NFL stadiums may be empty or at far less than full capacity all season, but that does not mean they will be void of crowd noise.
The NFL is considering a league-wide policy that would enable teams to pipe fan noise into their stadiums, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports.
Artificial crowd noise has been used during NBA, MLB and NHL broadcasts in an attempt to improve the viewer experience. NFL broadcast partners will almost certainly do that as well, but having fan noise in actual stadiums takes it a step further. The details are unclear at this point, but piping in fan noise could allow home teams to create an advantage for themselves while they’re on defense and in other situations.
Joe Buck said months ago that the NFL would be using fake crowd noise on its broadcasts. Some fans would prefer that leagues make the most of the situation by allowing viewers to hear more game audio. The NFL will likely do a little bit of both.
The NFL stands to lose an astronomical amount of money with only a small fraction of fans allowed to attend games. Improving both the viewer and player experience as much as possible will be incredibly important.
