Since the World Health Organization announced on March 11 that the new crown pneumonia epidemic has constituted a global pandemic, people around the world have felt the impact of the rapid spread of the epidemic in all aspects of life, and sports fans are no exception.
Last week, the NBA officially announced the suspension of the 2019-2020 season. The Utah Jazz player Gobel New Crown Virus nucleic acid test was positive that day. Earlier, the NBA had issued an internal notice that it would consider taking the form of open games. In Europe, known by WHO as the epicenter of the new crown pneumonia pandemic, in order to avoid crowds, the five major European leagues including the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and Bundesliga and the UEFA Champions League have all been suspended. In South America, except for the postponement of the third round of the South American Liberator Cup group stage, the Argentina and Paraguay clubs have implemented an empty field mode.
As of March 15, there were more than 150,000 confirmed cases and 5,746 deaths in 146 countries and regions around the world. As the epidemic situation continues to deteriorate, the Tokyo Olympic Games, which was originally scheduled to open on July 22, is also considering whether to adopt an empty field model. According to the New York Times, WHO and the Olympic Organizing Committee discussed the possibility of taking this emergency measure in a "worst case scenario" in a conference call recently, allowing only sports officials and live broadcast staff Enter the competition site and let 10,000 athletes from all over the world compete on the same stage in the empty auditorium. Another option facing the Tokyo Olympics is a postponement. According to the Japanese sports magazine "Nikkan Sports" on March 17, Takahashi Takahashi, director of the Tokyo Olympics Organizing Committee, proposed to postpone the Tokyo Olympics until 2022, and many Olympic Committee members have agreed to this plan. It is said that the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Committee will hold a meeting on this month to discuss the issue.
Previous sporting events are not without precedents for “behind closed doors”, but rarely because of public health considerations. In the face of the epidemic, the empty-field model is likely to become a kind of "new normal" for this year's sports events. This looming prospect not only means huge economic losses in the sports market, but also means that as spectators, we need to adjust the Traditional cognition—Athletes in the field are sweating and struggling hard. The audience under the field is screaming and cheering. This also makes people wonder, why is it difficult for us to imagine what a sports match would look like without an audience?
Tokyo street, Japan
The birth of a modern sports audience
The ancient Greeks invented the Olympic Games more than two thousand years ago, and people went to the holy places of Olympia and Delphi to watch athletes show the beauty of physical strength; the ancient Romans created magnificent arenas for people to watch gladiator sports and chariot competitions; the Middle Ages People from the Renaissance were fascinated by competitions, archery, and folk football; the pioneers of the western United States liked shooting competitions, horse racing, boxing, and rodeo. Since ancient times, people around the world have always had great enthusiasm for sports.
Modern sports were formed from the middle of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century. Most of the currently popular sports are invented, improved, or ruled by Victorian British public or university students, such as football, cricket, rugby, boxing, boxing, and lawn tennis. Football is now known as the "world's number one sport", but few people know that its core rules were made by Cambridge students in 1843. By the 1880s, the British football audience had reached 10,000; in the 1890s, football gambling had become very popular.
Formed in sync with modern sports is the modern sports audience. American historian Allen Guttmann combed the development history of Western sports spectators in the book "Sports Spectators" and pointed out that the period between Queen Victoria's ascension from 1937 to the outbreak of World War II in 1939 witnessed modern sports becoming Popular phenomenon:
"Democratization and commercialization simultaneously drive sports to a wider participation and more diverse audience. The doors to most sporting events (now really there) are open to men and women, and to the rich and the poor , Open to whites and blacks (although the conditions are different). The issue for modern sports sponsors is not how to drive away mob mobs, but how to turn them into enthusiastic but well behaved (or at least non-violent) audiences. One way to achieve this is through schools and universities, the media, and youth literature to promote fair competition, good sportsmanship, and courteous viewing; the other way is to control admission by building stadiums and sports fields Audiences, tickets of different price ranges are used to separate social classes. "
Sports events such as track and field, rowing, and ball events have become more and more rational and professional. Professional athletes who devote all their time to a certain sport and continuously improve their level have begun to appear. By the 1880s, the concept of "record breaking" was introduced in the field of sports. One of the results of sports specialization is the emergence of a field where highly-skilled athletes struggled on the field and audiences lacking a sports foundation watched outside the field.
Auditorium of a Barcelona football game in 2011
Interestingly, the establishment of various sports organizations also institutionalized this distinction to some extent: in the United Kingdom, the Football Association was established in 1863, and the Amateur Athletic Association was established in 1880 Established. Similar institutions have since been established in the United States, Germany and France. In 1904, the International Football Federation (FIFA) was established, and the International Amateur Athletic Federation was established 9 years later. Guttmann believes that although the management of spectators is not the core purpose of the establishment of these national or international sports institutions, but because sports institutions usually also have the right to manage the stadium, they often have the responsibility to introduce and enforce spectator management regulations. As sporting events become more commercialized, such as the British Professional Football League and the American Baseball League, team managers and league organizers have also played an increasingly important role in formulating and implementing spectator codes.
