Inventing Enemies
By: Dan Edleson
Tags: Virtual Reality, NBA Playoffs, Design, NBA, Coronavirus

It’s easy to imagine a regular season NBA game without fans; playoff seeding or the perceived slight of an opponent are usually all that elevate mid-season contests above glorified pickup basketball. But what about a game that matters? And what about home court advantage? If the NBA decides to finish out the season without real crowds, they should seriously consider ways to enhance the experience not just for the fans at home but for the players as well. “I play for the fans,” LeBron James said recently, before the severity of the situation became apparent around the league, “That’s what it’s all about. If I show up to an arena and there are no fans in there, I ain’t playing.”

It’s not just home fans that matter for the players either. A huge part of the narrative of greatness in sports is tied to how one performs in enemy territory. If you look back to some of the most oft-cited “clutch” performances in NBA history, they often came on the road; Magic in Philadelphia in 1980, Jordan in Utah in 1998, Lebron in Boston in 2012, Klay Thompson in OKC in 2016. The list goes on. There needs to be real fan energy not just for aesthetics, but to push the stakes to another level.

Clutch Performances Often Come on the Road

My former colleagues at Populous have spent their entire careers designing venues that bring people together and I’m very interested to see what they do when challenged with the task of making the fan experience a long-distance relationship. It may not be a question of doing something new but rather absorbing innovations in interactive entertainment that have already been successful. There’s a lot to be learned from online video games, from the way platforms like Twitch engage their audiences to how games like Second Life allow players an open-ended virtual experience in which to interact with others they may not normally be able to reach.

Online Games Provide a Template for Virtual Fans

The NBA seeks out innovation, and as such they have been broadcasting games in Virtual Reality since 2016. During VR broadcasts you can connect with others watching the game and even customize an avatar. Still, the experience seems a work in progress and often utilizes vantages (courtside, directly behind the basket) out of alignment with the typical fan experience. Regarding socializing with others during the game it is not on the level of a Second Life, where anyone who is online is in a space with everyone else who has logged on.

The NBA has Broadcast in VR since 2016

Perhaps the next step in this time of empty arenas is a VR camera in every seat. One could imagine a scenario similar to avatar based online meeting platforms where people can interact with each other in a digitized version of the concourse. To avoid hundreds of avatars running around obstructing the game, when someone enters the seating bowl they immediately find themselves in the seat they purchased a ticket for, next to other fans who purchased tickets for the specific seats next to them. They can watch the game in 360 degrees from their seat and also get the full experience of interacting with those around them in the crowd.

Some might find it hard to believe people would pay not to be courtside, but there are a lot of people right now craving something familiar. If the cost tag of tens of thousands of VR cameras seems prohibitive there is no reason it couldn’t be done with a thousand or a few hundred seats, or only for playoff games that generate more revenue, with the individual VR seats sold at a cost that makes such an endeavor financially worthwhile. And if the idea of spending a higher amount of money for a better virtual seat seems crazy to you, just remember at one point Candy Crush was making $230 million a year solely off in-game upgrades.

Virtual Meetings are Becoming More Prevalent; What About Virtual Fans?

The in-game experience for the players could utilize the same digital interface in a completely different way. Think of something akin to an upside-down planetarium; a large projector sits a hundred feet above the court projecting on to perforated screens with speakers behind them. If you set up the interface so that the fans can use their actual voices like players live streaming on Twitch, and then calibrate the sound so that it correlates to where fans’ avatars are being projected on the screen, suddenly you have real fans surrounding the court making real noise. They would be free to heckle or cheer as much as they would at a real game, their only limitations being the same rules of conduct that they would be held to in person.

A Planetarium Provides the Template

No one is saying any of this would be ideal. But what is these days? The NBA is as creative and innovative as any league out there. They have consistently been at the forefront of not only VR but relaxing copyright restrictions so regular fans can post highlights on websites like YouTube, a policy which has been a huge asset in helping the league grow on social media platforms (people watch 30,000 hours of Steph Curry clips on YouTube every day). The league has already turned tragedy into innovation once this year, paying tribute to Kobe Bryant while experimenting with the “Elam Ending” at the 2020 All-Star game. Now, as the league tries to salvage the rest of the season, it’s not only possible for the NBA to do something significant with virtual fans, it might be more feasible than playing in front of real ones.