ESPN sucks, ESPN sucks, ESPN sucks

[DJofSD]

There must have been 18 changes of camera during the running of the San Fillepe Stakes. Fire that G.D. producer.

[Valuist]

Network TV has no idea how to show racing. They seem to believe that more cameras are better. This has been a problem for a number of years. Its amazing they still haven't figured it out: use the track's feed.

[JustRalph]

There must have been 18 changes of camera during the running of the San Fillepe Stakes. Fire that G.D. producer.

I think camera's are the purview of the director.......

Fire that Director!

[DJofSD]

Director - you're right, I stand corrected. Fire both of them.

[Bubbles]

Better yet, fire everyone AT ESPN. Seriously, who in the United States is interested in Dominican Republic-Cuba baseball? They darned near cut the racing because we HAD to see the end of a ballgame nobody has interest in.

The least they could have done was move the racing to ESPN2...or would that have ticked off the fishermen?

[foregoforever]

Ever watch Austrailian racing? They change angles several times during the race, and it works. Of course, many of their tracks are shaped in such a way that a single angle wouldn't work so well. But they change angles predictably, based on the shape of the course. It makes it much more interesting to watch, and I don't have trouble keeping up with my horse.

The Aussies don't make quick camera angle shifts, though, such as ESPN did today. And when they come to the stretch drive, they stay on the same angle throughout. So I think changing angles can work ... it's just that we don't seem to know how to do it right.

[DJofSD]

I don't just watch "my" horse. I don't just watch the leaders. I watch as much of the field as I can, plus, when it's on my TiVo, I can rewatch it frame by frame if I so choose. But if amateurish, incompetent directors insist on acting like little boys with a new toy, it makes it ny impossible to take in the entire race as a whole.

[Tee]

The least they could have done was move the racing to ESPN2...or would that have ticked off the fishermen?

Careful now, Elena Dementieva & Maria Sharapova were playing on ESPN2 :lol:

[Bubbles]

Careful now, Elena Dementieva & Maria Sharapova were playing on ESPN2 :lol:

Tee, that changes everything...;)

Knew that a fishing thing was on just before 6, wasn't sure how long it continued for.

[Tom]

Cuban "scratch and spit" ball then college wrestling....meanwhile, Horse racing gets shorted yet again. ESPN is by far a joke of a network. Give the contract to someone who actually plans to show races!

ESPN...how can you call yourself a "sports" network when you cover.....poker!
Poker...a sport?????? It's not a sport if you have an ashtray and coaster on the "playing field."

Believe it or nopt, I sent ESPN an email last year after yet another racing show was changed to an earlier time slot with NO notice, and I made a rather strong suggestion where the progam director could stick his network....and they replied to the effect, "....we will take your suggestion under advisement." Sheeez...too stupid to even insult!

Everyone's
Smarter (than this)
Pathetic
Network

[kingfin66]

Better yet, fire everyone AT ESPN. Seriously, who in the United States is interested in Dominican Republic-Cuba baseball? They darned near cut the racing because we HAD to see the end of a ballgame nobody has interest in.

The least they could have done was move the racing to ESPN2...or would that have ticked off the fishermen?

I think sometimes we lose perspective of just how "big" horse racing really is or isn't. While I echo the frustration felt my ESPN's condensed show and the poor production of it, I also recognize that there are probably more people that wanted to see the baseball game than the horse races.

[Tom]

I think sometimes we lose perspective of just how "big" horse racing really is or isn't. While I echo the frustration felt my ESPN's condensed show and the poor production of it, I also recognize that there are probably more people that wanted to see the baseball game than the horse races.

If it will speed up thses God-awful games, make it mandatory for them ALL to uses steroids/speed, whatever.

[socantra]

Lighten up, guys. ESPN's production was atrocious and everyone should complain about it. They have been responsive in the past, and hopefully will get better at this. I don't really think we would be any better off with the 'good old days' of NBC or ABC.

As far as baseball vs horse racing, Cuba and the Dominican have a huge latin American following and ESPN is an international network. Monday night's game between Cuba and Japan will be even bigger. Live, the basebal game drew attendance of 41,000 and the San Felipe 14,000. On TV, it was probably 70% of the latin American market for baseball vs. several thousand grumpy old men for racing.

socantra...

[DJofSD]

I'll stipulate only to the man thing; not the grumpy or old!

My expectation is that ESPN, which claims to be the experts when it comes to covering sports, would do a better job than NBC or ABC. I assert they did not do better.

I don't deny that baseball and the Classic event had a larger audience. I'm satisfied that ESPN showed all the races that were advertised albeit on a tape delayed basis (that's good enough for me). However, if you'll take note, those delayed replays were likely the track feed where there was not umpteen changes of camera angle. That's what I want.

If they want to get fancy, either, use a split screen format like HOL, or, save the fancy stuff for the replay like during the coverage of the KY Derby where there is isolation camera work that allows for a better look during a replay and post race analysis.

[andicap]

I'll stipulate only to the man thing; not the grumpy or old!

My expectation is that ESPN, which claims to be the experts when it comes to covering sports, would do a better job than NBC or ABC. I assert they did not do better.

I don't think the argument was ever that ESPN would do a better job covering sports -- after all, ABC's Monday Night Football was more polished and entertaining than ESPN"s Sunday Night Football.

The argument for ESPN is that it will do a better job promoting and marketing racing by using all of its other platforms, ESPN Radio, SportsCenter, ESPN.com, ESPN the magazine, ESPN Desportes, ESPN Mobile, etc. to promote the Breeder's Cup and Belmont Stakes. (to start on ABC-TV this year and eventually move to ESPN).