Particularly worth mentioning is the important role that the media plays in shaping modern sports and the modern audience. Sports news appeared and made great progress in the 19th century. By the end of the 19th century, major daily newspapers in European and American countries opened sports columns, and sports publications also sprung up.
Many of the most important events in sports today are actually founded by media in the early 20th century. The practice of sponsoring and reporting on sports competitions by newspapers and magazines was very popular at the time. For the media, it was a win-win situation: the famous Tour de France was founded in 1903 and was later proved to be the French sports daily "L ' Auto "is an extremely successful promotional strategy (the newspaper sold 14 million copies that year). The Golden Gloves Amateur Boxing Tour is sponsored by the New York Daily News (since 1927) and the Chicago Tribune (since 1928). "Chicago Tribune" sports editor Arch Ward also founded the American Baseball All-Star Game and American University All-Star Rugby Game in 1933 and 1934, respectively. Gabriel Hanot, editor of the French sports daily L’ Equipe, left his name in the history of the European Cup-at the initiative of his and other media colleagues, the European Cup began in 1955.
Daily newspaper “L’ Auto” as sponsor of the first Tour de France
With the increasing number of sports reports, reporters also inevitably pay attention to and record the performance of the audience during the game, and readers have learned in the process what is proper watching behavior and what is not. "We need to remember that the media used to play a role in shaping non-violent viewing models in fierce competitions," Guttmann wrote. "Overall, paper media has helped shape civilization fans."
The mentality of sports audiences
Why do we like to watch sports games live? American sociologist J. Michael Schwartz summarized the findings of Western sociologists in an article published in 1973.
First, people can get pleasure from watching outstanding performances. Art, music, religion, academia, politics, sports-as the basic attributes of human beings, human beings have shown boundless creativity, challenging abilities and cognitive boundaries in various fields of activity and thought. Sports symbolize human mastery of physical skills, and sports competitions are a test of the limits of physical skills. Given that most of us are not proficient in any physical skills, especially those that require extreme self-discipline and perennial hard work, we like to imagine or imagine the feeling of victory by watching other people's games. For us, outstanding athletes are a symbol of perfection, and a sense of identification with an outstanding athlete can often be projected onto a larger group such as a city, province, country, or race.
Other sociologists believe that sports games are an important channel for people to relieve their pressure on life and mediate social conflicts. They are a secret expression of social and cultural characteristics. This theory leads to many interesting explanations for individual sports. For example, Louis Zurcher and Arnold Meadow pointed out in their article "On Bullfights and Baseball: An Example of Interaction of Cultural Institutions" that bullfighting as a "national sport" actually reflects Mexico Subconscious frustration in society: Bullfighting symbolizes the patriarchal structure in Mexican families. Bulls represent the power of fathers. It is constantly challenged by matadors (sons). With the encouragement of audiences (mothers), matadors finally challenge success.
Some sociologists believe that the audience watching the game reflects the culture behind the game and the series of ceremonies surrounding the game. In the United States, the best expression of this is the American football culture. Almost every well-known university has a "dead rival" in rugby games (usually another university with close academic level and geographical distance), such as Harvard and Yale, Stanford and University of California, Berkeley, University of California Los Angeles and University of Southern California. Competition with rival schools is often an annual event of the school. Even many alumni who have graduated for many years will return to their alma mater to watch the game, meet old friends, and relive the "sacred tradition" and "common values" of the alma mater. Here, watching the game itself is probably not the primary purpose.
At the same time, some sociologists have noticed that for many sports fans, watching a game is a means of establishing a common experience and obtaining information-compared to politics or religion, sports are less controversial and can also be Resonate with others. In addition, sports games also help spectators gain a sense of stability and security in a rapidly changing life. Some studies have found that sports fans in the United States often follow a specific team in their teens, and their loyalty is also very high in adulthood Less change.
Why do we like to watch sports games live? There are many answers to this question
Sports games are also a means of building gender identity. In a male-dominated society, sports are often associated with masculinity-many sports require speed, strength, aggressiveness, and wit, and these qualities are often considered male-related. By watching the outstanding performance of male athletes, male audiences strengthen their gender identity and masculinity. Some men loathe and even hostile to women who claim to be knowledgeable in sports.
