Crew to Austin in 2019..(Maybe)

To me, the Dispatch has had the best local coverage over the years, by far. TV and radio were horrendous.

 

I think you can distribute a lot of blame to AP on this. He should have had a person or persons whose sole job was to connect with and ingratiate themselves with the media types and keep a 24/7 full press on them to increase Crew coverage. I suspect like many things, AP just assumed he would receive a boatload of coverage without any effort on his part.

 

Or maybe he was okay with no coverage at all...

Given his behaviors in other areas...

 

Best is certainly relative. I agree with you though. Local media in general is part of the problem in which we find ourselves. The Dispatch has had coverage, but it has been nowhere near exceptional. MLS season previews, player profiles, deep analysis has all been lacking over the years.

 

Try other markets then--we actually have pretty decent coverage, at least in print.

 

I don't give 2 craps about other markets. The Dispatch and the TV folks have given the less than the bare minimum of coverage over the years. They showed up at Obetz like crows to roadkill when the move was announced but had never been there before.

No one in the Columbus sports media sphere was a champion of the team. Last season, how many 11 O'clock news' sports segments featured a game highlight package after every game? That's a bare minimum expectation.

A preview package on Friday or Saturday's telecast before a game would be above and beyond but not so crazy to think it's possible to wedge it in there, I've seen them for CBJ games ("the jackets head to Toronto tonight" over a video of some dudes skating). It happened when the Jackets had plummeting attendance too so it's hard to understand why The Crew with a pretty much consistent 15K plus weren't afforded the same.

There is lots of blame to go around, citizens, media, business and government have all failed the Crew over the years. I just feel like that nearly any event in this town that gets 15K to attend gets news coverage. Festivals, concerts, sporting events, parades, etc all get a blurb on local news nearly without fail. That absolutely is not true for The Crew.

 

So just got a new Soccer United Fan Council Survey in my inbox. Go to fill it out, first question "Which of the following metropolitan areas do you live within?"

They list out every one of the MLS metropolitan areas except for ONE... want to take a guess which MLS metropolitan area was not represented in the list? Yes, Columbus, OH... so if you reside in the Columbus area, have to select "Other" from the list. Unbelievable. Oh, and this is an official MLS survey.

 

Sweet Jumpin' Jesus...they're completely shameless.

 

Then when you click "Other"... it immediately ends the survey. Per the e-mail, it was a survey on jerseys that was supposed to take 10 min to complete. So obviously trying to keep any Crew fans on the survey from filling it out and posting negative things about MLS in the comments section.

 

Wow.

 

I have been told by some who have responded to my tweets that Columbus (and Miami) are now both included in the Metropolitan area list of choices. It's unclear though whether the survey still ends after you select Columbus Crew SC as your favorite team as it did for someone who chose Chicago as their Metro area and Crew as their team.

 

Please don’t tell me Austin was an option ?!??!!!

 

I am not sure what you are watching or reading--but I usually see Crew highlights on tv when I get home from a game and have for some time.

And please, define "bare minimum". That's why I made the point about other markets. You have to have a point of comparison. They do ... less. A lot less in some markets.

The Crew has had a regular on line section in the Dispatch--just like the Jackets and the Bucks--and a regular podcast. Both predate the current issues by a bit. They've had an assigned beat writer for many years. As is clear from the complaints here when they get reassigned.

Now. if you're expecting EPL coverage, forget it. But, as a long time Columbus resident, you should have seen the low quality birdcage liner that the Dispatch sports section was when I first came here in 1978. The only thing that got covered (and like a blanket) was tOSU football. Other stuff got covered if and only if a reporter was interested in it--that tended to even include tOSU basketball. You got line scores for the Clippers, which was the closest thing Columbus had to a pro team at the time. Line scores. That was it.

 

Other cities lack of coverage does not excuse Columbus media.

 

They sent another email and fixed the so called “glitch” in the survey...

 

There is such a thing as unrealistic expectations, however. What other media markets do is an indication of that.

 

I took it this morning. I did leave a comment along the lines of--"how can I be interested in a new jersey when I may not have a team next season".

 

Who gets to decide if its unrealistic? Are you in charge of that?

 

Are you?

Look, it all depends on what the market will bear and what the market demands. That's finance/business 101. If the market is there, you'll get the coverage. If not, not. Even then, there are other strictures on coverage. You're not going to get 20 pages on the Crew if the paper usually only publishes 10 sports pages--for example. Or 10 minutes of highlights when the sports segment of your local newscast is 5 min long.

