Thoughts from an Outsider

[Tstone]

Originally Posted by EricH

Unfortunately, matches are not recorded on-site. animation would have to be used. Also, most announcers do announce the penalties and scoring; they integrate the scoring into their play-by-play and announce the penalties after the match.

Our announcers mentioned the penalties but didn't explain them. Here's what I'm thinking. If you had some FIRST provided animation giving examples of the different penalties, every once and a while, when the penalty occurs, the announcer could show the animation and explain the penalty. It works for John Madden and the NFL, why not FIRST? The more the spectators understand the sport, the more they will enjoy it. I think specifically an animation for penalties would be so helpful.

Our host (great guy) kept saying things like "Man, you really have to watch out for that breaking the plane penalty" but NEVER, not ONCE explained what that penalty was over the course of the two day event. I mean when you have a penalty that occurs almost every match, shouldn't someone explain it?

I think the reality is that the event is becoming a true EVENT with specators and a lot of people who don't know a thing about the sport showing up. It's not ingrained into our culture, like other sports, so there is not the cultural support network that exists for like when new people showing up at other sporting events. This probably means that FIRST needs to start thinking about the event as (perish the thought) entertainment, so thinking about revamping the venue to be more specator friendly is someting they may want to think about for next year and beyond.