Silence is golden… but at the Olympics?

Last year was strange watching any type of sporting event. The stands were void of any team's colors, fans were replaced by either cutouts or corporate logo seat sheets. But even without fans in the stands, it was nice to hear the crowd noise even if it was piped in and played according to the play (which I thought was pretty cool).

I mean players feed off the fans. The energy, the vibe, and especially the noise. So imagine my surprise when I found out that this year's Olympics will not have ANY crowd noise whatsoever. Huh?

NBC will not add additional crowd noise to its coverage. The hope is that fans will hear the Games as they haven't been able to before, whether it is the action in the pool during swimming or conversations between competitors and coaches during gymnastics.

Now I understand that a lot of money is generated by people watching the Olympics and without viewership and ratings, there will be lost revenue. The television executives need to make watching the Olympics as enjoyable for the fans as possible and that usually comes at the expense of the athletes.

And what about the athletes that have trained, pretty much their whole lives to perform in front of an audience? I played hockey from the time I was six years old until I was 20 and I can tell you, the crowd noise helped quiet the voice in my head. It was a nice distraction. Cheers or jeers it didn't matter. Sometimes it helped me from getting too high or low.

What do you think? Do you think this will add to the viewer's experience or is it just a lazy way for NBC to save on technicians to run the crowd noise?

Either way, I will be watching even if it will be in silence.