But in the end remember, no matter how much ESPN is committed to promoting racing, ratings/profits are the almighty King. And racing gets lousy ratings. Terrible ratings. Especially among ESPN's core 18-34 and 18-49 yr old audience which advertisers pay the most money for. Racing skews old, like over 50.

(This is something conservative free-market fanatics should certainly appreciate. You can't criticize ESPN for running a baseball game that will get higher ratings -- or at least higher advertising rates -- if you believe the laissez-faire invisible hand of the free market will create the most efficient economy.
It seems to me the height of hypocrisy for people who are absolutely pro-business/laissez-faire in their politics to criticize ESPN because they are making decisions based primarily on their best business interests -- like airing poker programming that makes jillions of dollars believe me -- just because it interferes with YOUR best interests.

I -- a liberal -- happen to agree ESPN should be allow to show whatever it wants based on the best interests of the network and Disney shareholders. Yes, I own 210 Disney shares but that doesn't color my beliefs since it won't make me rich or poor either way, but as an shareholder I certainly want Disney to maximize its long-term profits.
Isn't that what Republicans and Libertarians believe?)

Now if you happen to believe ESPN was making a poor business decision -- that's another matter.

Finally, ESPN does have contractual issues with Major League Baseball and other entities that tie its hands with making certain programming decisions.

[DJofSD]

andicap

By and large, I agree with your statements and your position. However, I disagree with the premis which is they're really not making best use of the marketplace and are not generating good return on their investor's money therefore we're justified in producing an inferior product.

Either they do a good job providing descent coverage for this particular type of event or learn how to do it better. Yes, you're right, the promotions have been so much hype and attempts to increase market share vis-a-vie the promotions but as far as the T'bred racing coverage is concerned it's tantamount to paying for champange and getting beer. (I would have used a different analogy but it would have offended the overly sensitive.)

[andicap]

andicap

By and large, I agree with your statements and your position. However, I disagree with the premis which is they're really not making best use of the marketplace and are not generating good return on their investor's money therefore we're justified in producing an inferior product.

Either they do a good job providing descent coverage for this particular type of event or learn how to do it better. Yes, you're right, the promotions have been so much hype and attempts to increase market share vis-a-vie the promotions but as far as the T'bred racing coverage is concerned it's tantamount to paying for champange and getting beer. (I would have used a different analogy but it would have offended the overly sensitive.)

I don't disagree at all. The quality SHOULD be better than it is.

But you'll generally find that the day-to-day coverage of mundane sporting events on cable networks are generally inferior in quality to the broadcast networks. That's just the way it is. John Madden (whatever you think of him, he's still better than Joe Theisman) and Al Michaels go to NBC, not ESPN. That's not to say every broadcast sports program is top-notch and every cable program is dreck. But the best of the best -- in front and behind the scenes -- still migrate to the broadcast networks. The budgets are bigger that's all.
Now since ABC and ESPN have basically merged their operations you would expect to see ABC network quality on the ESPN racing programs but when a show gets a low rating like the typical weekend stakes, a network is just not going to devote much money to enhancing its production quality.
Face it, racing gets bad ratings and thus for the most part, sub-par productions.

People who whine about why racing is treated like a third-class citizen should wake up -- it is a third-class sport because very few people watch it. Except for the Triple Crown, we are basically a marginal sport and treated that way on TV. People here act like the networks should treat racing fans like NFL or NASCAR viewers. Yes, for the TC, they do. But the day we start getting consistent ratings in the 4-5 range that NASCAR gets EVERY SINGLE WEEK is the day we get better productions on the telecasts.

[rastajenk]

Which will never happen, of course, because there are so many outlets for (horse) racing fans to go to to see their sport, AND get a few bets down as well. There is no comparable dynamic anywhere else in the sports/TV universe.

[46zilzal]

why can't these shows understand that breaking up the image repeatedly does not allow continuity of the contest? If they just showed the double feed that the tracks shows it would be much better.

[Tom]

I think they would be better off hiring a drunk with the shakes to do the camera work - the current product is just plain bad.

Come to think of it, the drunk could probably run the whole network as well!

[Ron]

I did chuckle at the "Three stages of male pattern baldness" joke.

[DJofSD]

I don't always laugh at Kenny's jokes but that was a good one!

[PaceAdvantage]

I did chuckle at the "Three stages of male pattern baldness" joke.

Yes, that was the line of the year....so far....

[TravisVOX]

I don't understand the people being upset about camera angles. It's theatrical and a good way to attract new fans. ESPN is horse racing entertainment, if you want the track feed angle, well, watch the track feed.

[Valuist]

"Just watch the track feed angle"

That's not always an option. Not everyone has access to TVG or HRTV at home, and even if they get TVG, when ESPN or ABC shows a race live, TVG cannot broadcast it until later on tape delay.

If somebody was new to horse racing, I would guess they would probably pick one horse and try to follow them in the race. The camera cuts make that extremely difficult to do. Watching network coverage of racing makes me feel like I've been on a boat in choppy seas.

[Tom]

I'm sure any potential new fans were long gone by the time ESPN finally decided to show the damn races. Probably all went out and became new baseball fans!
Or went out ot buy cuban cigars.....

[Valuist]

Or as they say in Havana....

ESPN muy terrible fotographica

[idahogo]

Haven't watched ESPN since my letters to them about not showng the post parade in favor of getting celebrity interviews was completely ignored. Of course the feed from many tracks on tvg and hrtv give the post parades in reverse also, showng the outrider instead of the entrant. Try getting some adequate feedback from the track (impossible ) or the network (they blame the feed ) TV racing was a great idea but there is so much more that can be done , so easily

[BlueShoe]

So ESPN2 had the tennis babes?On our program we got to see the very attractive Jeannine Edwards,who just happened to be at Santa Anita,the only live race we saw.