For society as a whole, ornamental sports therefore have a profound influence. To a certain extent, ornamental sports have undertaken the functions of major festivals in history, providing people in modern society with the opportunity to temporarily escape from the monotonous life and stimulate people's passion and vitality. It is also important that ornamental sports can play a role in enhancing social cohesion-the quadrennial World Cup and Olympic Games can attract the attention of global audiences, not only because of these rare events, but also because the national team is in large international The excellent performance in the competition often excites the domestic audience.
Although sporting competitions can also breed social security problems-such as the famous "football hooligan"-sports competitions still have many benefits for the country. As Schwartz said:
"For senior legal officials, they are more likely to encourage these (sports) events because they both stimulate the enthusiasm of the people and provide a 'safety valve' for suppressed hostility. After all, if social conflicts accumulate, To the extent that it is about to erupt, the advice given to political leaders is often to allow people to express themselves through depoliticized media, such as sports, even in extreme situations such as football riots. "
What would happen to a sports match without a live audience?
For thousands of sports fans, sports games are an integral part of daily life. It gives people living around the world a common topic and provides a sense of identity for people who share a common hobby. Today sports is a huge market valued at $ 600-700 billion, with growth rates exceeding global GDP.
With the development of digital media technology, the way sports fans watch games is becoming more and more diversified. Watching games live is no longer the most important way to gain a sense of participation. According to The Future of the Sports Fan released by British brand public relations company Performance Communications, the popularity of smartphones allows fans to access event information on various platforms 24 hours a day, innovative live streaming technologies such as Capturing individual athletes ’sports data, virtual reality, and augmented reality) allows fans to enjoy the game in a more entertaining and efficient way without leaving home. At the same time, the rising ticket prices of the competition have also “dispelled” some fans. Three-quarters of the respondents said that they once gave up to watch the game on the spot because of the ticket price. high.
Nevertheless, there are still many sports fans who think that going to the field to watch and cheer for the team they like is an irreplaceable experience. 85% of respondents believe that sports games are meaningless without fans, 66% of respondents believe that being a fan means going to the field to watch the game, and 55% of respondents believe that the way fans support their favorite teams is to buy money Tournament tickets.
Although it is rare that spectators are not allowed to go to the scene to watch the game, it is not uncommon. Vacant matches are usually motivated by the need to prevent mass violence between supporters on both sides of the team, which occurred in football games such as the European Cup in 1980-1981 and the 2007 Serie A league. The 2015 Orioles vs. Chicago White Sox was the first open game in the history of Major League Baseball (MLB). Fierce ethnic clashes broke out in Baltimore, where an African-American man died unexpectedly while in police custody. It is said that because the game scene is too empty and quiet, players sitting in the rest area of one team can even hear the conversation of opponents in the rest area of the other team.
2015 Orioles vs. Chicago White Sox
In any case, due to its huge negative economic effects, the empty match is a decision that needs to be made carefully. No audience means no ticket income and live consumption income, which may also affect the ratings of live broadcasts, because some viewers will think that the absence of live audiences makes the game lack the necessary atmosphere. University of Southern California associate professor and sports industry researcher David Carter believes that the economic impact of open games is more complicated: media and sponsors may be largely unaffected, but a minor league baseball team from North Carolina may be more effective than the New York Yankees Depends on ticket income.
For the athletes in the next game, the impact without the audience will also be huge. Studies by psychologists have found that audiences can influence the performance of athletes, cheering can bring positive effects, and cheering can bring negative effects. This is why professional athletes usually also receive psychological training.
San Francisco Giants player Jeff Samardzija, who played for the Chicago White Sox in the 2015 open game, talked about his experience in an interview with USA Today, saying that although it was a "lifetime experience", "to be honest I would not recommend it to anyone. " "The game should be played in front of fans. I understand there are a lot of people watching the game on TV now, but it (baseball) is definitely an ornamental sport." Lakers star Lebron James was asked if the NBA might take the empty The game mode commented: "No fans play the game? This is impossible. If there are no spectators, I will not play next game. I play for them. I play for my teammates, my fans, this is The whole meaning of this sport. So if I appeared in the gym and there were no fans there, I would n’t play, whatever other people would do. "
But in the current severe epidemic situation, we do need to change the way we watch games (or even accept the reality of game suspension), and what's worse, we don't know when sports games will return to normal. According to Dae Hee Kwak, associate professor and director of the University of Michigan's Sports Marketing Research Center, the outbreak continues or will have a profound impact on sports:
"Assuming the epidemic continues, governments ban large-scale crowd gatherings, and people isolate themselves in various ways. Will sports games feel different on TV? Do people feel disappointed, especially when those who go to the scene to watch the game are Where is the important part of local identity? This is for sure. But for now, this trade-off is trivial. Concerns about the health and safety of your family, friends, and community should always take precedence over concerns about long-term injury to sports events. "