This Joe Saward's Blog article reports Australia channel Nine recently revealed that it is considering a plan to repackage its Monday night AFL matches, so that the grandstands are filled with virtual spectators. From the article: "The ever-increasing costs of tickets to Formula 1 races are having an effect on the number of people in the grandstands – whether those involved wish to admit it or not. Race promoters do their best to draw in crowds, but the prices they are forced to ask – and the services that they can afford to offer – make it a difficult sell Formula 1 to the public, particularly in places where there is no obvious reason for a Grand Prix to be held. In such situations the local governments have tended to step in to pay the bills. They want the TV viewing world to imagine that they are glamorous locations and they imagine that “eyeballs” on TV will translate into tourism revenues. It works in some places, but not in all…
At the same time TV stations can justify large rights payments for sports property, as these enable them to pull in advertising dollars, but they do not want to broadcast matches which have empty grandstands, which have little atmosphere.
Down in Australia, they think they have an answer. Channel Nine recently revealed that it is considering a plan to repackage its Monday night AFL matches, so that the grandstands are filled with virtual spectators. They argue that using conjuring tricks to fill the empty seats with cheering fans is entirely acceptable as people do not go out on Monday nights.
The big question is whether or not sports fans want to be “conned” into thinking that the grandstands at sporting events are really full of cheering fans, or whether they do not care and are happy to sink into their couches and imagine an atmosphere that no longer exists…"