Whether fans will be able to see live-action baseball from a stadium seat this season remains to be seen. MLB has not ruled it out or enacted a league-wide plan in its 2020 season agreement with the players.
The San Francisco Giants, though, have ruled that no fans will be allowed at Oracle Park this year. And in their place, season ticket holders will be allowed to submit photos to be used as cardboard cutouts in the seats.
The Giants have told season ticket holders that they won't have fans at games this year. They will have a Fan Cutout Program, allowing them to submit an image to be placed in the stands during home games.
— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) June 26, 2020
San Francisco is not the first team to allow some sort of fandom to be seen in its home stadium. Other leagues and teams across the globe have put in cardboard cutouts, some of their fans to give a more welcome - or maybe disturbing - environment as they return to action from the coronavirus.
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Leeds United pledged that no more offensive images will be placed in the stadium stands, after removing a cutout of Osama bin Laden from the stands at Elland Road.
Many English clubs allow fans to submit photos to be used in stands, as no spectators are allowed in stadiums. pic.twitter.com/XkI9eCDVgh— BFM News (@NewsBFM) June 25, 2020
Cutout photos of fans in the stands during the Bundesliga match between Borussia Moenchengladbach and VfL Wolfsburg at Borussia-Park in Moenchengladbach, Germany via https://t.co/pEIr8G8r7Y https://t.co/pEIr8G8r7Y pic.twitter.com/jtDusNYYgV
— Nicol Etta (@nicole__moon) June 19, 2020
RELATED: 10 THINGS WE'RE EXCITED TO SEE WHEN THE NATIONALS GET BACK ON THE FIELD
Cue for cricket?
— Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) June 11, 2020
Cardboard cutout fans populate the stands at an AFL match at the MCG 👇 pic.twitter.com/FdSQP56k3l
Some fans even got clever with 'who' they submitted a picture of...
Kobe Bryant's cardboard cutout appears amongst Galatasaray home fans.🙄😳😱🙊🙈🏟⚽️👇#RIPLengend#KobeBryant#soccerpatriots#GiftedEra pic.twitter.com/pDLaYxvGFf
— Soccer Patriots (@socapatriots) June 20, 2020
Better just hope that whoever is screening these photos doesn't let anything slip on by.
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