Can NHL have crowd noise without crowds? taken on the North Shore (Penguins)

No one will be in the seats when goals are scored in the 2020 playoffs. -- MATT SUNDAY / DKPS

It's a given that if the NHL is able to complete the 2019-20 season and award the Stanley Cup this summer, its games will be played without crowds.

That doesn't mean they can't have crowd noise, though.

And the competition just might be enhanced if there is some. At the very least, the viewing experience for those watching on TV and online would be.

Several games in the Bundesliga, Germany's top soccer league, that were televised Sunday proved that. Although no fans were present in the stadiums, there were chants and cheers and the general din associated with a well-attended sporting event. The noise was recorded -- whether it was piped into the stadium or simply added to the telecast wasn't clear -- but it didn't conflict with the empty seats as much as it simply overshadowed them.

It was a good first step toward making games more compelling -- the ones contested without crowd noise have felt more like scrimmages than actual games -- for the audiences networks will be trying to attract and retain as more sports and leagues resume operations that were suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic.

And the NHL, which is expected to play its games in as few as two "hub" cities once it gets clearance from medical and political officials to restart the season that was placed on hold March 12, should consider taking that concept to a higher level.

Although most teams will not be competing in their home buildings, there has to be a "home" team designated for every game, for purposes of determining things such as which club gets to make the last personnel change during a stoppage in play and which player must put his stick on the ice first for faceoffs.

Part of the advantage that goes with being the home team is the support of the crowd, and that obviously would be lost when games are played without fans on hand.

It could, however, be restored, at least to a degree, if the games would include constant crowd noise -- including chants and goal songs -- that had been recorded in the arena of the designated home club. A member of that club's game-presentation staff would be in charge of actually introducing the sound to the venue's public-address system.

There are, of course, some potential complications, and not only technical ones.

The NHL seems intent on holding the number of people present for games -- it will run into the hundreds -- to the absolute minimum necessary to stage them. The league might not be interested in testing and housing even one more member of each team's contingent.

Still, if having someone in the venue to overlay a soundtrack for the game isn't viable, perhaps it could be done in a TV production facility for the benefit of viewers, even though the on-ice participants would not be aware of -- and possibly reacting to -- it.



Anything off-color or abusive should be prohibited, and there also might have to be some restrictions imposed to prevent the "home" team from trying to weaponize the piped-in noise. No pre-recorded jeering after an official's call goes in favor of the other club, for example.

Naturally, it won't be possible to perfectly recreate what the atmosphere of a particular game would be like under normal circumstances. Actual fans reacting spontaneously to events on the ice can't be replicated.

But there is nothing normal about the circumstances the NHL -- and just about every other aspect of society -- is facing these days. And the desire to have a perfect presentation of its product should not prevent the league from trying to simply have a better one.

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