Sonny Hammoud - Live crowds being back in sports.

 

By Sonny Hammoud

As everyone is focused on the NBA Finals, I wanted to point out that I am glad for there to be live crowds again. It honestly really adds a lot more to sports games as the fans can make or break a team. Whether it is Milwaukee cheering like crazy at a win, or Phoenix counting down Giannis' free throw attempts, the investment also helps even just normal viewers on television get interested. This will also be very apparent and very loud if either team can win the NBA Finals at home for these remaining 3 potential games. If the COVID pandemic never happened, I also believe the Super Bowl this year would have had an even louder crowd than it did with it being held in Tampa Bay with their team competing for the trophy. Even now as I worked as a cameraman for high school football games, LSU Shreveport basketball and soccer games, and Shreveport Mavericks games in the TBL, the main thing I noticed was how loud and motivated the crowds were for these games when they were very close and came down to the wire at the end. Being there for those games live and hearing that in the stands added to the fun of me doing those tasks, and even just watching sports games gets me invested when it is clear that everyone there wanted to be there and wanted to see their team win. Business-wise, it is an obviously great decision due to ticket sales. For sports teams, it is great as a home crowd can really motivate them to play better and even in situations like the LA Chargers where they have problems with home attendance, it shows how great a road team fanbase is when they are able to fill the stadium in what is supposed to be a home game. I hope this progress is able to continue and for sports leagues such as the MLB, NFL, NBA, etc. to be able to sustain these live audiences once the short-term momentum wears off and they have to be able to keep these live crowds for the long-term.