Is it just me or are our announcers just awful on altitude? I don't feel like Balboa really cares to talk about the match and the play by play guy just starts off on off-topic subjects or just states the obvious. Like I said this may just be me.
Its not you. Of course the fact that KSE keeps hiring pbp guys with no soccer experience (or this year no real pbp experience in any sport) instead of the former MLS pbp guys who say they're interested in the job doesn't give Balboa much to work with.
Not mention I feel like balboa was stroking FSL's sack like they were barca last time around. The camera work is suspect too.
This may or may not be Altitude. Usually they just take the feed from the local production of the game and layer their own graphics and sound onto it. At home that would be Altitude but on the road that's probably the opponent's production crew.
Altitude are a joke anyway. They always have been. The people working in the video booths are laughably terrible at their jobs. If you can't over the course of 5+ years improve camera angles/editing, and regularly litter the screen graphics with errors and mistakes that a high school film student could catch, you probably need to change careers. With only two exceptions, the revolving door of PBP men has basically just been a misfit cast of hacky minor league baseball announcers. Learning the rules of the game and how to pronounce players names correctly does not require you to think outside the box, it requires you to do your job. They only broadcast in HD because a League mandate dragged them into it kicking and screaming. They'd probably go to black and white if they could. Live games still get blacked out in our market because of other teams in The Great Kroenke Tax Write-Off. I'm not expecting the Rapids to get billing over the Nuggets or Avs, but it really can't be that hard bump it onto one of the local stations in a TV market that is over-saturated to begin with. Thats another thing. Would it be such a crushing and enormous burden to produce more content for the channel during the MLS season? I know they consider things like the Canadian League of Competitive Bass Fishing and the Ohio state semi-finals for JV middle school rhythmic gymnastics as important pillars of their summer programing block, but is more actual content related to the assets they own really too much to ask? I'd be embarrassed if I worked for them. If I actually went to a broadcasting school to to get a job with them, I'd probably start getting acquainted with a janitors closet or learning to shine shoes as a positive career change.
I agree with everything you say except this one. It was one time this season and I can't really blame them for not going out and essentially buying time (because that's what they would have to do) on a competing channel. They've only done that once, and that was Universal Sports which was dying for content anyway. Now that's not even available free (or on Comcast at the moment).
I'm not a fan of Balboa to be honest. I understand and acknowledge that he has in-depth knowledge of the game but he comes across as the biggest dick in the world on the broadcasts. It seems like every minute he is correcting the other broadcaster, who ever that is and it gets old after awhile. Yes, I understand the guy might be an idiot but correct him on the big things, let the small things slide for the sake of entertainment. It's kind of like instead of helping the other broadcaster become better, Balboa just chooses to point out his flaws and stew about it. Can you imagine if John Madden did that to Micheal's? Madden by far had greater knowledge of the game but he choose when to show that knowledge and when to let things go. To be clear, it's okay to disagree.. but pick your battles, don't be a dick.
Can you imagine if John Madden actually did something useful during a broadcast rather than occupying space and stating the obvious ad nauseum? He's not the best example as a counter point to Balboa.
Buying time? Between 5+ local news/network channels, 2+ PBS stations, 3+ Spanish language channels, and half a dozen Christian channels...you really think none of them would be interested in buying live content like that? It's not like they'd be forced to downgrade the broadcast quality since it's already in the basement. This isn't impossible. It just requires some effort...unfortunately that is a foreign concept to K$E.
Given the Rapids (and MLS in general) lack of ratings, yeah. Why pay for one game of a team that lives on a competitor's network most of the time and won't get significantly better ratings than the Simpson's rerun (or whatever) you already have planned, plus has less commercial time to sell?
I agree with all the above statements. I really like what NBC is doing. Their coverage has been solid.
Did something useful? So you think one of the most popular/greatest broadcasters of all time on national TV didn't do anything useful? Seriously? You might not of liked the guy, but to say that he didn't add to the broadcast is insane. You guys amaze me.
I will think of you the next time a team is down by three points and he says "If they can just kick a field goal, they'll tie the game!" Madden is overrated to the point of absurdity, and does nothing but state the painfully obvious. I've never even played football and what he says makes me groan. I guess you're just more easily impressed than me.
