Not sure why you care that La Liga doesn't schedule games to accomodate Asia. It's worth noting that economic concerns aside, that the late afternoon U.S. Eastern time slots that the big teams usually play in work for the majority of the Spanish-speaking world. I do agree however that waiting so late to schedule games is rediculous. Not sure what the benefit of that is. It can't be good for those people in Spain who go to the games.
Precisely. The way the LFP assigns La Liga games into time slots on short notice, i.e. less than 10 days in advance, is simply bad business in this day and age of hundreds of entertainment choices. Even the FMF in Mexico does a better job of scheduling Liga Mexicana games to maximize both fan convenience and TV revenue streams than the LFP does with La Liga. I do know that FC Barcelona is run very professionally with Joan Laporta at the helm (I attended his talk at Stanford not too long ago.) Unfortunately, the same can't be said of the rest of the clubs. Real Madrid CF, for example, is a dysfunctional business.
I'm sure everyone agrees with this. I just don't understand why La Liga's kickoff times - regardless of when the schedules are announced - are labled as being with a "Spain-centric view" simply because it doesn't cater to the "gambling-mad cultures" of the Asian market. Unless I'm misreading your post. Do you have a complaint about the actual kickoff times themselves? Do you think La Liga should have "lunchtime kickoffs" of 1pm the way the Premier League does? Btw, REP just for this sentence alone.
I did ask Joan Laporta about the lack of early kickoff times to accomodate the large Asian TV audiences after his talk at Stanford. Laporta told me that a Barca-RM match with a 10pm kickoff time in Spain (or 5am in China), drew 20 times the live TV audience in Mainland China (on government-owned CCTV5) compared to the TV audience in Spain. Laporta told me that because each La Liga team sells its own domestic TV rights, no team currently wants to have matches prior to 5pm local time in Spain because the TV rights fee in Spain still dwarfs the international TV rights fees. Having a La Liga match kick off early each Sunday, i.e. at 2pm or 3pm Spain Time (8pm, 9pm, or 10pm Hong Kong time) will NOT happen, according to Laporta, unless the LFP were to implement collective selling of domestic TV rights the way the FAPL does for the EPL.
The "back office" of Real Madrid CF has been dysfunctional for years and years. Real Madrid CF basically got a government bailout, with a grant of piece of public land on the outskirts of Madrid, to build a new training center, so that Real Madrid CF could sell the land where the old training center was located in order to wipe all the red ink off Real Madrid CF's books. FC Barcelona, in contrast, is run as a "tight ship" compared to the way the other clubs do business.
The LFP finally announced the kickoff date/time for El Gran Clasico, Barcelona vs Real Madrid: Sunday December 23 at 1pm ET/10am PT GolTV will have exclusivity in the U.S. -- WorldSport HD got screwed by the LFP with the scheduling. Due to the ongoing TV rights dispute between MEDIAPRO and SogaCable/AudioVisual Sport, MEDIAPRO's HDTV production crew only has access to the stadium for the Saturday 10pm local time match. WorldSport HD will end up with Sevilla vs Racing Santander instead.
The source is the contract Rainbow/Cablevision (WorldSport parent company) has with the league tv rights holders. They ONLY do games in that slot.
The source is Paul Giblin, one of the British announcers who works on the WorldSport HD La Liga broadcast each weekend. Paul is very upset that 1) he won't be able to call Barcelona-Real Madrid, and 2) has to re-book his flight home to England for the holidays to depart from Sevilla instead of from Barcelona. MEDIAPRO now has access to the SogaCable/AudioVisual Sport standard definition feeds for their international clients, i.e. GolTV, DirecTV/Sky Latin America, ESPN Australia/New Zealand, Al Jazzera Sport, CCTV5 China, etc. The ongoing TV rights dispute means that MEDIAPRO's HDTV production crew, which is under contract to produce games for Cablevision/Rainbow Media/Voom/WorldSport HD, is guaranteed by LAW access to the stadium only for matches held on Saturdays at 10pm CET (4pm ET/1pm PT). SogaCable/AudioVisual Sport is under no obligation to allow the MEDIAPRO HDTV crew into the stadium for El Gran Clasico, which will be played on Sunday at 7pm CET (1pm ET/10am PT) next week.
I have to disagree, if you have a second language, (say German) and you are in Germany, you speak like they speak, you don't jump in and out of the language to suit yourself... You'd say "Ich bin Amerikanisch" not "Ich bin American" or If you're French and speaking about France in German you'd say, "Frankreich", not revert to back to your French and call it "La France", that is what this guy does, in English, Mexico is Mex-i-co, not Meh-hee-co, Brazil is Bra-zil not Bra-sil-ia You pronounce the words as they do, afterall, you're speaking their language, you give it the same respect that they do, also, it is a consious choice when he decides to "spanish it up" he is perfectly capable of saying spanish names and words just like an American would. The same way that he can say Wal-Mart in English, He can say Ronaldo in English, He chooses to say Ronaldo in Spanish. I can understand people that aren't that fluent and pronounce everything with an accent, but th eones that speak perfect English until a word from their native language surfaces, that's the BS I can't stand. Lastly,it's not a "pathetic" thing to bitch about, it's annoying enough to warrant a bitching, Listen to Max Bretos and all of his idiotic pronunciations, or Carlos Machado on FSR.
bretos i'll give you because he speaks english as his first language, but Machado speaks Portuguese. I lived in sweden and spoke swedish while I was there. When I introduced myself I did not say my name was "yawsun" I said Jason, because my name isn't pronounced "yawsun" it's pronounced Jason, even though Jason would be pronounced as "yawsun" by a swede. Same concept. Would you like them to start calling Ronaldinho "Ronald-in-ho"? All an accent is, is a way to pronounce something. When is it acceptable and when isn't it?
