USA TF TV coverage thoughts

I was screaming, yelling and cursing at ESPN. This was not because the USA lost to Ghana in the World Cup. This was for an entirely different reason, with two laps to go in the men’s 5k, right were Lagat would unleash a mighty kick, ESPN changed to a no-hitter. They gave us a warning and then cut to the talking heads at the baseball game.  This took 10 minutes or so. The race was over in three.

I was upset but I do realize that to ESPN a no hitter is going to bring in more of an audience then track and field. Of course, if most track and field fans are like me, we have little to no interest in a no hitter.

This was not the end of the mistakes. I know as an announcer it is not easy to always get the runners right but the following mistakes were just outright awful. First of all, in the final of the 1500, Shalane Flanagan falls. The announcer notices it but cannot identify who it is. She is an American Record holder and medalist on the World scene. Secondly, they flashed a graphic with all the stats on Bridget Franek and pictured Jenny Barringer. Why was this graphic not checked before hand? They also indentified Alan Webb’s record as being set in 1987-he would have been 5 at the time and again this was a graphic.

Then there are just the mistakes of not knowing your audience. The most we are shown of a distance race is maybe the first and last two laps. They continually explain to us how an event is run. There was a two minute segment on explaining long jumping. While races and field events are going on, they cut to fluff pieces. The 800 women’s race was raced 10 minutes before coverage started but instead of replaying during some of the downtime of the broadcast, they play fluff pieces.

It was comedy of tragedies.

I hate to be critical without offering up suggestions. First, track and field needs to look to how other sports cover events. In world cup soccer, never once did they stop and explain how a throw-in works or why it happens. Cut the explanation time. I know track meets do not run quickly (well unless you are at the Penn Relays) so why not schedule the jr. events in between the pro ones? That way cutting to commercial would be easy. Cut the fluff pieces and show the competition or just make sure you show when the moves happen. I know 10ks can be boring but in an instance they turn exciting. Also, if your announcers do not know certain events well bring in guest announcers; bringing in Vin Lanna to discuss the distance events this weekend was a smart move. Finally, double check your facts would be my other suggestion.

There needs to a tighter product and it can be done but first the small mistakes must be avoided.