Not too soon to start bashing NBC's marathon OT coverage

I think that I'll basically be following the race on Twitter and LRC, with the NBC broadcast as nothing more than the occasional video aid. Hopefully there are a few good twitter users well placed on the course to provide updates.

MM3307 wrote:

Hopefully someone in the production crew has graduated from the high school A/V club and we can get split screen of the men's and women's race.

That would entail TWO camera trucks. We'll find out if McCourt paid for that. I'm not hopeful.

The hobby jogger grindfest the next day can at least support two trucks.

Masback is totally clueless as an announcer. He is the WORST by far

another thing to look for a extended coverage of Kara crying holding her son if she makes the team or not - she will get more on air time than anybody who makes the team

It really doesn't get any worse than Hammond. He's a horse racing commentator, and NBC figured that was close enough to track and road racing so he might as well do that too.

Hammonds signature is to announce excitedly that "Ritz has taken the lead!!!!" When he moves a third of a stride in front of the pack in mile two for no reason at all. Then he names the next 10 runners in order by last name only, mangling 3-4 of their names. Can't wait to hear him try Puskedra. Then he will repeat this list every 5-8 minutes as if it matters what "place" runners are in at mile 5 of a marathon.

Hammond is the absolute worst.

For you bashing the talent please listen to Frank Shorter call the 1988 Olympic Men's Marathon for NBC (sorry I can't find the spot on youtube). When Salah drops Bordin, Frank gets all nuts saying Bordin is finished, you might can come back in another marathon but never in the Olympic Games. We see how that turned out. So even a respected runner, gold medalist, seasoned announcer can get it wrong.

Why not wait until after the event before you write the review?

who will you follow on Twitter during the race? Would love some recommendations

I'm guessing the coverage will be just fine. With a looped course in a huge city there shouldn't be any trouble with their live feed or with getting splits.

Gelindo! wrote:

Why not wait until after the event before you write the review?

Because the history of terrible USATF broadcasts strongly suggests nothing has changed, or will change.

We'll find out how much broadcast infrastructure Mccourt bought within a few minutes of the start. I'm not hopeful.

My guess is it will be overloaded with athlete profiles and the women's race barely covered.

Damn, I gave up bashing people for lent...

but this thread is great!!

Gelindo! wrote:

Why not wait until after the event before you write the review?

Remember this broadcast is part of a bigger picture for the TV execs- this is a tiny part of the lead-in to the broadcast of The Rio Olympics the 42 sport event next fall.

We know that more than one person connected with the broadcast team reads this board.

Perhaps a little pre-race reminder about how the followers of the sport view the pluses and negatives of the broadcast will get a mention in the prerace planning meetings- yes they plan this thing down to publishing a script with a timeline for features and already packaged entrant up close and personal inserts.

along with Athletics we have these other sports

Archery

Artistic Gymnastics

Badminton

Basketball

Beach Volleyball

BMX Cycling

Boxing

Canoe Slalom

Canoe Sprint

Diving

Equestrian Dressage

Equestrian Eventing

Equestrian Jumping

Fencing

Football

Freestyle Wrestling

Golf

Greco-Roman Wrestling

Handball

Hockey

Judo

Marathon Swimming

Modern Pentathlon

Mountain Bike

Rhythmic Gymnastics

Road Cycling

Rowing

Rugby

Sailing

Shooting

Swimming

Synchronized Swimming

Table Tennis

Taekwondo

Tennis

Track Cycling

Trampoline Gymnastics

Triathlon

Volleyball

Water Polo

Weightlifting

The missing the 'one move' in the marahton is what drives me nuts. But I blame the race directors of the WMM who seemingly schedule everything horribly.

With the WMM, the women generally start ahead of the men. BUt they don't start them far enough ahead.

For example,

Here the Trials have started the men ahead of the women. I've been advocating for this for years. But it's only 16 minutes ahead. Let's say the men run 2:10, the women 2:25. So the men will be finishing 31 minutes ahead of the women. SO the women will be around mile 20.

In Boston, the elite women start 28 minutes ahead of the men, but since they are 15 minutes slower, they only finish 13 minutes ahead of the men. New York is basically the same (women start 30 minutes ahead).

So the Trials will be better than NY or Boston on this front but not ideal.

Ideal would be to start it so that the other race hasn't gotten to 30k when the first race finishes. I'd like to see a 45 minute gap between the races at the finish. If they are worried about taking up too much tv time, they don't need to show the first 15 minutes on tv. Just show that on the Internet. Nothing happens anyway.

This drives me nuts as well. But what really drives me nuts is when the race is over, they don't show anyone else. The battle for 2nd and third is often ignored.

When I re-watched Weldon's and my commentating of the USATF 5k from 2009, I was pleased to see that I didn't do this. I repeatedly focused on GErman Fernandez's quest for the AJR even though he wasn't in the screen and when Teg won, Weldon focused on 2nd, 3rd, 4th even though the camera was obsessed with Teg.

Does anyone think it's odd that Maback does the broadcasts? Not that your average NFL broadcaster is objective but Masback's conflict of interest is way bigger than most. He is a high up at Nike. Would the NFL let an employee of a major sponsor be its main tv guy at the NFC championship game? IT's actually worse than that. Nike is the main sponsor of USATF and it's an owner of about 40% of the teams.

So it would be like letting a Patriots employee broadcast it.

What drives me the most crazy is when the leader finishes and the camera pulls off the finish line so we can watch the winner stand in chute. Why can't they just leave a static shot of the finish line so we can see the next group of people finish!?

Especially frustrating in NCAA XC when those next 50 runners matter so much.

Doesn't each runner have an electronic chip? Isn't that how we get what the splits were after the race is over? If so, why can't we have these online during the race?What drives me crazy is the need, perfectly understandable, to get in one last commercial . . . which is always at 38-39 k, exactly where the break always comes. It's as if the runners know when there will be a commercial break and so that's where they make their break.

nikeman wrote:

It would be nice if they had electronic trackers on each runner's bib so that we could see their split/place at every mile. Since it's a multi loop course you'd really only need 8 or 9 mats total since you'd cross them on each loop.

rojo wrote:

If they are worried about taking up too much tv time, they don't need to show the first 15 minutes on tv. Just show that on the Internet. Nothing happens anyway.

Joanie's big move at LA'84 came 14 minutes in. Most likely the biggest nothing that ever happened in marathoning.

nikeman wrote:

It would be nice if they had electronic trackers on each runner's bib so that we could see their split/place at every mile. Since it's a multi loop course you'd really only need 8 or 9 mats total since you'd cross them on each loop.

Its called b tags and each bib has them but the logistical nightmare of having to set up 9 splits with 2 different races going off would be crazy... Its much easier said then done plus what ever timing company is doing the race would have to have 9 people on course monitoring the boxes and that would get expensive fast. And on the other hand may overload the chrono track server....

Is there any chance that the men lap slow women runners?

Whoever posted Tom Hammond is the worst is understating it. They should get Steve Cram and Brendon Foster to do the commentary. Those two could make curling interesting.

Plus they wont replay the key move even when they have televised the race two hours after.

Also I think in 2008 they cuy out several times not just for backstories of key Olympic favorites but reused some the human interest stories they will use in the following days NYC marathon? Anybody recall that?