This is a cool little story by Kathryn Rajnicek, one of my students at Kent State, at what it's like watching basketball in an almost-empty arena.

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It’s much too quiet at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. 

No bands playing school fight songs. No cheerleaders pumping up the crowd.

About all you hear is the PA announcing the scoring and the music pulsing from the speakers of the main scoreboard through timeouts and between quarters.

The only fans in attendance are family members of players. They take up two small sections, but the rest of the 19,000 seats are vacant. The rows and rows of empty chairs make the fieldhouse look bigger than it is. 

Fans create so much of the atmosphere of college sports. Without them, March loses much of its madness.