Cardboard Cutouts at Sports Events

Steven Wright, Co-Editor

Seats are filled with hundreds of cardboard cutouts of fans.
Christian Verheyen- Times Magazine

Ever since the beginning of Covid-19, all exciting sports and games have been canceled. That was up until a few weeks ago when football and baseball rolled back into play. Although sports have been brought back, fans are temporarily unable to attend these sports events because of the health concerns. Many sport leagues are finding interesting ways to include their fans into the games. For example, the NBA made it possible to virtually attend their games. Most of the excitement of sports comes from being there in person, which brought us the unusual idea for a cardboard audience. Many football and baseball stadiums are all participating in the new trend. The idea of the cardboard cutouts were to make the fan’s presence felt without actually being at the game in person.

You could get your own cardboard cutout put into the stands so you could still be part of the fun, even when you are at home. For NFL and MLB games, prices would vary from 40 dollars to around 100 dollars per cutout. The prices can change depending on the location of your seats. To get your own cardboard cutout put into the stadium you can visit the teams websites and purchase your cutout. All you have to do is send in any picture of yourself that you would like and then you are part of the game. After buying a cutout, your cutout will remain at every home game, for that one specific team, for the rest of the season. Buying a cutout also gives you a chance to interact with the game itself in certain places. For example, in the MLB, if your cutout gets hit by a baseball, the stadium would send that same ball to your house as if you caught it at the game.

The sports leagues don’t only do this for the money too. Although a lot of the money that sport teams make is from the sales of seats at games, many teams still donate a percentage of the money. The donated money goes to charities connected to the teams and also to some of the families of fans who were affected by Covid. The point of the cutouts is not for the leagues to profit, they are to bring people together in such difficult times without breaking any health violations.