Originally Posted by
pigah
American announcing of non mainstream sports (bicycling, track and field, swimming, soccer to a lesser extent) all suffer from the same problem. The audience is assumed to be ill informed and the announcers are constantly reintroducing the whole sport. Can you imagine if basketball announcers explained why fouls are called in basketball every game?
Excellent point.
They also do not have the advantage of other announcers to learn from. They don't get to see what worked for others in the same sport with a similar audience. Almost by definition when there are a significant number of announcers the audience is presumed to be informed.
I happen to know a lot about the talent for a lot of the Rugby matches in the U.S. Dallen Stanford and Brian Visard are mainstays as announcers. I've seen both make mistakes. Both are very experienced players. Both played for the U.S. national side.
Everyone makes mistakes. I know neither of them is the most knowledgeable of the people invovled. No insult to either, just that the best player is not always the most informed.
I also know the producer. For american football there is a huge support staff. For rugby, it is the guys on camera and the producer. No spotters, no dedicated research staff. My bet is it is the same or at least close for cycling. They are calling it cold, perhaps a spotting staff of one or 2 at the most.
They do not work under the same conditions as announcers for mainstream sports.