The Revs named Brad Feldman their new "Director of Communications." The team press release follows: REVOLUTION NAMES BRAD FELDMAN DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS Revolution TV Color Analyst to Join New England Revolution Organization Full Time FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - The New England Revolution announces today the hiring of Brad Feldman as the Director of Communications. Feldman's primary responsibilities will be to manage the media relations, publicity and public relations functions for the Revolution, as well as various broadcast duties. Feldman will also play a major role in the formation of new programs that will expand the outreach of the organization. "Brad's passion and enthusiasm coupled with his experience will allow us to raise the bar in this area for the organization," New England Revolution VP/Chief Operating Officer Lou Imbriano said. "He understands our philosophy and our desire to grow the sport of soccer and will work tirelessly in order to accomplish our goals." Feldman is in his third year as a broadcaster for the Revolution and serves as the team's TV color analyst this season. He also hosts Revolution Radio's In the Net on Revolutionsoccer.net, Tuesdays and Thursdays from noon-1:00 p.m. Last year, Feldman was the Revs' radio color analyst for the season, including the MLS Cup Final at Foxboro. In 2001, he worked as a television sideline reporter, radio announcer and web talk show host for the team. An experienced soccer announcer, Feldman has provided TV commentary for Scottish Premier League and Spanish Primera Liga on ESPN International, the UEFA Champions League for Setanta Sport and the A-League on Fox Sports World. In past seasons he has appeared on television for the Kansas City Wizards of MLS and the Boston Breakers and New York Power of the WUSA. Feldman also has experience as a television sports reporter, sports anchor, print news reporter and has taught journalism and media courses at Northeastern University and Bay State College. A graduate of The Johns Hopkins University, Feldman also holds a M.S. in journalism from Columbia University. Feldman lives in Lexington with his wife, Liz, and daughter Miriam.
Blatant Conflict of Interest Sorry to disagree, TMT, but this is an extremely poor move. Once again, Revos oblong management has shown how out-of-touch it is with reality and how dumb it believes its soccer fans to be. First, let me say that this opinion has nothing to do with Brad Feldman, and his merits for better or worse for either job. It has everything to do with the same person doing both jobs. Feldman received some stick in previous threads for being such a blatant homer. This came from Revos fans and in the media forum from neutral or opposition fans who watched a broadcast on the Shootout Package. What will it say now that the Revos' full-time Director of Communications is also the team's television analyst? Obviously the Revolution have no interest in objectivity for their broadcasts. I'm sure Feldman will be privy to a lot of information that fans would love to know, but the organisation would never want to see the light of day. Now they have guaranteed that the broadcasts will toe the party line, and only the party line. Although some could argue that was already the case. Can he criticise players objectively, if at all? Is he in a position to paint a realistic picture of what is really going on? It is called spin. PR people make excuses and spout the party line. Analysts are supposed to analyse with some degree of objectivity. Now we know that will never happen. Imagine if LittleFrank or Gus were on the Revos payroll while writing about their teams in El Globo and the Herald? Where would the journalistic integrity be? The Revos have placed Feldman in a very bad position. (Make that positions.) It should be one job or the other, but not both. The only truths he can tell on TV now are home truths, and they may not be truthful at all.
Re: Blatant Conflict of Interest i really don't understand your point. this comparison is rediculously simpleminded, as the revs broadcasts are not NEWS they are INFOMERCIALS. feldman was on the payroll from day one. did you think johnny most, or tommy heinson are/were journalists?
There's definitely a difference between TV announcers who work for the rights holder to an event's broadcast, and the other media that cover that event. The best example is the CBS and the Masters ... CBS didn't dare mention the protest follies going on outside the gates because Augusta (the same people who forbade CBS from using Gary McCord on its Masters telecasts because he said the greens played like they'd been bikini waxed) wouldn't stand for it. Feldman already is on the Revs payroll, it's true. Frank, Gus, myself, Danizinho, John Lewis, Mike Marshall, Tony Biscaia, et al., are not. Sure, it makes a difference in terms of what information gets out and how critical a writer/broadcaster is. But that's the way it goes these days. As for objectivity, the Heinsohn example says it all. But keep in mind that Derek Rae said a lot of critical things on company time (and the company dime) when he was here, so the Revs have some tolerance for dissent. (Make political joke here.)
