ESPN - Good or Bad for Soccer, Part II

Discussion in 'TV, Satellite & Radio' started by monster, Jul 1, 2005.

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  1. Elwood

    Elwood New Member

    Mar 20, 2001
    Indianapolis
    Well there's a small difference between the NFL and soccer in the US, in that one is mainstream and the other isn't. Add in that on NFL Sundays you can watch NFL coverage, non-stop, from 11 am (or earlier) until nearly midnight (depending on your time zone). And if you're in an NFL city (presumably you're a fan of your home town team), you'll see your team's game in amongst the three, and you'll have a choice for at least one of the early broadcasts, barring a non-sellout blackout. And that's just with basic cable (and doesn't include the Monday night game or possible Thursday and Saturday games).
     
  2. JeremyEritrea

    JeremyEritrea Member+

    Jun 29, 2006
    Takoma Park, MD
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Michael Eisner is a right bastard who won't be happy until football ceases to exist!!! Hell, he even forces people to call it sawker!!! ESPN/ABC/Disney is EVIL!!!!
     
  3. JayRockers!

    JayRockers! Member+

    Aug 4, 2001
    Who is Michael Eisner?

    Thx,

    Jay!
     
  4. Fires Of Fulham

    Fires Of Fulham New Member

    Mar 30, 2005
    Chicago, USA
    The deposed emperor of Disneyland and the former CEO of the Walt Disney Company which owns ABC and by extension ESPN. But Robert Iger has been in charge since 2005. Which is, oddly enough, about the time ESPN actually got serious about the sport.
     
  5. JasonMa

    JasonMa Member+

    Mar 20, 2000
    Arvada, CO
    Club:
    Colorado Rapids
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Actually Eisner never had any direct ties to the Disney Parks and pretty much hated them, except for pumping all the cash out of them he could in order to fund his pet projects like ABC. Go.com, and the Anaheim Angels and Mighty Ducks.
     
  6. Fires Of Fulham

    Fires Of Fulham New Member

    Mar 30, 2005
    Chicago, USA
    That was just an attempt at being funny by giving him a fake title.
     
  7. untiltheend85

    untiltheend85 New Member

    May 7, 2007
    Indiana
    I think ESPN is good for soccer. ESPN is getting the word (results, news, GAMES!!!) to the public. Plus I remember some highlights (I don't watch much Sportscenter) of Italy vs France the rematch. Plus they show the UEFA Champions League. I love ESPN for that. I think anyone covering soccer and/or showing soccer is doing nothing but good/great things.
     
  8. equus

    equus Member

    Jan 6, 2007
    Colorado/MLS camera operators?

    OK, I've seen three matches from DSGP on TV, the season opener on ABC, the FSC "Monsoon Cup" match last Saturday, and the ESPN2 Thursday night Rocky Mountain Cup tie with RSL.

    I'm not sure if they contract out the same production crews for all, but they've got to use the zoom a bit. The cam on the left end line for corners was so wide it covered the whole half of the field when it didn't need to for set plays. After the ball was struck, it never zoomed into the box at all. It may as well have been a fixed camera. It's not all Colo guys because the Chivas/TFC opener on FSC looked worse at times.

    It's like watching a match looking through a pair of binoculars backwards. I'm not asking for a shot so tight you can't see the support around the ball, but you gotta get in a bit tighter than that. I only knew when it was Beckerman because of the dreads, but that was about it.

    Simply watch an EPL or Serie A match from time to time and you can see how you can get in closer without losing the context of what's going on around.

    I realize they may be new to this, but it's not rocket science. If that's as good as it gets we may as well get a one camera blimp shot for 90 minutes. :)

    Edit: loved how the SportsCenter "30 at 30" would have totally ruined the winning goal had Gomez not been offside.
     
  9. peridigm

    peridigm Member

    Apr 19, 2007
    MD
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Colorado/MLS camera operators?

    The crap ESPN is dishing out is... well CRAP! Wynalda's telestrator antics, O'brien sucks. They both constantly talk down on everything about MLS. Everything is, they should have done this, they should have done that. Shut the f- up and let the game play. Everything is always negativity with them.

    I think Smyth or Wynalda commented on a ball delivered by Adu ahead of someone charging the wing. O'Briens comment was: "To far for a man who had surgery on both legs in the off season" or something to that affect. WTFC's! Isn't the play by play supposed to come from the play by play guy and the color commentary from the color commentator? I know a lot of hard core fans dislike Smyth but I was glad to hear his voice. That means a little less of O'Brien and Wynalda.

    The 30 on the 30 does suck big time. I wish he was on sides so the producers would see how stupid they are.

    Oh yeah, and the camera stuff, yup.
     
  10. equus

    equus Member

    Jan 6, 2007
    Re: Colorado/MLS camera operators?

    Imagine them doing this...

    Joe Buck: "Bottom of the ninth, two outs, three-two count, bases loaded and a hit wins the game...the pitcher gets the signal...here's the pitch. Let's go to New York and Chris Myers for an update."

    Al Michaels: "Fourth down and one on the Patriots one yard line. Colts down by four. A touchdown wins the game. Manning barks an audible...takes the snap...Let's send it to Bob Costas for an NBC Sports Update."

