Sports fans can't stand the virtual fans on Fox Sports' MLB broadcast

Jesse Reed

Updated: July 25, 2020

Credit: Sportsnaut (Canva)

MLB is back on Fox Sports on Saturdays now that the season is finally underway, but things are far from normal as real fans have been replaced by virtual ones on the broadcast.

Here’s a video clip of what Fox Sports is doing now as MLB stadiums are empty in real life due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

No fans? Not on FOX Sports.

Thousands of virtual fans will attend FOX’s MLB games this Saturday. pic.twitter.com/z9oQU0rYuC
— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) July 23, 2020

As the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers got Fox Sports’ Saturday lineup kicked off, fans had a visceral reaction to the virtual fans on their televisions.

It wasn’t pretty.

https://twitter.com/declanpgarvey/status/1287071488680624128

These virtual fans at Wrigley….. Seems kind of pointless, especially if they aren’t shown at all times and sometimes you get empty crowd scenes.
— Darrell-Dingus Ely (@DoubleD_BSG) July 25, 2020

This virtual crowd is so bad.
— Tired Illinoisan (@TiredIllinoisan) July 25, 2020

https://twitter.com/AustinPlatter15/status/1287071935764074497

This virtual crowd thing is such a botch 🤣🤣🤣 #MLBonFOX #OpeningDay
— 4Nachos (@totalsurg3on) July 25, 2020

They’ve gotta be joking with this virtual crowd. Viewable only from one angle and the rest are empty seats… what a waste of time
— David Lombardi (@LombardiHimself) July 25, 2020

@FOXSports The Virtual fans are terrible @MLB and fake crowd noise
— Joe Walsh (@jwalsh017) July 25, 2020

Much like the fake crowd noise, many fans clearly aren’t excited about this attempt at creating a sense of normalcy.

By Jesse Reed

Former Managing Editor at Sportsnaut. Featured on Yardbarker and MSN.com, and was a breaking news writer/NFL analyst for Bleacher ... More about Jesse Reed

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Sports fans can’t stand the virtual fans on Fox Sports’ MLB broadcast

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