Baseball Stadiums May Be Empty, But You Can Still Hear The Crowds

When Major League Baseball launches its shortened, COVID-delayed season on Thursday, there will be no fans in the stands. But it will sound like there are. All 30 teams will be piping recorded sounds of fans into the ballparks, which means you'll hear those crowd sounds in broadcasts of the games, too. MLB is also launching an interactive website feature called "Cheer at the Ballpark" that will allow fans to cheer, clap or boo virtually, from home. The idea is that audio engineers at the ballparks can then adjust the recorded crowd sounds to reflect the fans' reactions. Soccer leagues have been adding recorded crowd sounds to their broadcasts for months and now, baseball is following their lead. Germany's Bundesliga was the first to do so in May when that league resumed play . Fan sound wasn't pumped into the stadiums, so players and coaches didn't hear it; it was mixed in to broadcast feeds for viewers and listeners at home. La Liga and the Premier League, the top-level professional