John Steigerwald: When they return, sports should be made-for-TV events - TribLIVE

Let the games begin. Or not.

President Donald Trump held a conference call with the commissioners of all the major sports leagues Saturday and told them he is hoping people can start filling stadiums and arenas by August or September.

That’s good news for the NFL and college football, but, if it takes that long, you can forget seeing any NHL, NBA or MLB games in a 2020 season.

Maybe the NHL and NBA could figure out a playoff system that would carry over into the planned start of the 2020-21 season, but what kind of a season could Major League Baseball expect to have if no games could be played until August or September?

California Gov. Gavin Newsome threw water all over any plans NFL teams in his state might have of playing there in August or September.

“I’m not anticipating that happening in this state. A well known athlete just asked me — a football player — if he expects to come back, I said, ‘I would move very cautiously in that expectation.’ … (Our decision), at least here in the state of California, will be determined by the health experts, will be determined by our capacity to meet the moment, bend the curve and have the appropriate community surveillance and testing to confidently determine whether that’s appropriate, and right now I’m just focused on the immediate, but that’s not something I anticipate happening in the next few months.”

Should that make the 49ers, Rams and Chargers feel good about the chances of playing home games in front of fans in August or September?

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.

All the major professional sports leagues have been concerned about younger fans preferring to watch games on their 60-inch TV screen to paying for tickets and putting up with the hassle of getting into and out of arenas.

It is possible we may reach a point where it’s considered safe for the people directly involved in the games, including TV personnel, to gather in a building but not safe enough for tens of thousands of people to gather to watch.

Picture a hockey game with players equipped with cameras giving fans their view of the game. An extra interactive, pay-per-view layer could be added to the telecast.

Fans could still bet on the games.

No fans at the game may be a bummer, but it also could be a way for teams in all sports to plan for a day when a generation raised on video games would see nothing wrong with their favorite sport being a 100% made-for-TV event.

That day may be here sooner than you think.

John Steigerwald is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.

Categories: John Steigerwald Columns | Penguins/NHL | Pirates/MLB | Sports | Steelers/NFL