Life-size cardboard figures of fans are positioned in the stands of the Borussia Monchengladbach stadium in Monchengladbach, Germany on May 13 for the next game, which will be played without spectators. Photo: VCG

Sex dolls are seated in the stands for FC Seoul's recent game against Gwangju FC on Sunday in Seoul, South Korea. Photo: VCG

  

Livening up sport without fans is a challenge for competitions returning after the coronavirus, and organizers have tried several ways to make empty stadiums more appealing.

After South Korean football club FC Seoul received a record fine for using sex dolls to fill seats, AFP Sport looks at some of the innovations:

Robot drummers

Sport took a surreal twist when the baseball league on the island of Taiwan started last month, with robots providing live music as they drummed in the stands. 

In what could have been a scene from Star Wars, a group of robots - some wearing wigs - banged drums for Rakuten Monkeys' opening game. 

Mannequins wearing team colors were placed around the stadium, along with cardboard cutouts of fans, media and players' family members.  

Crowd sourcing

Cardboard cutouts have been a popular way to fill empty seats, but German football club Borussia Monchengladbach took the idea a step further and gave fans the chance to have life-sized images of themselves in the stands. 

Thousands of people have taken up the offer, where they pay 19 euros to have their image placed in the Borussia-Park stadium.

"The campaign organizers are regularly overrun with orders - we can hardly keep up trying to install them all," fan representative Thomas Weinmann told the Bundesliga website.

Piped noise  

The sound of tinny, recorded cheering has replaced the spine-tingling roar of the crowd in some stadiums. In South Korea's K-League, recordings of popular chants have echoed around the country's empty football venues, some of which hosted games at the 2002 World Cup. 

Meanwhile, TV viewers of Australian rules football will hear pre-recorded crowd noises laid over the match footage when games return next month.

"We've had a number of different trials and consulted a number of people, including from the movie business, just to get it right," Lewis Martin, managing director of broadcaster Channel Seven, told AFL.com.au.

App-lause 

Meanwhile, software developers have launched an app, MyApplause, which allows fans to create crowd noise from their homes.

Users can choose from cheering, clapping, chanting and whistling, and the resulting noise is played over the stadium loudspeakers and the spectators' home sound systems. Team-specific logos and chants are available.

South Korean baseball has also taken a high-tech approach with fans beamed onto a stadium big screen as they watch the game online.

Baseball barbecue

Baseball cheerleaders on the island of Taiwan have been carrying out live interactions with fans from the stadiums, chatting and broadcasting dance routines over their mobile phones. One cheerleader even cooked and ate a barbecue while sitting in the stands, while streaming herself on the internet.

The island's baseball league has enjoyed unaccustomed popularity during the coronavirus, with millions of sport-deprived fans watching English-language commentaries from overseas. 

'Sex dolls' 

Much controversy has been generated by South Korea's FC Seoul, who received a 100 million won ($81,000) fine - the biggest in K-League history - for placing sex dolls in their stadium.

After reviewing the case, the K-League accepted FC Seoul's claim that it did not know the mannequins were sex toys, but said it "could have easily recognized their use using common sense and experience."

"The controversy over this 'real doll' incident has deeply humiliated and hurt women fans [and] damaged the integrity of the league," it said.

Reports say a mannequin distributor approached the K-league offering to provide its products to fill empty stands for free, and was introduced to FC Seoul.

The team said it had asked the police to investigate the provider.

The K-league's new season kicked off without spectators on May 8 after being postponed for more than two months because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Clubs have used cardboard cutouts, placards and banners to fill up the stands, but fans were not impressed with the sex dolls.

"I wonder how they even came up with this bizarre idea. This is an international disgrace," said one online critic.

Another fan said, "FC Seoul turned its stadium into an X-rated zone."