The Broncos are preparing to host fans at Empower Field at Mile High this season but there’s no guarantee that federal and local authorities will sign off on attendance at NFL games this fall.
If fans aren’t allowed to attend games at Denver’s stadium, television networks might broadcast fake crowd noise to make the event sound more familiar to fans watching from home.
“Playing football in a 75,000-seat stadium without any fans is going to be odd if that were to happen,” Broncos president/CEO Joe Ellis said on July 28. “No question about it. Hopefully we can do some things to spice up the environment a little bit and add to the entertainment value of television minus fans, since they’ll be missing. No concrete plans. Some things have been talked about, but no concrete plans.”
Ellis indicated that there are “no concrete plans” but networks are already planning to air fake crowd noise.
Networks are “considering possibilities that include piped-in crowd noise, faux fans and maybe more eavesdropping and natural sound from field level than has ever been available to viewers,” according to USA TODAY’s Jarrett Bell.
American networks have already used fake crowd noise for soccer broadcasts this summer and it sounds pretty natural. Fans can likely expect similar results for NFL games this fall.
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