Though public attendance is banned at league athletic competitions, some die-hard fans are showing up for every game.

Or at least their life-size photos are.

At least 30 PNW Pride fans have paid $20 to $40 to have their photos mounted on cardboard cutouts and placed in the grandstands during Pride athletic competitions.

The university has been selling the cutouts since December.  Fans can designate cutouts for basketball, hockey or volleyball.  And the goal is to show players they are being supported.

“We are just doing whatever we can to ensure success,” said Tom Albano, associate athletic director. “Not seeing images of the people who support you risks negatively affecting the performances of our athletes.”

After each game, the cardboard cut-outs are stored. Workers set them up again for the next game. At the end of the season. PNW will give the fans the option to either take the cardboard cut-out home or allow for it to be used again in another sport.

The cutouts are the only way to show fan support since the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the league to which PNW belongs, ruled that events will be held without spectators, bands, mascots, cheer teams and promotional activities.

Fan cutouts have gotten popular with other colleges and professional sports. In fact, the NFL expected fan cutouts to outnumber actual fans at Super Bowl in Tampa last Sunday, 55, 30,000 cutouts to 25,000 live fans. However, at least one student is not thrilled about the cutouts. Business College sophomore Kenneth Stone called them “demoralizing.”

“I think that they are only a coping mechanism,” he said. “Before, when you played, you used to have your family there. Now we are playing the game we love, and I see a cardboard cutout of my grandma?”