{"id":6643,"date":"2021-04-09T09:52:12","date_gmt":"2021-04-09T13:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=6643"},"modified":"2025-07-09T12:39:40","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T16:39:40","slug":"games-without-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2021\/04\/09\/games-without-fans\/","title":{"rendered":"Games Without Fans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Watching games is always fun because it gives you something to get loud and cheer about. Not only that, but when someone hits a big shot, you can just feel it in the air. But since the Coronavirus hit, things have changed. Fans have not been allowed into gyms to watch games but rather are forced to watch via livestream or on TV or maybe even look at the stats after the game.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What some people might not realize is that this doesn&#8217;t only affect the fans.\u00a0 It also affects the players themselves. According to Nick Perfit, \u201cNot having fans makes the games feel more like scrimmages. Not hearing the cheering from the fans after big plays changes the game a lot. Your team has to make its own energy since the crowd can\u2019t.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But even though Nick, like many, sees this pandemic as a struggle for sports fans and players, he views it also as a challenge for society as a whole. And even though the games may be different, Nick still believes that the team appreciated playing even more this season, when team sports were canceled at so many schools.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Fans give these players an extra spark that allows them to play the way they do. It may be easier to compete without the fans in big moments, but it also takes away the feel of the big moments at the same time. This in result takes away a key aspect of the game. Now when playoffs come around, there\u2019s no such thing as home court advantage because those fans are that extra advantage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0According to K.J. Minter, \u201cIt\u2019s different at first because you&#8217;re so used to seeing and hearing the fans&#8217; energy throughout the play of the game and now it\u2019s more so on your team to come up with that extra spark.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Getting that extra spark from the bench is tough because all the players are already tired from the play of the game. It\u2019s also very different so the players aren\u2019t used to having no one else but themselves to cheer for the team. Even when all these athletes were younger, there were the parents from both teams there to cheer and support their children&#8217;s teams.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s frustrating not being able to go to the games and support your team in person. But at least games are still being played during this tough time that we&#8217;re facing around the globe. These games give us something to look forward to as well since they give us a feel of normalcy for a few hours.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s nice to remember how things used to be because it allows us to look at the light at the end of the tunnel. We can think about how life\u2019s going to be after this pandemic. Once life returns more to the way it was, there will be less stress for everyone and it will allow fans to come back and do what they do best: give that extra spark.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Watching games is always fun because it gives you something to get loud and cheer about. Not only that, but when someone hits a big shot, you can just feel it in the air. But since the Coronavirus hit, things have changed. Fans have not been allowed into gyms to watch games but rather are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6643"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8271,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6643\/revisions\/8271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}