No fans at rugby may be the future
Is this our future? Will the fans come back?
Jannie Du Plessis of Lions is tackled during a match between Jaguares and Lions as part of Super Rugby 2020 at JosÈ Amalfitani Stadium on February 1, 2020 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Photo by Daniel Jayo/Getty Images)
It was bizarre – eerie almost – when the teams took to the field for the first matches of the resumed Super Rugby season over the weekend.
In total, there were less than 200 people at each of the venues – some of which can seat 40,000 or so fans.
The support staff on the sidelines tried their best to make up for the lack of cheering bodies by yelling their lungs out… and did we not hear a
sound track of a crowd applauding?
Still, even though the games were remote – and the clevers might refer to “virtual rugby” – there were still some flashes of brilliance which were a reminder of the empty hole in our sports entertainment for the past seven months.
There was also evidence of players being rusty and not quite up to the fitness levels we would expect…although, on the other hand, the lack of full-contact rugby for most of the year will have protected many players from injury.
The question the rugby industry will be asking, looking at the empty stadiums, will be:
Is this our future? Will the fans come back?
Can they afford to, after the financial battering many have taken because of the Covid-19 lockdowns?
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