There's not a lot that can usually stop fans from turning up to a football match (except maybe exorbitant ticket prices) but swine flu has claimed another victim.

In Mexico last weekend, matches normally played in front of hundreds of thousands of fans instead kicked off in front of exactly no one.

Want to know what Mexico City's cavernous Estadio Azteca, the largest stadium in Latin America, sounds like when it's silent? Check out Club America's Sunday game against Tecos.

Last weekend, league officials also banned spectators from the game between UNAM-Guadalajara in Mexico City as well as Pachuca-Cruz Azul as health officials recommended discouraging large gatherings of people.

If we can't go to the footy, then this must be serious, right?

Clubs were hit financially, forced to refund pre-paid tickets to fans, and missed income from merchandise and food and drink.

"Yes, it affects us," UNAM sports director Mario Trejo told a TV network.

"But it is more important to prevent the spread of the disease. We don't want to stress the economic element as if it were the most important, because it's not.

"Health is more important – preventing a death. We don't want to give the idea to our fans that we are more worried about this than about their health."

No A-League jokes, please, but this is what the Azteca looks and sounds like when 105,000 fans are not present.



Compare and contrast with this, the Azteca in full flight. 



Television, which did broadcast matches, saw a bump in viewing figures while, outside the world of sport, video stores saw an increase in business as people stayed home.

The Wall Street Journal reported that while restaurants closed – or have established extreme levels of hygienic service – video rental business are experiencing boom time.

"We're renting about three times our normal volume, and most families are renting about six or seven videos at a time," said one DVD store employee.

There is sometimes talk among conspiracy theorists that some day not-too-soon all major sporting events will take place only before TV audiences. Paying spectators, taken for granted, are apparently endangered species.

The pigs might well be winning until medical experts find out what is behind this epidemic but one lesson we've learned (without trivialising recent tragic deaths, of course) is that a lack of live spectators kills a match.

Without them, you've just got a kick around on some grass, even if that's in the middle of a cavernous 105,000-seat stadium.


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