Is Playing Games Without Fans A Fair Trade Off To Bring Back Sports?

As higher ups at all levels of sports continue to try and figure out a way to bring America sports back in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it appears sacrifices must be made.

The idea of athletes playing in empty arenas was tossed around before the stoppage of sorts completely back in March, and has come up again as a viable solution.

Football attendance has been dwindling for schools across the nation, so it may not be as large as hit if the NCAA can use the money from television deals to compensate.

Women's basketball for South Carolina may take the biggest hit. It's no secret that the "fams" played an integral part in the Gamecocks finishing as the number one team in the nation this past season.

Against UConn, 18,000 people showed up to Colonial Life Arena and not only go to witness history as the No.1 Gamecocks defeated the No. 5 Huskies for the first time in program history, but had a hand in the victory according senior guard Tyasha Harris.

“I want to give all the credit to our fams, our crowd,” she said after the game. “Honestly there was about five times where the person I was guarding and the other person that was running down, they had to yell in each other’s ears to tell them the play. And they were like ‘what? What’s the play?’ and I think that slowed them down so they wouldn’t run smoothly into their plays and get ahead of us. I just want to thank the crowd for that because I was like ‘oh yeah this is good for us.’”

South Carolina led the nation in crowd attendance, averaging more than 10,000 fans for more than a season. Coaches throughout the year praises USC for the atmosphere created during game.

UConn guard Crystal Dangerfield admitted it’s a type of environment they don’t see a lot of throughout the year.

“I’m not sure what the attendance actually was, but they hold 18,000 and that’s probably the biggest arena we’re gonna play in,” Dangerfield said. “Their fans always come out full force and they were loud, so at times it is hard to hear what’s being said on the court, but that’s on us to look to the next person and make sure they’re on the same page."

In a recent poll, some Gamecock fans said they wouldn't feel comfortable being in an arena anyway even with sports resuming.

Question for Gamecock fans. With the stay at home order lifted, right now do you feel comfortable with the idea of attending sporting events in the near future?
— Chaunte'l Powell (@chauntelpowell) May 1, 2020

Gamecock fans sound off by clicking the link below. Are you ok with sacrificing season tickets to bring back sports?

/college/southcarolina/football/5-5-question-of-the-day-zz3-ZtbrwEmsXECrsFGr0A

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