The threshold for me to care/emotionally invest in a team in Europe is pretty high. I root for Americans in Europe but that's about it. The world cup is pretty much the main "neutral" event I get really into and even that hits different now as an adult vs when I was 10. I wouldn't call the EPL objectively boring, but the "quality on display" doesn't drive my interest as much as it used to. There's a finite amount of time I can spend watching and that is increasingly dedicated to "my team" and games that affect "my team".
My problem with the EPL is that a majority of the games aren't competitive. Its quality football, but for the most part, especially the games that get on TV here, its a team that's clearly better than the other and the underdog is playing not to lose. If I pull up a Championship game who knows what kind of result you're going to get. Even the good teams get beat by the bad teams regularly.
Today is one of the examples of Season Pass being a bummer. I'm a Crew fan, so obviously, that's the game I'm watching. But there are two other 7:30 matches that I would LOVE to watch that I won't be able to -- Cincy/LAFC, NYRB/NYC. Which I COULD do, but they go out of their way to tell you all the other scores during the game you're watching.
I kind of get it. I prefer women’s tennis and volleyball to men’s because men’s serves are too good in tennis, and men receiving volleyball serves are too good.
DC local audio hasn’t mentioned another game once. Haven’t seen the leagues scores on TV, but you can close your eyes there, hopefully.
With an Apple TV you can watch four games on one screen..... You can also put games on other screens....
Arnie Slot commented this week that the Premier League is a lot more competitive than the Eredivisie as the gap between top and bottom teams is a lot smaller than Eredivisie. So next time someone tells you that the Eredivisie is better than MLS....
With all the money that Apple spent on the MLS rights (billions?) what did you think they could have budgeted for 2 additional cameras, one on each end behind goals?
I think their goal was to match the production quality of the rsns, which they did for the most part. They weren't trying to match national TV.
It's not always that easy. When Notts County are on national TV they have to displace about 150 fans at each end to put cameras behind the goal. Unless you mean the unmanned ones which yeah, they can buy on EBay.
There may be union contracts regarding those type of cams, too. In the NHL Philly and I think Washington both have one cam above the goal used primarily during the PP when there’s lots of in-zone time. But just behind one goal, not both. Zamboni not an obvious issue, since they’re in the corner. Thx, Jay!
MLS is paying for and producing ALL of the broadcasts, NOT Apple......... The number of cameras at each game is a LEAGUE decision.
I'll rephrase what he said. With all the money that Apple spent on the MLS rights (billions?) you think MLS could have budgeted for 2 additional cameras, one on each end behind goals?
It's not that simple (and you know that). Adding cameras can, and does disrupt seating. What god does adding a camera to the end lines do for the home viewer if fans are in the way of the picture? A good portion of the money that Apple is paying MLS is going towards the production of the broadcasts (studio, on site crews, broadcast talent, etc.). Adding additional cameras for EVERY game, would add costs. I'd rather the league spend that money on goal line tech, and/or an offside system.
Personally I'd settle for someone (anyone) paying for whatever technology it takes to get replays of important plays shown in a timely manner (if at all).
Yup that's what I thought I said. And meant to say. When other leagues around the world have managed to do it for years, you gotta figure that there was more than enough money for MLS to implement cameras behind the goal. And with today's tech, those cameras don't have to be large and human-operated (assuming there isn't some annoying labor contract that blocks this). For any stadium which has a 2nd tier behind the goals, it's not hard to imagine a low-profile, remote-controlled camera mounted to the underside of that tier. And hard to imagine that would be cost-prohibitive in the grand scheme of things, i.e. the total budget.
Good point! Other leagues like EPL & UCL are so much better with their replays. And while they're at it, some more (human?) attention paid to the robotic, algorithmic "recap" highlight packages for each match. I know that's a trend across most streamers, but that doesn't make it good. It's apparently faster & cheaper, but definitely not better than what humans have been doing for years.
Never caught those. I know you hate the Premier League but the old in-house PL Review show highlights were the gold standard IMHO. Nobody has ever gotten close to their brilliance. I don't know if they still make them the same way, because ever since NBC stopped using the Premier League Productions content, I've been stuck watching NBC's inferior highlights. I always thought there was a ton of experienced human fingerprints all over those PLP highlights shows: the curation, editing, transitions, audio overlays, etc, etc. I'd be curious to know if they still make them the same way and with the same quality these days, or if they too have leveraged (cheaper?) robotic/AI tools for highlights.
The old Sky ones were the same formula as EFL highlights. No studio, a main presenter, extended highlights from the top 3 or 4 matches with the live commentary as was, and key moments from all the other games told in narrative format.