I guess you miss the parts where he breaks down plays, talks about technique for a given position and adds his experience and knowledge of the game. You do know that he was a hall of fame head coach for the Raiders, won the Super Bowl right? Yes, there are the more commentary related remarks but don't you think that is for entertainment, dumbing it down for those who may not be familiar with the game? He would explain the rules of the game and it may seem simple minded for those that know it but he was growing the audience and getting more viewers by doing it. Let me ask you this, when was the last time Balboa explained the offsides rule to the audience.. a rule that has to be one of the most complex to understand in all of sports? When was the last time you saw an announcer explain why a player from the same team can't kick the ball back to the keeper and have the keeper touch it with his hands? You don't see Balboa or many other announcers do that. Madden could draw in new people to the sport, Balboa likes to focus his energy on putting the other announcer down.
I guess you're right. I probably did miss those parts since Madden spends well over 90% of the broadcast doing exactly none of what you keep gushing about...particularly in the later years of his broadcast career. He rambles on like an old uncle and is far from prefect when he attempts play analysis. Hell, I've seen him get players mixed up and be flat out wrong in analyzing passing routes. I guess its easy for people to gloss over that if they don't know anything about football. This is silly. I would agree with you that the standard of commentating Rapids games, or any soccer games in the US for that matter, seriously need to improve. I do not, however, see it though a pair of Madden Edition© tinted glasses.
Well at least Madden knows football. For some reason Altitude thinks they can put up announcers who have never even been to a soccer game before. I think Celo is so jaded he just doesn't care anymore.
I'm with you Teddy. Balboa is a Rapids legend, is great in the community, and an all-around good guy. However, I'm not a fan of listening to is color commentary work. Generally the guys are slightly better at home games than they are for road games (which can be chalked up sitting in a studio 100's of miles away from the pitch) but I'd like to see a material talent upgrade in both chairs.
I know this about announcers but for me, the announcers are superfluous. The only thing I care about is the play on the field. What makes me wild is the horrible production. Namely, the lack of understanding by the producers that the game is in constant motion and dwelling on anything but the play on the field (which generally is the area which includes the ball) is f'ing with my head. In general production of all soccer broadcasts in the U.S. is poor. They think they are producing a baseball game where they can linger endlessly on crap and not miss any of the action* Announcers? I tune them out either logically or physically. *In hindsight using the words "baseball" and "action" in the same sentence may be inappropriate.
As a fan of both baseball and soccer, I think the two sports have more in common than you'd like to think. In both sports its important to understand what's going on away from the ball to really enjoy watching games and in both sports you have to be willing to sit through long spells without scoring opportunities. Also, it's helpful to have played both sports in order to appreciate the high level that professional soccer and baseball players play. And here's my conspiracy theory for the day: The crappy announcers are an attempt to drive fans to actually attend home games and viewing parties (where you can't here them anyway)... If true (which it most certainly isn't) it's worked on me.
The production will get better over time and it has gotten better from just a year or two ago. The US production/tv folks are still trying to figure out this game.. heck it took them forever to get over the fact that the game didn't stop for commercials. They are learning though, you have to give them credit for that. Maybe not the local broadcasts, but ESPN and NBC are doing much better.
The production for tonight's game was pretty good I thought, there was one funny moment though. In the 2nd half Balboa or maybe the other guys said something to the effect of: "LA's big 3 have really been taken out of the game, because of the Rapids possession we have hardly seen Keene, Donnavon or Beckham." I'm thinking wait a second, Beckham has an assist on the first goal (if it wasn't called an ongoal) and Ladycakes has the second goal.. been taken out of the game, really?
As for educating fans... yeah, that's important. At the Chicago game I had to explain to a neighboring fan how offsides works, and he was really happy to learn. For folks tuning in to watch on TV, probably they've got a good idea how offsides works, but they (we) still like to see plays broken down and some commentary on the strategies and tactics the teams are working with. It also helps when the announcers keep close tabs on what's going on around the league, what teams are likely to bring when we play them, and so forth, since many of us don't keep that close an eye on things beyond our team. A quality announcer would help those of us who don't live and breathe soccer to be familiar with what we're watching and its "meaning" in the world of soccer. In short, they need someone who knows the game - both immediate play and the league at large - and who can talk about it fluently. Apparently that's hard to come by.
