How will the Giants fill the stadium?
After three straight years of growing apathy and shrinking attendance, the Giants can guarantee fans will be glued to their seats this season.
It’ll just have to be in the form of cutouts.
Fans won’t be allowed to attend games at Oracle Park due to the coronavirus pandemic, so the Giants launched “Giants Fan Cutout Program,” which encourages fans to submit pictures of themselves to be displayed in the stands.
The Giants sent notice to their season ticket holders Thursday introducing the
program that “allows you to be at Oracle Park even when you’re home watching the game” during the shortened 60-game season that begins late next month.
The cutouts will be provided at no cost for season ticket holders who are choosing to receive account credit toward next season. All other fans can participate in the cutout program by paying $99.
The team said it will soon release more details about how fans can submit their photos. There will be guidelines about which types of photos will be permissible, so anything overly provocative or anything showing certain gestures meant to disparage the Dodgers, won’t cut it.
Now, if the Giants wanted to get creative when the sign-stealing Astros come to town and perhaps intersperse images of a bat next to a garbage can ...
A number of European and Asian soccer teams are using the same kind of cutout program as the Giants for their fans, with mixed results. While seeing the likenesses of upward of 20,000 fans in the stands has somewhat normalized their no-fan experiences, there have been some issues.
English soccer club Leeds United was forced to apologize after a cutout of Osama bin Laden in a seat appeared on a telecast. Meanwhile, a South Korean soccer team also apologized after including (fully clothed) sex dolls among the fans’ cutouts.