An Interesting Idea By ESPN Might Get Me To Watch Arena Football
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
I honestly don't have anything wrong with Arena Football, but for some reason I just can't get into it. About the only clips I've ever posted are of referees getting hit in the balls and players or coaches cursing their brains out. Well ESPN is trying their darndest to get you Football geeks into the game, and they're planning on-airing a whole game with the majority of audio coming from on-field action and interviews. Via ESPN PR.....
ESPN2 will present a special “Live-Wired” telecast of Russell Athletic ESPN Arena Football that will bring viewers into the arena through additional microphones, locker room access, and wall-to-wall action and sound from the AFL matchup between the Philadelphia Soul and Georgia Force Monday, May 12, at 8 p.m. on ESPN2 and in high definition on ESPN2 HD. The game will also be simulcast on ESPN360.com and ESPN Mobile TV.I'm not sure if our friend Ray Bentley is the only announcer, but this is definitely an interesting approach. If you played the entire game without announcers I'd probably watch the whole thing, but with Ray asking questions I might just watch a quarter. Either way I'm watching though right?
Analyst Ray Bentley will narrate the game and lead viewers in and out of breaks, timeouts and plays in the red zone, as well as conduct live interviews throughout the telecast. Most of the audio will come from on-field action through commentary from the players, coaches and referees. ESPN2 will utilize sevenseven [sic] microphones total.
9 Comments:
There are other teams, but it seems that the Soul are on every week.
This could be interesting, my only complaint when watching the games on TV is that they're always leaving the mics on the field open while the announcers are talking, so it just sounds like a lot of people talking at once.
Oh yeah, ESPN will need a dump button ready.
Here is the thing about Bentley as an AFL announcer. He is VERY GOOD. Why? Cause he knows the rules and understands the strategy since he was a former coach in the league (a bad coach btw). But if he sticks to the Arena game, he's very good. Plus it's fun to hear tip toe around correcting his play by play partner when they don't know all the rules.
The NFL tried this during a broadcast back in the late 70s. I dont recall which network.
Obviously this will be much better. AS I recall (from an after-the-fact report) it was just a normal broadcast sans announcers. I dont know if they used field mics or not, but it was considered a complete failure.
upon further investigation (re: Wikipedia) it was a 1980 game between the Jets and Dolphins on NBC.
also, the CFL did this in 2005 and the ratings were higher than normal but they never tried it again best i can tell
They only shove Philadelphia down our throat because there's no Boston AFL franchise for them to root for.
It seems like a good idea, but I don't know how many casual viewers it would be bringing in.
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Live wired in Philly?
They better have a 7 second delay on that shit....my hometown aint no joke and people will speak their minds freely....!!!!
I hate it when some of the anonymous d-bags here complain about inequality among ESPN's coverage. But that being said, is there any other AFL team other than Bon Jovi's???