When you tune in to watch a live sporting event in 2020, the music is different. You hear artificial crowd music piped in by the broadcaster, to compensate for the loss of actual crowds. That, however, is slowly changing as organisers, with guidelines from the respective governments, try to bring fans back into the stadiums. It has already happened in a few events, including at the French Open, where 1,000 fans have been allowed to matches every day. Leagues in the US have already brought back fans and it’s the same in select football leagues across Europe.

Yes, the fans are back, but the usual fervour will definitely be missing. There will be no din, no atavistic rituals of high-pitched songs, anthems and crying out loud or collective wild celebrations—because crowds will be sparse, with social distancing and masks on faces. The match-going experience will not be the same for a while. An early glimpse of it was offered by the U-turn in the lead up to the French Open, keeping in mind that the pandemic is going nowhere for the time being. Only three weeks ago, the French Open organisers had legislated for over 12,500 fans.

With the second wave in Europe very visible over the last few weeks, that was swiftly cut to 1,000. In the US, the NFL had a socially distanced capacity crowd of 16,500, while some football matches have witnessed over 15,000 fans, including the UEFA Super Cup between Bayern and Sevilla in Budapest last week. On the contrary, when it comes to the hugely popular English Premier League, the UK government had indicated it would start pilot projects in October, but this has now been put on the back burner due to the rising coronavirus cases. The authorities have said it is very possible that sporting events would continue to be held without fans, the livelihood of every sport, for the next six months. It’s still a very dynamic situation and fans will continue to be guided by external factors till a vaccine is in mass production.

There is a lesson in this for when India brings back sporting events—the earliest could be the Indian Super League in November. If the next part of the unlock allows fans in stadia, organisers need to start planning how best to accommodate them. After all, there is only so long that you can continue to keep playing artificial music.