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Empty seats are seen inside a stadium amid coronavirus
Empty seats are seen inside a stadium amid coronavirus Photograph: Federico Gambarini/Getty Images
Empty seats are seen inside a stadium amid coronavirus Photograph: Federico Gambarini/Getty Images

Remote cheering app could boost atmosphere in Japan's empty stadiums

This article is more than 3 years old

System allows fans following a match on TV, the radio or online to encourage – or berate – players via their smartphones

When Japan’s coronavirus-hit football league finally resumes in a few weeks’ time, it will be in stadiums devoid of supporters. But a new smartphone app could mean the action won’t unfold in atmosphere-sapping silence.

The Remote Cheerer system developed by the Japanese firm Yamaha allows fans following the match on TV, the radio or online to encourage – or berate – players via their smartphones, their voices reverberating around the stadium in realtime via loudspeakers.

In a recent field test, users in multiple remote locations chose from a range of on-screen options that sent their cheers, applause, chants and boos into the 50,000-seat Shizuoka Stadium Ecopa via 58 speakers set up among the empty seats.

The app does not, as yet, allow fans to question the referee’s eyesight, or the eating habits of players who struggled to stay match-fit during the league’s virus-enforced break.

“Users were able to gain a sense of being present at the venue, even though it’s a massive stadium,” Yamaha said in a statement, adding that the system “demonstrated the ability to create a spectator atmosphere similar to that of a real match.”

Yamaha said it would improve the app, developed with help from J-League clubs Jubilo Iwata and Shimizu S-Pulse, so that it can be adapted for use at a range of sports and other events held behind closed doors or with limited numbers of spectators.

“Fans are an essential element of the match atmosphere,” said Jumpei Takaki of the sales division at S-Pulse. “As a former professional footballer, I know how encouraging their support is to the players on the field.”

Japan is playing it safe in turning to technology to generate atmosphere. When the South Korean professional football league opened early this month organisers tried to create a semblance of atmosphere by piping music into the empty stadium. But a week later, FC Seoul’s attempt to add a touch of realism by filling some of its stadium seats backfired spectacularly after viewers pointed out the “fans” were, in fact, sex dolls. The club later apologised and was hit with a record fine by an unamused K-League.

Professional sport in Japan is poised to start up in the coming weeks after the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, lifted the state of emergency across the country on Monday following a marked drop in new infections.

The J-League is expected to resume matches in late June or early July pending agreement from its 58 teams.

The league’s top flight briefly started on 21 February, with the second division following two days later, before all fixtures were suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak. Clubs in the league’s third tier were supposed have started playing on 7 March.

Japan’s professional baseball season will start behind closed doors on 19 June – three months later than scheduled – the sport’s commissioner said this week.

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