    You can't predict when a moment like that will happen in a soccer game, so you can't decide to go to Bristol for a 30 second update on the half-hour because that could be (and almost was) the 30 seconds that decides the game.

    And Eric W, if you're reading, it's not very professional to say how bad you're doing with the telestrator or it isn't working. Simply stop using it without mentioning it and find other ways to get your point across. Love you man, but that looked really bad.
     
  11. GutBomb

    GutBomb Red Card

    Aug 28, 2003
    Outside Boston
    Re: Colorado/MLS camera operators?

    I thought shedding light on it was funny, and it would have been worse if they had just carried on with the crappy telestrator and not said something about it.

    I did think the camera work and the cut away to the studio was especially bad, but I don't have anything bad to say about the commentary team.
     
  12. equus

    equus Member

    Jan 6, 2007
    Re: Colorado/MLS camera operators?

    Gut, I agree with you on that. It was hilarious. It was almost FSC's Chivas/TFC quality. :)
     
  13. Kryptonite

    Kryptonite Fancy Title Here

    Apr 10, 1999
    Columbus
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Colorado/MLS camera operators?


    It's easier to do it in other sports because they can have their guy walk onto the field and stop play for 45 seconds while the videoboard entertains fans. This doesn't translate to soccer, and ESPN needs to learn this fast. If it's a baseball game, they have their inning changes in which to do 30 at 30. If it's a football game, they can air that stuff after a punt, or whenever.

    It's side-by-side all over again. Only this time, it's SportsCenter highlights instead of commercials. And they have ESPN News for constant highlights, don't they? There's also a ticker on the bottom for scores. And these aren't good enough?

    It's like when they run their 18/58 update. That used to be run very frequently. Now, I think it's still run, but completely randomly. Once, I saw the regular ticker stopped for a few minutes, the 18/58 come up, and then they went back to the regular ticker. This 30 at 30...is it all the time during live events, or whenever the hell they feel like it during live events?

    What they should do is have different departments for cameras, announcing, everything. Get soccer experts in there to air soccer games. Get baseball experts for baseball games. And adopt a "less is more" policy, which should also apply to the ticker. No ticker during live programming, except on ESPN News.
     
  14. Kryptonite

    Kryptonite Fancy Title Here

    Apr 10, 1999
    Columbus
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    A few days ago, the morning SportsCenter reruns had a segment from ESPN Deportes in which they showed Colo Colo v. Boca(??) highlights.

    PTI has also been talking about soccer a bit lately. In one show, they said how it seemed like Man U might have backed into the title, since Chelsea dropped games they should have won and Arsenal wasn't as good as always.

    Earlier this week, they discussed how Man U players celebrated winning the title by drinking "until the sun came up."

    They are shrinking the screen during MLS games (which I suppose is better than a graphic overlay), but do we really need a 30 second SportsCenter update when we have a ticker at the bottom of the screen, ESPN News, and espn.com to keep us informed?
     
  15. BocaFan

    BocaFan Member+

    Aug 18, 2003
    Queens, NY
    Good that they mentioned Man U clinching the title, but if they call what they've done this season as "backing into the title" then they haven't a freaking clue.
     
  16. Stan Collins

    Stan Collins Member+

    Feb 26, 1999
    Silver Spring, MD
    For the record, Chelsea are, with one game in hand, 9 points worse than last year. Man United are, with one game in hand, 6 points better.

    So it's about half true (based on normal expectations, it would split pretty close to 7.5/7.5) that ManU won the title by playing better, and about half true that Chelsea lost it by playing worse. Since ManU's final game is home against West Ham, maybe we assume better than this of this year's ManU squad (against last year's Chelsea point total, nothing less than a win there would do). Even so, more knowledgeable than PTI have chosen to focus on Chelsea losing instead of ManU winning.

    Maybe what should be said is that Chelsea's occasional lacklusterness deprived us of the barnburner that would have occured between this year's ManU and last year's Chelsea.


    --

    I just noticed we're way past the thread post limit. But I'm not a mod here, so I can't close and make the new one.
     
  17. peridigm

    peridigm Member

    Apr 19, 2007
    MD
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Re: Colorado/MLS camera operators?

    Well said. I was amazed the first time I watched an EPL game. I think it was the BBC. What seemed like minutes would go by and the commentators said nothing. That is what I want but I know that will never happen in this country, especially on ESPN.
     
  18. prk166

    prk166 BigSoccer Supporter

    Aug 8, 2000
    Med City
    Re: Colorado/MLS camera operators?

    IIRC the MLS doesn't have it's own crews; it's whomever the TV networks contract. That could and would likely change at some point when the league has the $$$ to have their own crews. At that point things should get better since it'll be people working the coverage who have experience doing it and who want to do it.
     
  19. BocaFan

    BocaFan Member+

    Aug 18, 2003
    Queens, NY
    Man Utd's point total this season is one of the highest in Premiership history. Just because its not the best, doesn't mean they backed into the title.
     
  20. GutBomb

    GutBomb Red Card

    Aug 28, 2003
    Outside Boston

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