Silence will be the new soundtrack as sports resume during the pandemic

They are the background in every iconic moment. Extras adding breadth to our most memorable scenes. They are the crowds who have provided the emotional context to major sporting events for as long as any of us can recall.

And now they are being told to stay away from our stadiums, arenas and ballparks.

Welcome to the silent soundtrack of pandemic sports.

No one can predict with any certainty what baseball, hockey and basketball games will feel like in the coming months without fans in attendance, but we can be sure they will be unlike anything we’ve ever experienced.

Will home-field advantage disappear? Will athletes miss the adoration? Will games lose their sense of wonder for television viewers without fans shouting their approval from the rafters? The games themselves won’t change, just the world around them.

With that in mind, the Tampa Bay Times has put together a package of stories from the varying perspectives of players and fans about what sports might feel like in empty stadiums in the coming months. You’ll find links and descriptions below.

In the days to come, this will surely be described this as the new normal. Except there is nothing remotely normal about this.

The Rays as a TV-only production? Hmm, haven’t we heard that plan before?

Chances are, you will never get into Tropicana Field to watch the Rays play during the hottest months of this summer. Instead your devotion will be limited to following the team from afar. Watching on TV, listening to the radio, reading in the newspaper and online. You might as well be cheering for a team that was playing its home games 1,508 miles away.

Like, say, in Montreal.

Of all the consequences of the coronavirus on sports, this might be the most serendipitous in Tampa Bay. The proposed sister city plan with Montreal will get an unintended quasi-test run due to the pandemic.

Tom Brady is the hottest ticket in the NFL, but who can watch?

You don’t sign quarterback Tom Brady and trade for tight end Rob Gronkowski without visions of a sold-out, rollicking Raymond James Stadium on every sun-kissed Sunday.

After finishing among the bottom four teams in the league in attendance nine of the past 10 years, the Bucs are relevant again.

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Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic almost certainly will prevent the Bucs and other NFL teams from playing in stadiums full of fans, at least at the start of the regular season.

Do athletes believe playing in empty venues will impact their performance?

Professional athletes are used to playing in front of fans. At home, the cheers provide adrenaline. On the road, there’s always a competitive dynamic with a hostile crowd. The anticipation of a game-altering moment felt seat to seat in the stands carries over onto the field.

So what will happen when performing on the biggest stage comes without an in-house audience?

What NFL, NHL, MLB and NCAA can learn from auto racing without fans

As the NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB and NCAA prepare to return in front of limited, if not eliminated, crowds, they’ll be following the lead of auto racing — the last major U.S. sport to stop because of the pandemic and the first one to restart.

Which means teams across the area and state can all learn something from the experience of Kyle Kirkwood, one of the 77 racers who drove at the fan-free Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg before the three-day event was called off halfway through Day 1.

Tampa Bay sports fans lament possible lost seasons in the stands

Cookie Gross knows exactly where she’s supposed to be when it comes to the Lightning’s home games at Amalie Arena. She’s always down by the ice at warmups, standing with a group of friends between sections 126 and 128 as the players skate around and music pumps through the speakers.

When Gross was gone for an entire month in February 2018, Brayden Point noticed. She talked to him after a practice in Brandon soon after returning. It’s a moment she’ll never forget, but one she thinks of even more frequently now as the coronavirus pandemic threatens fans’ return to the stands.

As pandemic persists, could tailgating be a template for safe social partying?

If football proceeds at the pro and college levels this fall, and if a limited number of fans are allowed inside stadiums, the tailgate scene — done correctly — could provide a social-distancing template as the sports world slowly re-boots.

But correctly is the critical word, says Dr. Jay Wolfson, senior associate dean at Morsani College of Medicine at USF.

This 2015 MLB game without fans was unforgettable

When Eduardo A. Encina covered the first baseball game absent of fans in 2015, he thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime event.

On April 29, 2015, the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox played a regular-season game at Camden Yards behind closed gates. No fans were permitted in, and with the exception of players, coaches, media, support staff and a handful of scouts, the ballpark was empty.

Now, sporting events in empty venues will be the new normal, at least for the time being in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

What happens to the home-field advantage without fans?

As leagues and teams continue to work through solutions to their complicated returns in the COVID-19 era, there’s one critical competitive question they won’t be able to answer until the games and matches resume.

What happens to the home-field advantage if fans aren’t in the stands?

Will fans lose connection to the game while watching from afar?

Duke professor Charles T. Clotfelter compares sports fandom to a learned behavior, like writing. It’s ingrained in Americans — something they can’t forget, and if they could, they wouldn’t.

But fans may be forced to put down the proverbial pen and pencil for the remainder of this year if they’re barred from viewing sports in person.