No Announcers? This, I Could Get Behind

Oooh! It looks like this week’s Monday night game between the Philadephia Soul and the Georgia Force might have a bit of a twist. The incomparable Awful Announcing gets ESPN PR announcements that we don’t even get to think about the concept of getting a sniff of the lingering odor of, and the pertinent one goes a little something-something like this:

ESPN2 will present a special “Live-Wired” telecast of Russell Athletic ESPN Arena Football that will bring viewers into the arena through additional microphones, locker room access, and wall-to-wall action and sound from the AFL matchup between the Philadelphia Soul and Georgia Force Monday, May 12, at 8 p.m. on ESPN2 and in high definition on ESPN2 HD. The game will also be simulcast on ESPN360.com and ESPN Mobile TV.

Analyst Ray Bentley will narrate the game and lead viewers in and out of breaks, timeouts and plays in the red zone, as well as conduct live interviews throughout the telecast. Most of the audio will come from on-field action through commentary from the players, coaches and referees. ESPN2 will utilize sevenseven [sic] microphones total.

I hope sevenseven is 77, not 14. Though it could be 49, I suppose. Or seven #7 microphones, but I think I made those up. BUT I DIGRESS. Ray Bentley - my favorite of this year’s series of (largely) meh announcers - gets to run the show on his own and I feel like he knows when to stay out of the way. As an ex-coach, he actually has a grasp on the rules and strategy, so hopefully, he’ll let the players, refs, and coaches take care of the action of the game, and he’ll be content to break it down for you afterwards.

The bad news? The audio gets dumped every 45 seconds with the ordinary number of mics. I can’t imagine what this is going to sound like with extra microphones and the filthy mouth of, I don’t know, Brandon Register. (Somebody tell me who’s a curser on these teams: I just guessed.) Aaaaaanyway, I’m more than a bit curious as to how this is all going to work out, and it seems to me you’d do well to have a liveblog of this, so let’s plan on meeting in this space Monday night to see the clusterfuck that is us trying to interpret what’s going on in the Open Broadcast of Arena Madness in a live-bloggy sort of format.

[HT: Thanks, Sam for the link to Awful Announcing, who already did most of the heavy lifting]

As Usual, Mother’s Day Means Pink Footballs

As often happens in baseball, the Arena League is celebrating your mom with pink striping and stuff on the game balls. Before you get all excited about your front row souveneir seats, they’re not going to be used for standard play, rather for coin toss presentations and kickoffs. The teams will also be sneaking around the stadium, prepared to present mothers in attendance with a mother’s day ball. Seriously - the press release says “Each participating team will present pink balls to unsuspecting mothers in attendance…” (Emphasis mine.)

Perhaps they can get Tony Graziani to participate: “SURPRISE! THANK YOU FOR BEING A QUALITY CAREGIVER TO YOUR OFFSPRING. ENJOY A GAME BALL WITH OUR COMPLIMENTS. WE HOPE TO SEE YOU HERE AGAIN SOON, SUPPORTING THE ARENA FOOTBALL LEAGUE! WAIT,WHERE ARE YOU GOING?”