from John Steigerwald of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review,
I talked to a former NHL marketing director, whom I’ve known all my life, and he had some interesting thoughts on playing games without fans.
My brother, Paul, who was the Penguins’ marketing director before becoming part of their radio and TV broadcasts, said, “If there are going to be games played inside of empty arenas for the sake of television, then why not make them look and sound as realistic as possible for the viewing audience?
“They could look a lot like video games only they would be real games, with virtual crowds. You could use special effects using crowd shots from previous games. Sound could be created the same way.”
He also said this could be an opportunity for producers to put cameras in different places and “have access to camera angles they could never dream of having with fans in the stands.”
The technology already exists that allows fans to choose their camera angles from their living room in real time.
“Teams may soon have to realize that it’s a new paradigm, and, for the time being, their games are purely made for television events,” he said.
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