But you, as a single "buyer" don't get to determine that. A very small fraction of that, yes. We all do.

But please tell me what *you* expect for coverage. And I will note that *any* expectation of more coverage than, for example, tOSU football during football season is "unrealistic".

Me--I look back at the current Dispatch coverage--over a hundred on line articles (also in print) since August. A regular podcast. And, as I've noted, I usually get to see Crew highlights on the news when I come home from a game. All the goals? No--but then again they don't do all the goals for the Jackets either.

 

Equal to the Blue Jackets and NHL coverage. Simple as that.Its not unreasonable and it has never happened with any regularity. Yes, there is a market for it. I think they have discovered that a lot of their market left them.That's one of the reasons for the current coverage.

 

Have you even looked at the current coverage in the Dispatch? They are pretty equivalent (especially given that that Crew is now in the off season). TV? Hard to say--but as I noted, I usually see highlights when I come home from games.

However, The Jackets do out draw the Crew over the course of a season. Frankly the current coverage of both has improved over the last few years. And, let's face it, the NHL is a more important league than MLS. That may change.

But no one has even noted what they want or expect. Just "more". That's hard to measure.

This stuff reminds me of dealing with folks in our civic association. They have a long list of things we're expected to do. On $25 a year. Solely with volunteers. When they are not themselves members because "we're not doing enough". But we should pay for regular 24/7 security patrols with that $25 a year--that they are not paying.

 

Current coverage doesn't let go of the fact they were ignoring the Crew for years and years.

When I cancelled by daily subscription I told them that exactly. They have recently sent me offers to resubscribe showing exactly what you are saying but that ship has sailed for me. I can get more/better coverage online.

And it would take a lot of convincing to get me to change my idea on why the Crew was ignored in the early years, when the fanbase really could have been solidified. I blame the Dispatch, Dom and the rest of the Columbus media old guard for the situation we are in now and I also think it's why we haven't seen the local movers and shakers come out in support of keeping the Crew here.

 

There were always exceptions to that. Bob Connors was a big, big supporter of soccer--and as old school as they come--and that even before the Crew got here, as he would regularly have folks from the Xoggz on his morning show.

That said, I think you are mistaken about the print media--especially in comparison to other markets at the time. I recall fairly regular coverage. Dom, yeah--no argument. The rest--let's be real for a minute and recognize that tOSU is their bread and butter. Look, local media are not in this to support a team or to solidify fan support. They are in this to make money. If the demand is there, they will meet it. Look at the Ohio Machine for example. They do ... some. Not much. And that is a championship team. But not much demand.

Now there's some justification in noting the way they treated the Jackets--but there, the Dispatch ownership group had a piece of the team. Still, I know Jackets fans who would complain that they weren't getting enough coverage.

BTW, I don't have a daily subscription either--just Saturday and Sunday (Mrs. KG loves couponing). Haven't had one in a long time as I'd end up with piles of papers I'd never read (still do from time to time) But I'm glad, these days, that it gets me on line access. Mind you, I get my news from other sources as well--kinda silly not to in this day and age.

 

I resubscribed to the Dispatch precisely because of the increased coverage we've seen since the Austin story broke. I appreciate the boost in content, have ponied up for it and told them so.

I also know that they didn't break the Austin story. They don't break many stories when it comes to Crew news. The regular coverage is slightly better than regurgitated press releases.

Same goes for the local TV news.

I know time (tv) and space (print) are at a premium, everything can't fit. You can say they are better now than they were, but it's not a recent problem, it's been systemic from the beginning.

KG, you say you see highlights after most games. I can't say that I know that to be true or not, but I define the bare minimum as a highlight package after every game that finishes before 11pm. I'd also say that any player signing should coincide with a report of some kind. Will we see anything on the news casts at 5:30, 6 or 11 about today's signing on any of the broadcasts?

The fact that in the last 18 months things have been slightly better in both print and tv is irrelevant.

 

Ken, I don't want to argue with you about it, but I have a very good friend that was employed by 10TV for years and is a huge soccer guy. I would always chide him about sneaking more Crew coverage in and he would just shake his head and tell me there was nothing he could do, directives were coming from above, same with the Dispatch. I wish I could go more into it but I don't want to expose my friend any more than I have. I think both of us might be misremembering, you on the good side and me on the bad.