MLS: Is soccer without fans really nothing?

With most of the world quarantined, it seems that the only option to finish sports seasons may be to play in empty stadiums. But what is the impact of that? What is MLS, and sport more generally, without fans?

It has been almost 50 days since the last Major League Soccer match. More broadly, it has been almost 50 days since any sport at all. COVID-19 has torn through the world, disrupting pretty much everyone’s lives. Sports in 2020 are in jeopardy.

While the social media and online efforts from the sports world have done a great job at holding fans over until games are back, this cannot stay forever. Or at least, not in the indefinite state that the world is in right now. People want their sports back and it’s showing.

But that’s not possible. At least not right now. The CDC’s social distancing guidelines state plainly that large gatherings, which sports events clearly are, should be cancelled. And so, MLS, the Premier League, and every other sporting body the world is over are forced to adapt.

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The solution that’s been tossed around is playing games behind closed doors, holding games in the regular way that they were to be held, just without fans in attendance. This way, people would be provided with the much-needed distraction of sports while remaining safe. The top infectious disease expert in America, Dr. Anthony Fauci, even approves of this sort of slow start saying, “it might be better than nothing.”

Soccer is no stranger to games played behind-closed-doors. It is an unfortunately common occurrence that’s usually been the result of sanctions against supporters due to either violence or even racist harassment. Teams like Juventus, Ajax, and most recently Croatia have all played games in empty stadiums due to sanction-based reasons. Many Americans will remember the April 29th, 2015 MLB game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago White Sox that was played in an empty stadium due to the civil unrest in the City of Baltimore at the time.

With this ’empty stadium’ policy is seemingly perfect for the re-integration of sports into daily life, it brings into question a key philosophical tension in sports: What is the purpose of fans? Fundamentally, any game can be played without fans. We have all probably played a game of pick-up in some park somewhere. There were no paying fans there to watch, just a bunch of people playing a game. When you take away all of the spectacle, soccer is just kicking a ball around a field.

Back in March, before the NBA shut down the season, LeBron James vehemently protested, “I ain’t playing if I ain’t got the fans in the crowd. That’s who I play for.” Many athletes seem to share the sentiment. The idea of playing for a crowd is what they all have dreamed of since they were kids. To take it away and force them to play on without it feels like a punishment. They constantly talk about the energy they feel coming from the crowd and how much the mood of a crowd affects the game, whether positively or even negatively.

Meanwhile, anger among supporters against the greater commercialisation and seeming outstretched distance of sports has become increasingly prominent. In recent years, there have been plenty of movements by supporters’ groups for varying reasons. Some protest the ‘modernization of football’. Others protect front office decisions or even call for the ousting of front office members. These acts of supporter defiance have almost all held above their heads the simplified version of a quote from legendary Scottish coach Jock Stein: “Football Without Fans is Nothing.” Players can sometimes take a hit from a hostile home environment, but how much worse might an empty home environment affect them?

NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 23: Fans attend the Chicago Fire vs New York City FC match at Yankee Stadium on September 23, 2016 in New York City. New York City FC defeats Chicago Fire 4-1 and clinches their first franchise playoff birth. (Photo by Michael Stewart/Getty Images) /

It feels like the sports community are about to see and experience a philosophical thought experiment. We’ve seen one-off games played in empty stadiums, but those were rare, sporadic, and almost always of little importance. Now, we may see almost an entire season played in an empty stadium. And all the meaning and emotions placed onto the games seem to just fall away.

We love to watch sports because of the community and sense of belonging it brings. Playing a sport is fun. When you take away all the situational context, it feels almost like torture to force yourself to sit and watch and not join in. But it is the meaning that is placed on the game by those who do watch, the feeling of pride to call a team your own, that makes the watching fun. As many say, that basic tribalism that we seek out in our lives is exercised in sport. And without that meaning placed upon it by the existence of fans, sports would be unable to sustain itself.

Does this mean that no sports should be played until fans are allowed back into stadiums? Not quite. Extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary solutions. But the question should be posed nonetheless.

On the night of March 15th, I made sure to watch Club America vs Cruz Azul. It was the last game played in Liga MX before the shutdown and was one of the final major sporting events in the world. Estadio Azteca was empty and there was just something so sad and apocalyptic about it. This great and legendary cathedral of football, built to shake along with the crowd as it hosted some of the greatest games of all time, was a silent and stoic tomb. There was a game, but it held no life. The players gave their all, but it felt like a funeral. Without the excitement of the environment, there was a massive absence that could be tangibly felt.

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Sport, then, is inherently dependent on the supporters. And yet, we enter a period in which a supporter-less sport might be necessary. That is the juxtaposition that MLS — and all other sports — must attempt to align.

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