Photos show how cardboard cutouts and sanitation stations are becoming the new normal for sports stadiums around the world
Monica Humphries
- From boxing in Nicaragua to soccer in Germany, athletes are still playing games, and stadiums are adapting to what may be a new normal.
- Stadiums around the world have found imaginative ways to help athletes feel comfortable and connected to their fans.
- Here's how sports look around the world as lockdown restrictions ease.
While sports fans around the world are cheering from their couches, stadiums are searching for creative ways to keep athletes safe and motivated.
Lockdowns around the world have limited large gatherings, including sporting events. But for many athletes, the games continue. Boxing, soccer, horse racing, baseball, wrestling, and other sports are still taking place around the world. Just with fewer fans.
Whether its cardboard cutouts of fans or social-distance seating, here's how stadiums have found imaginative ways to continue to share their love of sports.
Read the original article on InsiderStadiums around the world have filled seats with cardboard cutouts, like this one in Germany.
The Borussia Moenchengladbach soccer stadium wanted its players to still feel supported even though fans wouldn't be attending the games in person.
More than 4,500 life-size cutouts of soccer fans filled the stadium for its first game on May 16.
But that's just the beginning. The stadium plans to add 12,000 more cutouts, and fans can pay $20 to have their face on one. All the proceeds go to local services and COVID-19 relief.
Belarus had the same idea for one of its soccer stadiums.
By purchasing a virtual ticket, fans around the world could watch a livestream of the game and have their face on a mannequin in the stadium.
All the proceeds from the tickets went to pandemic relief, according to ESPN.
In a baseball stadium in South Korea, the makeshift fans wear masks.
People around the world have discovered a new love for the Korea Baseball Organization.
Since Major League Baseball shut down in mid-March, US baseball fans have turned to KBO.
The Munhak Baseball Stadium in Incheon, South Korea, played one of its first games of the season, and across the stadium stands, fake fans filled the seats.
The game also included cheerleaders performing for the makeshift fans, although virtual fans tuning into the game could also watch their performances.
Players and coaches are required to go through temperature screens and umpires wear protective masks, according to CBS.
A stadium in Taiwan made sure to include members of the press among their cutouts.
The Taiwanese-based Chinese Professional Baseball League had its first game in mid-April.
But before any home runs, the stadium filled with robot mannequins and cardboard cutouts.
The players are also living in dormitory-style housing during the baseball season.
Some sporting events have allowed spectators, like Bufalo boxing in Nicaragua, where fans practice social distancing.
Fans wore masks and sat 6 feet apart while watching a boxing match in Nicaragua.
Masks are becoming a familiar part of games, for both athletes and fans.
On the tennis court in Höher-Grenzhausen, Germany, tennis players warm up wearing masks.
In addition to the masks, the tennis stadium didn't open to spectators and the game was filmed using remote-controlled cameras.
Jockeys now wear masks as horse racing resumes at Longchamp in Paris, France.
Jockeys line up at the start of the Prix Des Nenuphars in Paris, France. Each jockey was required to wear a face mask.
In a stadium in Taiwan, the only fans allowed are family members.
In an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus, a stadium in Taipei, Taiwan, only allowed family members to watch the soccer game.
Sanitation stations are a new normal in many stadiums.
At a rugby stadium in Sydney, Australia, players use hand sanitizer before stepping onto the field.
Training for the South Sydney Rabbitohs of the National Rugby League is still taking place, but the players are taking precautions to prevent the spread of the virus.
In Germany, substitute soccer players head to the stands where they can keep their distance.
In Berlin, Germany, soccer substitutes no longer sit on a bench. Instead, they head to the stands where they can keep a safe distance.
The Bundesliga and Second Bundesliga were the first professional leagues in the country to resume their seasons after lockdown.
Although fans can't attend the games in person, they watch from home.
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