THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Get used to the new sound of sports
It was brutal.
But that’s the fan talking.
On the other hand…
I couldn’t complain about the TV production, complete with minimal whistles and bells, while watching my beloved Arsenal FC get thrashed 3-0 by Manchester City on Wednesday.
Yeah, it was hard to take notes about what it’s like for the audience at home when the good guys are being overrun (the score actually could have been much worse).
The telecast itself, though, was basically OK.
That matters a bit because we’re all going to face this sort of experience when college football (maybe) and the NFL return in just a couple of months.
Empty stadiums — or nearly empty, if the NFL gets brave or stupid and tries to justify selling some venues to, say, 30 percent of capacity.
We know that the Miami Dolphins have some plan on the board to get the stadium a quarter full in an attempt to squeeze every last nickel from the product.
It’s wisest, though, to assume empty buildings and expect that’s how we’ll be getting our game experiences on the tube.
I WATCHED two English Premier League soccer matches on Thursday, the first (Sheffield United at Aston Villa) without any background sound. NBC was offering an “enhanced” version — think low and constant humming from fake fans — and another option with just the game announcers and actual on-field noise.
For the Arsenal match at Manchester City, I went for the enhanced sound.
Maybe it was because Arsenal were being totally outclassed by a team with more talent that has essentially been together for four years, but what was meant (I think) to be a crowd “roar” turned into just enough background rumble that you could almost feel like some folks actually had been admitted into Etihad Stadium.
Almost.
Once Arsenal fell behind, lost two key players to injury and had the ludicrously clumsy David Luiz sent off via red card, I knew the result would be a train wreck and actually let my attention drift away from on-field action to focus on the telecast.
Verdict: It’s not a catastrophe, especially with good play-by-play and color announcers.
One major caveat is that soccer is basically non-stop, so a background crowd hum works until there’s a goal — at which point in the real world, you should hear audible roars from the crowd.
During the regular back-and-forth, however, that relentless hum almost felt normal.
Football here, though, is very different, with all the pauses after plays, so that a normal telecast features huge explosions from the crowd from time to time, interrupted by general quiet — especially when the home team offense has the ball.
THE WHOLE experience in the States may not be too bad, especially if…
You are rooting passionately for one team, and thus whatever sound might be droning along can be ignored as you keep a keen eye on replays and so on.
Also, it’s worth bearing in mind that these multinational networks are pretty clever, so adding some bursts of noise for big plays and touchdowns might be coming as they test various ways of doing the broadcasts.
I’m guessing the whistles and bells mentioned above might become more and more sophisticated as we go along here.
It’s pretty obvious that teams with the loudest fans (and thus the biggest home-field advantage) will lose an edge when playing in an empty bowl.
Certainly, the Seahawks qualify as one of those clubs that feeds off the raucous energy at Century Link, and that’s going away for a while — which you’re going to notice pretty obviously, even on TV.
On the other hand, shouts from players and coaches will be audible for viewers with good audio, and that’s a fascinating piece of the game you don’t normally get at home.
Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola must have screamed “Outside!” to his players a thousand times — Pep’s clubs always try to use width as their offensive style — and sure enough, all three City goals came after the ball had been distributed to the outside.
I didn’t find that particularly exhilarating, but then, my loyalties were on the other side.
It may have been fun for a neutral.
However the broadcasts evolve in America, though, we can say one thing with dead certainty…
It’ll beat no football at all.
Email: scameron@cdapress.com
Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. “Moments, Memories and Madness,” his reminiscences from several decades as a sports journalist, runs each Sunday.
Steve also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball, once per month during the offseason.