Hintz: Why are fans ripping artificial crowd noise?

By Kacy Hintz, WRAL Sports anchor/reporter

When I was growing up, I would watch a show called "King of Queens," but my dad would always change the channel because he hated the “laugh tracks."

“If you’ve gotta have fake laughing to tell you it’s funny, then it’s not," he would say.

Fast forward 15 years, and the soundtrack to our at-home sports viewing experience is that of a “cheer track."

"If you’ve gotta have fake fans telling you when to cheer, then there isn’t really anything to cheer about."

You were probably expecting me to say that’s what he says about that too. Quite the contrary actually. And I’ll jump right out of the gates and say it doesn’t bother me one bit either. In fact, I don’t even think about it when I’m watching games, until I see a tweet complaining about how awkward it is.

Awkward?

What about the alternative: awkward silence?

Case in point, in Monday night's game at MetLife Stadium, it was clear they didn't even bother to pump any noise in to start the game.

But about halftime, when the Giants were down 16-10, it appeared a buzz had returned to the crowd.

Because I don't sit there thinking about the fact there's no fans in the stands, if I didn't know any better it sounds like folks finally got through that miserable New York traffic and filed in to their seats.

Now I'm not naive. I'm aware of the deceit it contains. There are a few instances of the jarring mismatch between what you hear and what you are actually seeing. I've noticed it mostly in the NBA bubble where a free-throw sometimes sounds like Steph Curry just drained one from the parking lot. Or perhaps the lack of artificial 'boos' that would really set a scene the night the Miami Marlins were embarrassed 29-9 by the Atlanta Braves.

But I also know these leagues and teams have spent a tremendous amount of time and effort on trying to create an experience for the television audience.

I think everyone is so caught up in wanting it to feel normal. I mean we've got leagues in bubbles, empty stadiums and full-blown collegiate conferences not even suiting up. It's not going to be normal, and normal wasn't promised to begin with. But normal-ish was.

I think you take away any sort of chants or cheers and there's a key part missing as far as emotions go. Take away that soundtrack and it feels like watching at home is about as lonely as the empty seats with cardboard cutouts. Which is exactly what I believe everyone is so hung up on. Why is there noise with no fans in attendance?

Just as a little kid when I would hear people laughing, I felt like I was sharing some sort of a moment with many others who found the say humor as I did. Perhaps you look it like that. Everyone across the nation is sitting at home watching the same games, so that normal-ish artificial crowd noise pumped in, is a moment of excitement - or annoyance - shared among fans, bringing us all together once again.