Well that was a weekend…
I tried to get excited about the start of the USL Championship season, I just can’t. With the dark cloud of a possible strike hanging over the league believing it’s just a matter of when (and to me should have already happened) it was difficult to care about the action on the pitch outside the opening minute protest.
After Mike Watts got the memo from USLHQ to send the biggest FU to the players during Lexington/Louisville City (which he did loud and clear with ‘and not a minute too soon’) I made the decision to look at all the remaining games. From what production and broadcasters did to breaking out the stop watch to time how the players were shown. What you’ll see are patterns developed rather quickly, and the Sunday pivot wasn’t much of one at all.
Think of this as a follow-up to my column on Saturday. Let’s dive into how each game handled the minute’s stand still.
Charleston Battery 2 Pittsburgh Riverhounds 1 (USL production): opening whistle not heard on the broadcast. Tyler Terens went with “and to start we will have a delay of this match” before going silent the rest of the time.
The camera then cut to the crowd with the PA announcer audible saying ‘fans there is currently a pause in tonight’s match’ before thanking the fans and announcing a sell out. The camera briefly showed the players on the field, but the sun glare that is known in Charleston matches was apparent.
Once the game started, Terens went “and now we are officially underway”. The score bug did make an appearance during the protest. Color analyst Ricky Lopez-Espin was silent throughout. Total time camera showed players: 23 seconds.
Sporting Jax 0 Hartford Athletic 3 (club broadcast): again the opening whistle was not heard on the broadcast. Once the protest was obvious the camera cut to the crowd with the PA playing Metallica’s Enter Sandman while again welcoming the crowd to Hodges Stadium.
Cole Pepper once the cameras cut from the field would go “see some of the crowd around here at Hodges Stadium. Kickoff to tonight’s has been delayed briefly, we expect the match to begin shortly.” Cole then brought analyst Corey Hertzog into the conversation with additional time previewing the game. One of the last camera shots was to 2 Sporting Jax flags.
Once the game did kick off Cole Pepper went “and we are off and running”. The score bug did not make an appearance during the protest. Total time camera showed players: 6 seconds.
The selection of Enter Sandman is rather rich considering lyrics in the song include ‘hush little baby don’t say a word’ and ‘sleep with one eye open’. Yes, I’m sure I’ll be told I’m reading too much into that.
San Antonio FC 2 Phoenix Rising 1 (club broadcast): the whistle was heard on the broadcast. Karl Schoening went with “currently kick off of tonight’s match is, uh, a little delayed. So we expect the match to begin shortly.” Schoening then pivoted and took the minute to fill time with time filler about ‘the youth moment’ with the Glenn Davis. The score bug was present from second one and towards the end of the minute a graphic was put up saying “Tonight’s match is currently delayed”.
We have it on very good authority the players rallied pockets of fans who got the message out. The beginning of the protest was shown while the broadcast booth spoke over it. My guess is the cameras were trying to find fans not actively supporting the players. Some of the camera shots during the minute were towards fans who were actively applauding and making noise (not that you heard much of it). Once the game got underway it was Glenn Davis who went “and it’s game on now”. Total time camera showed players: 22 seconds.
El Paso Locomotive 2 Colorado Springs Switchbacks 2 (club broadcast): whistle was heard and once the protest was in full flow the cameras cut from the field showing close up crowd shots with fans that couldn’t be heard. Duke Keith and Joe Rodriguez in the booth filled the entire minute going over ‘the keys of the game' without making mention of a delayed start and once the game got underway just went right into ‘and they will have the first touch here’ as the ball left the center circle.
The score bug made an appearance after 40 seconds. Total time camera showed players: 6 seconds.
Birmingham Legion 0 Tampa Bay Rowdies 1 (club broadcast): whistle heard on the broadcast and immediately Blake Gardner goes “and right away play currently paused, we’ll continue to monitor the situation on the field and expect play to resume shortly’ before going silent the rest of the time.
The camera cut to the crowd, a rain shot through the flood lights before briefly coming back to the field while Taylor Swift’s Shake it Off began to play. The remaining minute would be spent rotating between the field and fans before play started.
The score bug was present from the beginning. Once play did get underway Gardner would say “so after a bit of a delay we are ready to play”. Morgan Copes was silent throughout the minute. Total time camera showed players: 15 seconds.
Again, another rich music choice from the PA in Birmingham. Sorry USL, the players aren’t going to shake off substandard standards.
Monterey Bay 0 Oakland Roots 1 (USL production): whistle heard on the broadcast and Tyler Terens changed it up from Charleston/Pittsburgh by going “as we will have a delay to start the match” before staying silent the rest of the time. The score bug was present on the screen starting at 0:04.
The remaining time was spent on crowd shots before Terens would say “and we are officially underway”. Again, Ricky Lopez-Espin was silent the entire time. Total time camera showed players: 8 seconds.
Orange County SC 1 Las Vegas Lights 1 (USL production): whistle was barely heard on broadcast with Josh Eastern going ‘play is currently paused. We will continue to monitor the situation on the field and we do expect play to resume shortly.”