Rumor had it at the time that Rae, who was very popular with the fans, was pressured out by Rev management, because he was too critical. He broadcasted the next year for Metro IIRC. If Feldman doesn't have the freedom to reflect the fans' dissatisfaction over a hot issue, he's going to be unpopular, and by extension, so will the broadcast.
This move isn't likely to make the broadcasts any less objective than they already are - since the team already had "approval" over the broadcast team. The positive sign is actually hiring someone for this position. The Revs seem to be universally acknowledged as the least communicative organization in MLS. I take this as a sign that they acknowledge that problem and intend to do something about it - and there is a point person to focus on if things don't improve. As for specific team personnel/strategic matters, I doubt things will change much as I think Nicol doesn't like to disclose much if he can help it.
Knowing Brad just a little bit, my guess is that it probably won't affect his broadcasts that much. Other than that... I echo John Lewis' comments. It's great to have a soccer person in that position again.
Beez, you beat me to it with the point of announcers who are paid by the club, or by the broadcast entity. If you researched this, you would find a ton of examples of both approaches. I don't think being on the Revs payroll is going to have Feldman make excuses like saying that Player X slipped, when in fact he got beaten like a rented mule. People can see what happened, and I'd expect no change in his analyst duties. I just wouldn't expect him to mention anything like, for example, the fact that many fans and non-Rev fans were upset about the decision to play both CCC games in Costa Rica. Since that is calling attention to a controversial decision his bosses made, the "party line" is to state the position onlywhen you can't get out of it, but never, ever bring it up yourself. The positive aspect is that a "soccer person" should be in charge of dealing with the soccer media. No offense to Kelly or any of the people who were in that role, but a lot of the people who regularly cover the Revs (and have since Day One) had been initially denied press credentials. The "Revs" staff had no idea who these people were. I don't know if they thought they could save money on pressbox food or what, but it makes no sense to limit the number of people who are promoting your business. This has all been sorted out, and by and large it was chalked up as a misunderstanding, but this wouldn't have happened with Jurgen in charge, since he knew everyone. And Derek before him, and Raffael before him, and... You can get by with doing only some things on the cheap, and this isn't one of them... Tom
This is, in fact, standard for almost all personel on team (as opposed to league) broadcasts. Enourmously respected broadcasters like Gil Santos of for the Patriots and Sean McDonough for the Redsox certainly work those broadcasts with the explicit approval of the teams. As for the 'homer' criticism, McDonough even seems to have 2 different personae as a broadcaster, one for when he's doing 'Sox games and one for everything else. He sure sounds more enthusiastic when he calls the Redsox. And if you think that openly rooting for a team is somehow unique to the US or absent from soccer in the rest of the world, try going on the web sometime and listening to a team originated radio broadcast in England or Germany. Gary Owens, the color man on Manchester City radio broadcasts makes Tommy Heinsohn sound like Chick Hearn!
Now that Brad has more responsibility with his new gig, I'm hoping that he's just too busy for the In The Net radio show and they bring back Adrian Healey. Brad's monotone delivery stands in stark contrast to Adrian's quality pipes and quick wit. Brad, an essential management skill is effectively delegating tasks. So give Adrian a call and delegate In the Net to him.
I believe that you will find that Revolution broadcasters used to be paid directly by the stations, but are now paid by the team. The exception might be Jon Meterparel, who is a fulltime employee of WEEI. The Revolution probably sweeten his pot, but he is not completely beholding to them for his position. The switch from station paid to team paid occurred around the time that Derek Rae returned for one season after a year with the Metrostars, before leaving again. Eric Frede was employed by Fox Sports NE for the one season that he did the play by play. Rae was highly critical on-air of the Zenga Era when he was paid by the station, and was not about to be muzzled when he returned and the broadcasts were under team control. Seamus Malin was also deemed too critical, and that is why he was shown the door. An infomercial is not a bad analogy to what is happening now, but that is not how it always was with Revolution broadcasts. Just remember that the secret to a good infomercial is that viewers actually believe that is real. Most sports franchises have an approval over who their broadcasters will be, but neither pay them nor have direct control over them. Having approval gives them some obvious control, but also allows for some criticism. There is no pretense that what is going on here has anything to do with broadcast objectivity or journalistic integrity. Whether viewers feel disrespected by this or not is up to them, if they are even aware it. Team management obviously believes that the fans are not, or they won't care if they do.
