly hearing his voice, Darsch reacted in real time.
“She turned around and said, ‘Bob, she just bumped her head. She’ll be fine,’” said Kesling, adding, “I remember that vividly.”
These kind of up-close-and-personal exchanges might be part of the new normal for a while.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Institute since 1984, has repeatedly said that no fans in the stands might be a necessary precondition for teams to resume playing games this year.
In various interviews, Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey has spoken of no fans at games or fewer fans who must practice social distancing.
An overwhelming number of fans would be alright with staying away from games, according to a poll conducted by NPR/PBS NewsHour and Marist. When asked about large numbers of fans attending games without improved testing for the coronavirus, 91 percent of respondents said that was a bad idea. The results were released Wednesday.
Earlier in the week, Hall of Famer Charles Barkley didn’t like the possibility of no fans at games.
“I don’t know if I’d want to play basketball if there aren’t going to be any fans,” Barkley said on Monday’s episode of Kentucky Coach John Calipari’s “Coffee with Cal” Facebook show. “The fans are part of the things that make sports great.”
Then, Barkley added, “The best thing about being a player is you get to change somebody’s day.” He called sports “a reprieve.”
Dan Wann, a Murray State psychology professor who specializes in fan thinking, said that sports can serve as an escape.
“What sports does is it provides diversion from stress,” he said. “Well, what’s more stressful than a pandemic?”
Games without fans might heighten stress to an unprecedented level, Wann said. Fans are accustomed to a temporary stoppage of action. It’s called the offseason. But games with no fans in attendance would be a new altered reality.
“I think it’s going to be more surreal and seem stranger for fans to not have fans (at games) than to not watch games,” the psychology professor said.
Attending games triggers all five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste (concession stands) and touch, Wann said.
Rick Music, a UK fan for more than 50 years, saw no upside to games played without fans in attendance.
“The impact on the fans can only be negative,” he wrote in an email. “Football without tailgating. No chants. No cheers. No fireworks = Boring to watch. Period.”
The same will be true if few fans attend basketball games, Music added. “It will be bland at best.”
A precedent
Kentucky basketball got a taste of the departure from the fan-friendly norm at the 2008 Southeastern Conference Tournament. When a tornado hit Atlanta on that Friday night and damaged the Georgia Dome, the league moved its tournament to Georgia Tech’s on-campus Alexander Memorial Coliseum (listed capacity of 9,191).
With the SEC forced to restrict attendance, an announced crowd of 1,458 watched Kentucky lose to Georgia in the first game on Saturday. Later that day, the semifinal games had an announced attendance of 2,517. Sunday’s finals had an announced crowd of 3,700.
Lexington’s own Tom Hammond worked that tournament as a play-by-play announcer on Jefferson Pilot’s telecasts.
“It was just an eerie feeling,” he recalled. “There was just no enthusiasm whatsoever. But it was understandable because the story was about (the tornado). Nobody cared much about the basketball game.”
Present-day officials will have an advantage over their 2008 SEC predecessors if a limited number of fans or no fans at all can attend games, Hammond said. They will have had time to prepare.
Soundtrack?
Here’s a question: Might part of the preparation to televise games with no fans in attendance include the use of a soundtrack?
Jimmy Rayburn, the executive producer of SEC basketball telecasts when Jefferson Pilot held the rights, thought that it was plausible to think networks might juice up game telecasts with canned fan noise. Cheering, booing, chanting, pep songs at the push of a button.
“I mean, why not?” he said. “You’re used to it. Why not? Every TV show is that way.”
A laugh track has been part of television’s situation comedies since the 1950s.
Tennessee broadcaster Bob Kesling liked the idea.
“Hey, anything to keep them entertained,” he said of the TV and radio audiences. “Anything to keep them listening to the broadcast or telecast is good with me.
“There will be creative things, I’m sure, coming along.”
Rayburn took the idea a step further. Prerecorded cheering and booing could be made part of the game atmosphere by piping the sounds through the arena’s sound system.
Some players have suggested that crowd noise be artificially added to help create a version of the normal game atmosphere. Then again, a relatively quiet arena could enhance the viewing experience on television by giving viewers a better chance to overhear coach-player and player-player exchanges.
Pointed question
Earlier this spring, Ohio State Athletics Director Gene Smith spoke to reporters about college sports continuing with no fans in the stands.
“I struggle with that concept,” he said. “When I first heard that, I said, ‘OK, that could work.’ But I figured if we don’t have fans in the stands, we’ve determined it’s not safe for them in a gathering environment. So why would it be safe for the players?”
Looking for a future
Alabama Coach Nate Oats recently said that he could not predict how the coronavirus would impact next season or even if there will be a 2020-21 basketball season.
“I’m not a doctor,” he said. “I don’t have access to that type of stuff. I’m certainly really hopeful. It looks like the curve’s flattened, and in a lot of areas has gone down.
“But, again, how comfortable are they? When will there be a vaccine? When will there be testing for every one? I don’t know all that stuff. And, honestly, I don’t know if anybody knows all that stuff.”
Do not delay?
Rounding upward, Kentucky’s 27 one-and-done players in John Calipari’s time as coach were selected, on average, with the 15th pick in an NBA Draft. The six sophomores were taken, on average, with the 33rd pick.
The three juniors were taken, on average, with the 24th pick. And the two seniors were taken, on average, with the 46th pick.
Draw your own conclusions. The departing freshmen were simply better players? Playing more than one college season gave NBA people a better chance to conclude that those players were lacking? As for the second possibility, PJ Washington (12th pick in 2019) and Willie Cauley-Stein (sixth pick in 2015) would suggest otherwise.
Happy birthday
To Chris Harrison. He turned 47 on Thursday. … To Anthony Epps. He turns 45 on Monday. … To Larry Steele. He turns 71 on Tuesday. … To former UK president Lee Todd. He turns 74 on Wednesday.
This story was originally published May 2, 2020 at 9:50 AM.
