Fans are left with TV, radio — for now
Leagues gear up for their return, but only before limited live crowds sometime in July
As spectator sports begin their slow, tentative emergence from the COVID-19 shutdown, Houston fans eager to take in a game must, for the near future, abide by the words of the great broadcaster Vin Scully, who for decades invited fans to turn on their TV or radio and “pull up a chair.”
Sports for at least the next six weeks will be a distraction enjoyed via television, radio and the internet as leagues move to secure central sites to resume or commence their seasons. The Rockets will be among 22 NBA teams that will begin play July 31 at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. Teams will play eight games to wrap up the regular season, and 16 teams will advance to the playoffs, which are scheduled to end with the NBA Finals in early October.
Major League Soccer teams, including the Dynamo, also will move to Orlando for a 35-day tournament in early July, and league commissioner Don Garber said he hopes teams can return to their local markets by August.
The Dash of the National Women’s Soccer League are bound for suburban Salt Lake City, where the league will play a 25-game tournament from June 27 through July 26.
That leaves the NFL and MLB as the only major league options for pro spectator sports in Houston leading into the fall although Major League Baseball owners and players are still debating if there will be a 2020 season. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has decreed that teams in Texas can allow 50 percent seating capacity for games with the possibility of expansion as the summer progresses.
The NFL remains on track for what it hopes will be a full season that would begin with the Texans’ preseason opener Aug. 14 in Minnesota and a home preseason debut Aug. 22 in Seattle, followed by the regular-season opener Sept. 10 in Kansas City against the Super Bowl champion Chiefs.
Texans officials are said to be working on plans for seating, food and beverage service, security and sanitation but have not revealed what, if any, changes will be in store if and when fans are able to attend games at NRG Stadium.
As for baseball, fans have despaired in recent weeks as players and owners haggle over the length of the season and pay scales that likely will rule out a resumption of major league games by the traditional July 4 milestone.
The Astros, however, continue to hold out hope that games will resume.
“We are excited to start the 2020 baseball season and are looking forward to hosting games at Minute Maid Park soon,” the team said this week. “We are also excited about the possibility of playing in front of fans.
“We are working through scenarios of what that can look like but have not finalized plans at this point. However, our priority will continue to be the health and safety of our players, fans and our employees.”
While the major league season remains in question, the minor league Sugar Land Skeeters announced at midweek that it will sponsor a four-team professional league involving 90 players that will begin play July 3 at Constellation Field.
Fans will be allowed at 25 percent of capacity for the 7,500-seat stadium, the team said.
Elsewhere, NASCAR, IndyCar and the PGA Tour have resumed their seasons without fans. The PGA Tour plans to be without fans at courses for the next five weeks, beginning with this weekend’s season resumption at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth.
The Houston Open is scheduled for Nov. 5-8 at Memorial Park Golf Course, and Giles Kibbe, president of the Astros Golf Foundation, said plans are to have fans in attendance.
“We’re not sure what the capacity will be, so that’s a bit of a moving target right now,” Kibbe said. “But we’re hopeful that we will have a lot of fans watching one of the strongest fields on the PGA Tour.”
College and high school sports also are preparing for football season to begin as scheduled in late August.
Networks and broadcasting crews also are preparing for the sports startup, and some leagues and networks hope to use the return of sports as an opportunity to try new techniques.
CBS’ and Golf Channel’s coverage of a tournament this weekend in Fort Worth, for example, will include an unmanned camera at which players will be asked to stop during their rounds to comment on their play and on topics such as how they spent time during the sports shutdown.
“This is a wonderful opportunity … to go before a sports-starved nation and create a wider fan base,” said CBS Sports golf anchor Jim Nantz. “It is an opportunity for the players to invest in their own game and to widen the audience base. … We need the players’ help.”
If MLB games resume, Astros radio play by play announcer Robert Ford said broadcast crews have been advised to prepare for the possibility that TV and radio announcers will not go on the road with teams and will call away games off monitors from local studios.
Given health and security measures for the centralized events planned by MLS, NWSL and the NBA, local broadcast crews also are expected to call games remotely and will not be in Utah or Florida for Rockets, Dynamo or Dash games.
Rockets TV and radio crews are expected to work from a studio setting at Toyota Center. Kevin Harlan, who calls NBA games for Turner Sports, said on SiriusXM Radio that network announcers are not expected to be allowed courtside until the conference finals and NBA Finals.
As for the NFL, Texans director of broadcasting Marc Vandermeer said the team is preparing for business as usual with a full house for Texans home games. He said plans as this week call for radio and TV crews to travel to exhibition games and for radio crews to make regular-season road trips as well.
“We’re planning for all the different scenarios,” Vandermeer said. “If we have to scale back, we’re looking at that, and we also are preparing for what we should do if there are no fans are limited fans and how that will look and sound on television.
“But we also would be crazy not to prepare for the possibility that we might have to work (preseason) games off monitors.”
NBC has used what Nantz describes as the “confession-cam,” known formally by CBS as “Inside the Ropes,” for figure skating coverage, and Nantz said it could become if successful in golf a staple for other sports.
“If a guy hauls in a 60-yard touchdown pass, he can run to the unmanned camera where he doesn’t have to interact with anyone and give a soundbite on how he got free on the play,” Nantz said. “Then he walks away, and it gets brought into the broadcast.”
Another element to be determined is whether networks will pipe in crowd noise for games played without spectators. Fox Sports is working on the idea, but the plan has its skeptics in Vandermeer and Nantz.
“I think you should have music or buzz generated in the stadium, but I don’t want to have a soundboard in the truck (of crowd cheers or boos),” Vandermeer said. “The viewer or listener should experience what the players are hearing.”
Nantz added, “I’d rather take it for what it is. Give me the real scene and let me deal with it. It would be easier for broadcasters to match our voices against that invisible energy wave, but that’s too bad.
“We will have to find ways to create energy in our voices and rise to the moment with our voices reflecting the appropriate amount of excitement matched against a silent backdrop.”