You make some good points, but can I ask you why you didn't say "yawsun"? I understand the part about not being how it's pronounced in America but I was under the assumption that If you were speaking a foreign language that you pronounce it like they do.. Secondly, I say Ronaldinho like (Ronal-deen-yo) that is how I always heard it. But a couple examples of my point about whats acceptable and whats not. I don't know if you've noticed this too but sometimes these commentators say Villareal like: Vill-la-ree-al, which is how I pronounce it, than all of a sudden they'll say: (Vee-jah-ree-al), or they'll pronounce David Villa (Vee-jah) to me thats the non-sense that they should avoid, because some kid from the suburbs will go around pronouncing it like that sounding stupid. Or another good one is Gilberto Silva, I say, (Gill-burr-tow/ Sill-vah) these guys say (Geel-Bare-Tow/ Seal-Vah) it's just overdone... I get your point now that I think about it, becausue I say Thierry Henry like (Tee-airy/ On-ree) I guess the difference is, is that I don't speak French while I say that name, I say it with my American accent.
You are seriously in denial and practicing blind faith if you don't acknowledge that the business side of Real Madrid has been in shambles for years. Because my name is Jason (jay-sun) not yaw-sun.
You're confusing sporting side maybe?Record revenues and ,TV deals becoming richest club,how ould you see this as shambles?"tight ship"Barcelona never managed to get Ronaldinho's image rights,when at Real Madrid it's unheard of even when Beckham was here.There was many things done wrong in Florentino's reign,but man was money making wizard you can't deny that.One thing that he is failed at ,was youth policy.Calderon had his early critics,but everyone agrees now,he is in the right path.If you want to go as far as Lorenzo Sanz,then yes I agree,Real Madrid was in shambles then,but no less than Barcelona 4-5 years ago. I would be interested to hear,how is it possible ,in democratic society,for goverment to bail out football team. Anyone can imagine Queen or Premier or whatever gov. institution to bail out Manchester United?Does he know which team head of the country supports?And he's talking about deal where was Madrid city involved not goverment.You have to know Madrid city before even start to talk nonsene about "land deal". Blind faith? No,I love this club,but they get their share critics from me.Not every thing is well,but my response was to poster who unfairly compared Barcelona to Real Madrid.Bigsoccer very fortunate to have many great posters in Real Madrid forum,people who live next door to Santiago Bernabeu,club memebers (who get financial reports by the way),lifelong supporters.I would suggest,go there ,read some,ask questions.After that you will be welcome to say that I'm in blind denial.
The fact that Spain had to bail out Real Madrid is proof enough that there were some very bad business decisions made.
My understanding is that Carlos Machado is a Portuguese/Canadian and was likely born in Canada to parents from Portugal. Until a few years ago, he lived in Ottawa and according to people I know who played against/with him in soccer in Ottawa, he was pretty good. The language he speaks most of the time is english.
Spain had to bail out Real Madrid?How exactly they did that?Or you just heard some random rumours from your cule buddies?I know that your name is in green,and you probably deserve it,but you're not making any sense.Florentino came to power 8-9 years ago(1999 I believe,),and within a year deal was made that wiped Real Madrid debts.Now if it's proof enough that for what happened 8 years ago,you can say Real Madrid is dysfunctional business now,then yes I'm with you on this one. DEAL THAT WIPED OUT REAL MADRID DEBTS WAS BETWEEN CLUB AND MADRID CITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!NOT THE KING,NOT THE GOVERMENT,NOT FA PRESIDENT VILLAR,NOT DON CORLEONE---------->BUT_MADRID CITY. P.S.just for you so,you could see this time.
Enough is enough with regards to Real Madrid CF, which did receive what amounts to a bailout by the Madrid Community government with a land grant to build a new training center on the outskirts of Madrid so that Real Madrid CF was able to sell the old training center in order to wipe the debt off its books. The land grant did not come from the Spanish federal government. I never wrote or implied "federal government" when I wrote that Real Madrid CF received a government bailout. Let's get this thread back to GolTV.
You can't say enough is enough and then spew so much crap. 1) The land where Real Madrid built its new training ground (Valdebebas) was not granted, it was bought by Real Madrid. 2) Real Madrid was able to buy it because that land isn't worth jack, it is too near the airport to be of any value (ie no one would want to live there), and it has zero amenities around. It was a piece of barren countryside, FFS. 3) Real Madrid did not need a new training centre, they can train in the the Spanish federation complex in Las Rozas. Which they did for about a year. There is no causal link that goes from building a new complex to being able to sell the old one, so don't make shit up. 4) What the city (not the community, get that through your head) did was rezone the real state that Real Madrid had built its old training complex on. When RM built it, it was in the outskirts of Madrid. Now the city has grown around it and it is a prime piece of real state. Just to reiterate, RM *sold* a piece of expensive real state that it *owned*. This is not bailing out. 5) The city profited enormously from the rezoning, as cities all over the world do. 4 skyscrapers are going up where the grounds used to be, so apparently people like the location. This was rational economic behaviour on the part of everyone involved. Now that we have some actual facts on the table, we can go back to GolTV.
Try watching some of the matches between lower EPL teams. It's enough to turn someone into a baseball fan.