The crowd for the Minnesota game looked really full on TV. I was actually expecting a little higher number. Does anyone know off hand how much the lower bowl of the stadium they are playing in holds? Based on the 18442 I am guessing it is in the 19-20k range.
As white said the game was in DC. The crowd ended up being fair for a Wednesday game where the home team has really struggled this year, they just arrived late. Regardless, IMO the announcer owed viewers and MLS better then to dwell on that point at all, let alone several times throughout the opening. Even if he's used to EPL crowds he knew he was coming to this job for months and surely studies up a bit on our humble league. Just left a real sour taste in my mouth.
Broadcasters are not Press. Broadcasters work for the team or the league. To denigrate the product that is your livelihood is not generally done. It's one thing to comment on it, then move on. I'm sure someone will call him or send him a memo.
I agree. However, I will say the ESPN NBA broadcasters (Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson) constantly bemoan the NBA and the officiating. I have heard them completely bash the league and how it handles certain things. I don't recall ever hearing any other commentators go to such depths to trash the league they cover. I guess Twellman every once in a while says negative things about MLS. It is an interesting topic that I have thought about before. Their livelihood is the league but I think they often want to be seen as a neutral observer and not a groupie. That all said I agree with Gunner and a commentator focusing on what he thinks is a poor attendance is not the best idea.
Which is pretty significant. When I started following the league (when TFC joined), DC United was seen as the previous standard bearer for fan support. It's not so much that fan support / crowd enthusiasm has plummeted in DC, it's much more the league has passed them by (for a variety of reasons - I'm not putting blame on DC's fans, for the record).
I think it is a combination of both... The loud side of the stadium seems more sparse nowadays than it did back in the day. There still doing good stuff, but the drop in numbers combined with improvements around the league has certainly impacted their status as the gold standard...
Agreed (kind of), but they also often talk poorly about the NBA itself as I said in my post, but leagues are very very protective of officiating and see it as part of their league and the product. Coaches and players are fined for negatively discussing officiating. Apparently the NBA has contacted Jeff Van Gundy's bosses and asked him to dial down his negativity on the league and the officiating. Van Gundy will often go on for minutes about how stupid something the league is doing is. The article below refers to him as the NBA "Complainer in Chief" and "Cynic in Chief" https://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-...ollowing-his-referee-criticism-204204167.html "It turns out that, according to Jeff at least, the NBA has gotten in touch with his employers at ABC/ESPN, asking him to dial it down a bit."
Yes and no. As I said, this guy has pedigree from Britain, and it's not like MLS is so new that this is all unexpected. Any professional worth his salt has read up on the teams, players, and stories of the day. Already done! I want the other guy back, and said as much. Agreed. I hope the new stadium changes their fortune in this regard, but even then I feel sorry as the product doesn't, IMO, match what the team and its fans deserve. Still, a humble home (with a chance at more prosperity) is better than a shack.
To be fair, it's tradition for EPL tv broadcasts to highlight people leaving after the 80th minute. Thx, Jay!
This really misses the mark, and shows a lack of understand of what a professional sports league (be it NBA or MLS) is as a business. A good official (like a good commentator, for those trying to watch at home) doesn't do any harm and stays out of the way of the main product. But those tangential participants are there and do play a real role in what the product is as a whole. Officiating and attendance/stadium-atmosphere are (for better or worse) part of the product for MLS (and PRO). The tv commentators themselves are also certainly part of the MLS product, as well. Not all parts of the product are always going to think or say all the other parts are performing up to par. Coaches/players get fined for complaining about or being overly critical of match officials. Perhaps tv commentators should be fined (or in some other official way reprimanded) for complaining about or being overly critical of (or too concerned with) attendance.
Yet rarely if ever on Wednesdays, though. And that's certainly some of the underlying issue here, the midweek nature of ATL's first visit to DC. A team like DC is still stuck in an old (and oversized) venue and old mindset where "midweeks don't sell." The reality is that a good portion of the league (especially those lovely expansion clubs who joined after the first, or even now second, decade of the league) is being successful at pulling in good/big home crowds, across the weekend and the midweek fixture dates. Not surprising that an ATL commentator might not have grasped that concept out of the gate here, half way through 2017. (And amazingly, ATL visits DC again in August, on a Wednesday. So maybe that commentator will be a bit more understanding in two months of DC's RFK reality. Although, then there'd be the opportunity to complain about the unbalanced regular season schedule.)
Maybe not plummeted, but it is down...lack of results, stadium atmosphere, marketing disappearance. That said... ...this is true as well. Many (most?) other teams now seem professionally run, while we are stuck on a "mom & pop" kind of feel at times. Thanks, we gluttons keep showing up for our doses of disappointment! It's going to be quite a gear shift next year, and I'm not sure how it will all shake out. Without the parking lots, no more tailgating - and fewer minivans full of kiddies at the games. The new location is likely to attract more young professionals - will they be into the game, or just drinking and sending Instagrams? Ch-ch-ch-changes...
Let's talk to Chris Bianchi about how it went when he commented on Rapids attendance. Chris? Chris? Oh, that's right, he got fired. (tbf I do believe his comment was just he straw that broke the camel's back but...)
There is the difference in this case where ATL was on the road, and their voice/guy was being critical of another franchise's attendance. Slightly different dynamic than the Rapids self-critical example. But of course, MLS is a single entity, so everybody should be cool. Those nice ATL folks will learn. In some hypothetical, we could see ATL and DC both improve enough during the second half of the season so that ATL might have to play a fall playoff game at RFK (perhaps even one of DC United's final games in the venue) and they could experience that atmosphere. Unlikely, as that may now seem with both teams below the playoff red line (and one team also well below the league average attendance this season).
About commentator. Not taking sides but in UK the commentators are completely independent from the clubs and the league and work for their broadcasters with the exception of the superclubs own TV stations. It may well be he just doesn't realise that in the US the whole league and everything that goes with it is the product and his job is to sell or at least represent that product as part of being a commentator. Perhaps he should know but that seems the likely explanation. It would certainly be normal in the UK to trash poor attendance or early leaving fans