The future of "Sounders FC Weekly"...
by Blue Eyed Buddhist on Feb 24, 2010 1:25 PM PST
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Discussing the show "Sounders FC Weekly" on the ECS forum the other day, and I wrote this...
I think that from the features that they chose to do, and the way the show changed through the season, that it's obvious that they went into 2009 with the thought that they were going to have to have a very simple show that did a lot of education and lighter entertainment instead of a more in-depth footie show.
There was also a heavy feel of "getting to know you" since they had to introduce the entire team to the fans. That won't be as bad this year since nearly everyone returns.
As the year went on, it became obvious that they had underestimated the Seattle soccer fan. The questions in "Ask The Sounders" got much better and more involved in finer details of the game (Leo Henton, an ECS member, in particular kept asking awesome questions- keep doing it in 2010, Leo) and they started going into more detail.
I think another part of the problem for the show was the scheduling- Sunday nights, late, meant that the audience wasn't going to be your more average Joe- it was going to be someone who was into soccer and the Sounders enough that they intentionally tuned in or set up the Tivo. That meant that they were more educated in soccer, not a more casual, new-to-the-game fan.
On top of that, the match reports sucked because of such short time to prepare; they were little more than repeats of what we'd get on the evening news.
Putting the show on Friday evenings or something, and making them an HOUR long with a serious match report, would go a long way to helping it, IMO. You could have a match report where controversial calls or plays were really replayed in depth, and the reporter could take some time to really research it and get the coaching staff's opinion of something.
Plus, as Keith Hodo points out, you could do a serious preview of the upcoming weekend- and not just of the Sounders, but also of the rest of the league.
I think the league needs to pull its head out of its ass on this kind of stuff. It's pathetic that in this day and age, a show like that in a major TV market like Seattle ([13th largest in USA in 2010) had to rely on shitty quality internet video for some of the match recaps.
Every MLS franchise should be providing all sports stations, news, review shows, etc a high def feed of the entire match if they can and certainly of highlight reels.
But then I'm just a plain old supporter and fan, WTF do I know? :)
FanPosts only represent the opinions of the poster, not of Sounder at Heart.
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Sounders FC Weekly needs a better producer
You are right about the quality of the show. An hour would be great, and if we gave the league some attention/analysis, we’d probably get audience from all over N. America online.
Since we’re recycling comments and I don’t know how to link to the comment I made on Feb. 1, here are my thoughts on how to improve the show:
I think a good example of the mainstream media getting it wrong is the 30 min Sounders Weekly show on KING last year. They tried to dictate the terms by giving us a fluffy local sportscast. In the end I gave up on it. It was unwatchable. I was looking for more analysis of play, discussion of the league, etc. They gave us too much fluff and not enough meat. How about a discussion of the formation Sounders used? Once? Ever? What a great opportunity to be interesting and educate the soccer newbies. Instead we got ’what’s your favorite movie?‘—which is OK for 30 seconds at the end of the show, but c’mon. And it goes to the point raised above—they don’t have the knowledge to do that type of coverage.
The MLS highlights for the week should include EVERY GOAL. That can’t be too hard. How about an in depth look at the Sounders next foe? When they do a player profile, talk about their strengths and weaknesses as a player, show examples. Talk about where they came from, who they played for, and how that effects their style of play. There’s all kinds of interesting things that show could have covered,and what we got mostly was an extended local sportscast filled with dreck. I hope they try again, because it’s a huge investment, and could really grab a following. They need to rethink their approach, though.
I think the point about the schedule is important
Because a general magazine show doesn’t work at that hour. The format they have right now would be better prior to the late news.
I agree the current time slot lends itself to the diehards much more.
I am not a Supporter
I am not a Fan
I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
One thing that could happen now is that maybe Arlo White could do the show. He could probably make it a lot better than it has been and would definitely provide a lot of insight into the league matches and upcoming Sounders matches.
I think they did pretty well with what they had last year and I definitely think it could use some work. But they have already added a piece that could make it better if they want to… Here’s to hoping they do something.
I think we're going to see Arlo White take over this type of stuff
It wouldn’t surprise me to see him do a TV preview/recap show, a podcast, a radio show and video features for the website. Guy comes from the Beeb so he’s bound to know one or two things about best practices as far as content.
Arlo White Analysis
The analysis that I’d love to see would be similar to the Match of the Day program from the EPL (video feed on Footytube). Ideally we’d be hearing in depth analysis of the Sounders and at least some nod to how the other goals are created around the league.
I haven’t heard much about the BBC program Arlo used to be a part of, but I’m assuming he’d be able to pull this off at top-MLS-quality!
Here’s an example of a recent video I watched on Footytube.
http://www.footytube.com/video/chelsea-west-ham-united-mar13-36793
(Skip over the highlights to 15:30 or so to see to the discussion of the match.)
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