Arun Winter closes off locker room to media .. In an effort to create a "real football environment". this is what they had access too.. didn't look too bad. /thread if you want
The media will be allowed into Toronto FC's locker-room for post-game interviews after all. An emphatic Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber said Wednesday that TFC will follow league policy by opening its doors to the media beginning with its next game Saturday at San Jose. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/spor...SS/Atom&utm_source=Soccer&utm_content=1973331
Throw acid in Tom Brady's face? Wow Pete, you're mean! http://www.clicker.com/tv/onion-spo...hick-throws-acid-in-tom-brady-s-face-1288345/
TFC could just refuse to answer questions in the locker loom, thus making it pointless for reporters to go in
I don't understand why reporters need to be in there right after a game when players are showering and changing. Just sounds weird and awkward to me. Give the guys a 20 minute head start or something.
My thoughts exactly. The guys just want to relax a bit and shower after the game. No need for a bunch of reporters intruding right after the game.
I guess my main question would have to be if no reporters in the locker room is a convention of football at large, or a European league convention?
I've always admired the closed door policy that European leagues maintain in regards to locker rooms, it makes the whole production seem more professional and less like a media circus. To bombard players as they're winding down after a game has always seemed weird to me, even as an American.
I usually enjoy the post game "press conference" style question periods after hockey games rather than in the locker room anyways. The players seem to have more articulated reponses instead of stammering with err's and uhh's (though to be fair some players still stammer even out of the locker room and some are perfectly articulated at all times). Althoguh I could watch Jerry Dee and Cabbie from The Score intrude in the locker rooms all day. Those guys are hilarious.
Must be the deadlines driving this. The writers have got to get in there and get their stories done so that game reviews can make the morning paper for all those die-hard MLS fans out there....wait, never mind. Likely just a ploy to get MLS back in the headlines, because I am fairly certain this was pretty much a non-story everywhere else, and even in Toronto, until Garber got on his soap box, promoting North American sporting culture and fan expectations (although I fairly certain the NBA restricts locker room access to a point). I am sure some sort of compromise will be worked out and it will be more like the way Winter wants, and less the way it used to be, which in the end will be good for all. I mean as fans, if players are happier and want to play in a certain environment shouldn't we support that so maybe, just maybe we get those two or three extra points needed at the end of a season. Ahh, well, at least MLS hasn't mandated cheerleaders...yet, as part of the same North American sporting culture that requires dudes to give interviews in their towels.