If you build it, they will come… right?
Barcelona FC played Bayern Munich in the most anticipated Champions League game of the finals on August 14, 2020. By the 89’ minute, however, Barcelona’s hopes were utterly pulverized into the pitch. Munich had taken on a massive 4 goal lead with their own goal-guzzling Philippe Coutinho scoring the final strike of the game, sealing an 8–2 victory over Barcelona.
With each one of the 8 Bayern Munich goals, echoes and ripples of sound emanate from the Estadio da Luz. Ominously, that sound is not coming from the 65,647 fans in attendance. In fact, massive tarps cover the entirety of the stadium’s body. And yet, sounds of cheering, booing, clapping, and hubbub play over the massive speakers of the stadium, replacing choruses of fans that once had their hearts glowing or breaking over a game of soccer.
COVID-19 has stripped professional athletes of the luxury of a crowd. For the Seattle Seahawks, the pandemic has sabotaged their infamous 12th man: the usual 137.6 decibels once used to mute an opponent’s offensive line, reduced to a whisper. To put that in perspective, a human’s eardrum ruptures at 150 decibels (Bien). Seahawks fans cannot help but wonder if the absence of their 12th man impacts not only the players, but the outcome of the game itself.
Every debatable referee call, beautiful expression of athleticism, and juicy conflict is left without a physical audience. Does this lack of feedback dampen the game? Are players left to flaccidly go about their business, devoid of energy and drive provided to them by thousands of giddy spectators? Even more terrifying, will we ever go back to cramming thousands of people into a tight space for a live viewing of sports ever again?
Let us turn to history in times like these — to the original spectators. Simon Goldhill, a professor of Greek literature and culture at King’s College, discusses the customs of an audience when it came to spectating Greek drama: “It was a principle that every citizen should attend the festival, and that no thought of loss of earning or poverty should prevent participation” (121). In the massive theatre festivals of the day, government law required every citizen to attend showings of tragedy and comedy. Flocks of citizens would swarm to their stadiums to experience a drop of that sweet catharsis only created through communal spectating. Catharsis was achieved “through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation [catharsis] of these emotions” (Aristotle), acting as a pressure valve for society of sorts.
As unthinkably tragic events happened before the audience’s eyes, they became invested in the action. They had a stake in the story, creating the infamous pity, fear, and exhilaration of theatre. Sports audiences of today bear remarkable resemblance to this original Greek spectator: they cry, they are moved, they are jovial, they are defeated when their team is defeated, etc. Although attendance is not mandated, fans undergo a process of catharsis through watching their gladiators on the court or pitch. During the age of the pandemic, fans artificially summon this cathartic feeling through a screen as their heroes continue to perform, albeit without the crutch of an audience.
Liam Hallam, a sports science graduate and cyclist, studies the effect audiences have on the athlete themselves. He notes that “bigger home crowds generally lead to a higher percentage of home wins”, a psychological result of athletes knowing that they are being watched. Social Facilitation influences a person’s ability to perform tasks “when other people are watching them” (Hallam), which presents a layer of complexity to our new sports reality.
Athletes may be performing better in the pandemic since they don’t have a crowd to let down. However, they may also be performing worse than ever — or more complacently — since they don’t have a crowd to lean on.
Ultimately, the machine of sports miraculously churns away despite a looming, pervasive dryness of the pandemic. Players are being paid, teams are winning championships, and stadiums are left unscathed and without their daily clean. Since millions of spectators are able to stream their teams or re-watch old games in ESPN archives, an unknown future falls down in the physical sports realm. COVID has fundamentally changed the social atmosphere of the country, introducing uncertainty as to how large crowds will meet going forward with the threat of new variants. As the world begins to forcefully re-stabilize, fans may anxiously ask themselves what they value more: their health or their team.
Aristotle. “Aristotle on Tragedy.” Poetics, translated by S. H. Butcher, 1895. Minnesota State, web.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/web%20publishing/AristotlePoeticsEdited.htm.
Bien, Louis. “What makes Seattle’s 12th Man so special?” SBNation, Vox Media, 22 Jan. 2015, www.sbnation.com/nfl/2015/1/22/7871519/seattle-seahawks-12th-man-super-bowl-patriots.
Goldhill, Simon. How to Stage Greek Tragedy Today. University of Chicago Press, 2007.
Hallam, Liam. “Audience Effect on Sports Performance.” HubPages, MAVEN, 18 Apr. 2014, discover.hubpages.com/education/Crowd-And-Audience-Effect-On-Sports-Performance.
