kage173 wrote:
I like Ralph. The guy knows motorsports and is truly a professional announcer with decades of experience. People may disagree with the tactics that the broadcast team use (e.g. green kawasaki,) to focus on new viewers but Ralph himself is very good.
But either way, I dont get the obsession with the broadcast teams. They could have a donkey braying the whole time for all I care. I turn it on to watch the gnarliest racers in the world race, not grade announcers on broadcasting.
I can only speak for myself, so I won't try putting words into anyone's mouth, but I harp on the broadcast team because of the massive disparity between the show on the track and the show in the booth. I'm a racing fan, first and foremost. I'm not a fan of supercross and motocross because I love riding, or because my family was into it (I've never even touched a dirtbike in my life). I was drawn in by the racing on the track, and it is BY FAR the best racing in the world. Period. There is passing, there is contact, there is danger, the winner is almost always guaranteed to make passes to earn their position. And it is ALL IN THE RIDERS HANDS. There is no one in their ear coaching them, there are barely any team orders, the only connection a rider has out of the track is a tiny pitboard that reads laptimes and "P U S H". If you show the racing in Supercross to anybody with an open mind to racing of any kind, they will immediately see the value in it. The racing is phenomenal. And then they have to listen to Ralph miss calls, Ricky stumble over his words, and the camera director miss passes and exciting moments, while the viewer at home hears the crowd in the stadium LOSING THEIR FUCKING MINDS and then the camera cuts to a rider laying on the track 25 seconds later. The broadcast team is AMATEUR HOUR compared to the athletes on the track, and it does a disservice to anybody with a vested interest in the success of the sport. Whether that be riders, teams, or fans.