The score bug appeared on screen at 0:06. Josh Eastern started to talk about the Orange County fans but when the bug hit 12 seconds two fans held up sheets of paper with their own message from the stands: Players Deserve Better CBA Now! I sincerely hope that camera operator isn’t punished.
Eastern quickly pivoted to talking about the sides on the pitch bringing Gary Bailey into the conversation. While Bailey was talking the cameras went back to the field before quickly going to stands again. Once play did start Eastern was nonchalant with his “and now we get play underway” call. Gary Bailey was the only color analyst from the bunker who spoke during this weekend’s minute’s protest. Total time camera showed players: 21 seconds.
I found it odd that Liuna still sponsored the player to watch as I’m sure they are going to be thrilled to be seen as a union supporting management. I have reached out for comment and if we hear back we will update with their response.
Sacramento Republic 2 FC Tulsa 0 (club broadcast): whistle wasn’t heard on the broadcast over the crowd. Rob McCallister didn’t say a word, faded out and let the pictures on the field do all the talking for him. Adam Moffat was silent the entire time.
The camera briefly cut from the field to the crowd but right back to the players. I think production gave up the ghost rather quickly showing the fans as they were applauding in solidarity with the players in all but the last shot right before the ball was kicked.
That said some credit does deserve to be given to Sacramento Republic as they did show 57 of the last 59 seconds of the protest. Knowing how thin-skinned USLHQ is I wonder when the club is fined using logic that wouldn’t even pass NASCAR in the 1970s. This was also the longest protest of the weekend at around 1:15. The score bug danced in and out during this time. Total time camera showed players: 67 seconds.
Brooklyn FC 1 Indy Eleven 0 (USL production): the lone game on Sunday opened with a different tenor. I guess Mike Watts realized how badly he was roasted by those who knew exactly what nonsense he pulled on Friday night and went into a non-reason explanation before kickoff. "Across the league we have seen minute long demonstrations at the outset of matches. Brooklyn stands over the ball ready to launch this new era of professional soccer in the borough...and this game begins in a pause." So you can say all that Mike but not why, way to be a coward…again. The whistle was barely audible and Watts was silent after his monologue.
As soon as production could, insert the score bug and go right to the fans. One major problem, they forgot to cut the on field microphones because the ‘pay your players’ chant from both Indy and Brooklyn supporter groups (thank you Brett Mullenix on site) was something not to be missed. At the minute mark Watts again ignores the why, jumping in with “the moment has arrived”. Total time camera showed players: 9 seconds.
I did not catch it on the broadcast but again thank you to Brett Mullenix who was on site for mentioning the PA announcer went ‘sorry for the inconvenience’.
One thing every broadcast ignored, the fact the biggest off season story line was the fact there is no CBA and that the players authorized a strike. When the players took a stand, the average amount of time across all weekend games was 20 seconds the players were shown. The number is only this high because of Sacramento Republic. Take their time out and that number drops to 14.
The overlying themes to me showed the following:
Saying the game start was delayed without saying why was comical to me. The game had started, everyone could see there were no injuries. Just to ignore the why is just a bad look.
Using language once the ball left the center circle saying the game was officially underway was an even bigger farce. It was like the broadcasters forgot the game is officially underway the second the referee blows the whistle.
Seeing the club productions just speak over the entire protest with everyone in the booth involved just told me how little these clubs care about their players and kinda proved Robbie Mertz’s feeling they are commodities and not human beings. Only Josh Eastern pulled that on the USL Production broadcasts.
I’m sure Gary Bailey is going to get alot of dirty looks from the color analysts in the USL Bunker considering he was the only former player analyst from said bunker who spoke during the player protest.
On another note fair play to Ricky Lopez-Espin. 4 games this weekend and stayed silent through all 4. As a former player I’m willing to be more forgiving of him as his silence to me was taking a stand with the players. Yes, I expect to get roasted for that but you won’t change my opinion.
Getting away from the players as soon as production could was a message from USLHQ to the players ‘we don’t care about you’.
My guess, if the players don’t strike this week they won’t be talking to production teams from either the clubs or USL, taking whatever fine comes their way. If they continue this route, they need to pick a random moment in matches (say…the minute you’d like the dollar amount of total compensation to be) to do so. Frankly though, this weekend should be a message that USLHQ’s move back was to say ‘we don’t care about you we can find someone else to fill in’.
I’m going to be completely honest, I didn’t think this minute’s protest was going to work. I wasn’t thrilled game 1 kicked off on time. However after the realization hit that USLHQ had told all productions to ignore well…it got people to take notice. That notice is the definition of a successful protest.
Photo found here: bsky.app/profile/kkfla737.bsky.social/post/3mgjg25zazc2c
Thank you for putting this detailed review together.
Obviously the players should strike. I know why they don't want to, though.
Thanks for indicating whether the broadcast of each game was by USL Productions or the host club. What general themes can be gleaned from this distinction? Has the USL Productions been less detailed as presumably the commentators are all remote? Or the club-produced broadcasts vary widely in quality (and which clubs did particularly well here?)?