Dodgers set to open 2020 season at fan-less stadium
LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles Dodgers will face the San Francisco Giants in their season opener at Dodger Stadium Thursday night with an opening day unlike any other.
Instead of the customary 53,000-plus capacity crowd, no one will be sitting in Dodger Stadium's seats because of public health directives prohibiting public events and gatherings because of the coronavirus pandemic.
More than 4,500 seats will be filled by 18-inch by 30-inch cutouts of fans which cost $149 for field and loge-level locations and $299 for the Dugout Club or the new Pavilion Home Run Seats.
“Everybody’s excited, everybody’s pumped up, and everybody has got that motivation to watch them tonight, especially since we get to watch them for free,” said Vito Angiuli owner of Eastside Deli.
Sales of the cutouts has raised approximately $800,000 for the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation, the team's official charity, whose mission is to improve education, health care, homelessness and social justice for all Angelenos.
The Dodgers on Wednesday announced an expansion of the cutout program,
offering fans the opportunity to have cutouts of fans' dogs placed in loge
sections 143 and 145 for $149.
RELATED: Dodger fans can now buy a cutout of their dogs to attend 2020 games
With the absence of fans all 30 MLB teams will use ambient and reactionary background audio to create crowd sounds during the season. MLB is providing each team with an array of crowd sounds and a touchpad device that can be integrated into their ballpark sound system to help manage the playing of the sounds.
The crowd sounds will be audible to on-field personnel and during television and radio broadcasts.
“It gives us something to look forward to, even though we can’t go see it live. Just to be able to go home and watch the games on TV is a bit of normalcy, if you will. We’ve got a great team. I like our chances. And it should be a World Series win!” said Dodger fan Miguel Rodriguez.
The crowd backgrounds and reactions provided to the teams are all derived from exclusive, original source audio recorded by developers of the MLB
The Show'' video game at MLB regular season games.
The audio was edited into sound cues used in MLB The Show 20, with a focus on authentically replicating crowd sound and behavior. Selected content was then further refined for real-time playback over ballpark audio systems and
allows for about 75 different effects and reactions to be used during a game.
The crowd sounds will work in conjunction with stadium announcers, walkup music and in-stadium video to replicate the in-game experience as closely as possible.