True, but neither Gil or Sean are employed in other capacities by the teams the cover, and that is a pretty important difference imo. The job description of Director of Communications is to make the team look good- maximize the good publicity and minimize the bad, whereas, for my money, honesty is crucial to a broadcaster. The two jobs conflict with one another, and that is a problem. Of course, considering all the incompetant MLS/US soccer broadcasters of the past and present, it is nice just to have two guys who are capable of speaking coherently.
The reason the Revs broadcast their games on TV is to promote their product. The Krafts pay for the broadcasts so they get to pick the announcers. We aren't talking journalism here, we're talking promotion and marketing. I think the fact that they now have a soccer guy as their director Director of Communications is a real positive move. Having Brad also be the color commentator on the broadcasts only makes things run a little more efficiently. Besides, since he actually has to earn a living and is now getting a regular salary it should only mean more continuity as I would expect him to be around for awhile. As for the criticism thing, a good commentator should realize that he's speaking to an audience that includes both casual and hard core fans. If he sugar coats, he's going to turn off part of that audience. But he should also know not only when to criticize, but how to do it without telling the audience -- "you know, you're wasting your time watching this product because it really sucks". If I were paying the bill to have my product promoted on TV, I sure as heck wouldn't want the announcer trashing my team to the point where the audience won't watch. Just remember, whenever you watch a sports broadcast, you're actually watching a marketing vehicle, not a news event.
good god. Tommy Heinsohn to my mind is absolutely unwatchable. His incesant complaining about the refs makes it difficult to enjoy watching a Celtics game.
as i said on the thread in the media forum. this is not a good move. i don't think it has anything to do about objectivity and everything to do with another cost cutting measure. i've never criticized the revs for trying to cut costs before but this is ridiculous. a good PR person should not have the time to do anything else other than be a PR person. i highly doubt that he can be fully effective as a PR person while trying to be an announcer too. and he shouldn't have to try. that's nothing against him as a person, and i suppose its nice that they have a soccer person in there. but especially someone who is going to be occupied on game days?? c'mon...
That's a good point about wearing too many hats, or at least two hats that overlap to the point that both jobs could suffer. As the communications guy, his regular duties would dovetail nicely with the "research" that a TV broadcaster would need to do to be reasonably informed. Of course, he'd have to find time to check in with the opponent, watch tapes of their past coupel of games and get a sense for who's in the lineup, playing well, etc. But on game day, I would expect Brian to be doing a lot of the run-around stuff as far as dragging players out for interviews, having an extra cable handy for the sideline reporter, or whatever else. Still, it can get more than a bit hectic, and I would hate to see someone get burned out trying to do 2 jobs, and seeing them just not have enough time in the day. Then again, that's nothing new in Corporate America these days... Tom
The Spin Zone TMT, I guess you are willing to accept anything in a broadcast. They are obvious infomercials now, so how can anyone ever take them seriously? How cheap are the Revos? Or how dumb do they think their audience really is? I guess the days of being able to "TELL IT LIKE IT IS" died with Howard Cosell. Or maybe Derek Rae. If your standards for broadcasting are that low, then you'll accept anything they throw at you. Maybe next you go to buy a car, it won't matter to you if Consumer Reports is published by General Motors. Fox Sports New England can have Feldman and Heinsohn doing their own segments called "The Spin Zone," since that is what they will be feeding viewers. Heinsohn may be an embarassing homer. Now Feldman has to be one. That isn't fair to him, and even more importantly it is not fair to the viewers.
Re: The Spin Zone "telling it like it is" is the biggest term used for Loud Idiot that you can use. this isn't TBS doing the Braves, this isn't Tommy Points but you od like to see some measure of objectivity. Sean McDunough seems to do a nice job of balancing the right amount of homerism. But let the fans be the fans.
Feldman doesn't know this, but he was their second option. A distant one a that. Things, however, will be righted once Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf turns up.
Yep. Big Frank, here's the bottom line. If the Red Sox don't like what Jerry Remy says in a broadcast, they can have him removed. It's written into the contract that teams have the final right of approval for all announcers. This is especially the case with the Revs because they're paying for the broadcasts! Sorry dude, it's the way the world works. Now, it's a little bit of a different story on national broadcasts. Apparently Eric Wynalda has pissed off an MLS coach or two already with some of his comments, but on local broadcasts, your announcers will never be too critical because the team allows them to have the job. If they are, they won't last long.