Thanks for the great chat from the game last night. It really was the best commentary we've heard, especially the "audience participation". Why can't they do it on nufc.co.uk, if they can do it for free in the USA for what is for them a minority sport? You just need a commentator as enthusistic as theirs - an American reading a book about Doncaster Rovers certainly goes beyond the call of duty.
I got inspired to send a message as follows to nufc.co.uk asking them to buck their ideas up. I am sure some of you who've just got season tickets would volunteer to help them out with making the commentary more interactive like it was last night.
More of us should send in to them to ask that they should improve the service.
Here's my message sent to the feedback section of nufc.co.uk :
"Please make your nufc.co.uk web commentary as good as the DC United one by internetsoccer.com - Top Notch. Best bit was being able to e-mail questions to the commentators and have your question answered during the commentary. Really made everyone feel involved and makes it truly INTERACTIVE. Surely you can do the same, especially when theirs was free and yours is 5.99 a month, though it really ought to be free too - lots of clubs do it for free. All you need is for the commentator to have a laptop in front of him. Plus having a commentator and an ex DC United footballer to give expert comments made it much better. And at half time and at the end of the match they did interviews, whereas your commentator switches off and eats his hot dog. THIS REALLY WAS AN EXCELLENT SERVICE LAST NIGHT. Combined with the great chat on the http://greenspun.com/bboard, it made it worthwhile staying up to 3.30 Belgian time to listen. PLease arrange it for the Columbus match too. AND FOR THE NEW SEASON. I am sure there would be plenty of volunteers amongst the nufc internet community to operate the laptop alongside your commentator."

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2000

Answers

With you all the way Barry! Wasn`t it fun! (:o)

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2000

Glad to hear the commentary went so well! Soundslike you all had more fun during the game than we did! I do hope the official site does a better job of htat this season. Derby county and Leeds also do pretty good(and FREE) webcasts. Derby takes emails,too. I emailed the comments addy on the official site a few times last season mentioning these other webcasts. Never heard anything back.

I actually had a whole post on the surliness of the DC fans and people in this city in general but my computer crashed just as I was finishing. argh! The gist is that a few DC supporters(includig a couple of kids..about 10yr old) were dangerously close to getting their heads kicked in with their nasty comments and manner. Don'tknow why the stadium sold dozens of tickets in our section to home fans. But they were mixed all through..and really killed any attempt at trying to get atmosphere going. But it was ok for them to stand up and shout in our faces when they scored. B#%$@#$s! Can't wait to get out of this town. Hopefully people in Columbus are a bit nicer.

Having said that, the only really nice people seem to be those working the lowliest jobs(stadium ushers and concessionaires, most cab drivers, etc). My friends said even people working at tourist attractions and museums are surly.

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2000

I'm in full agreement regarding the commentary. In addition to being knowledgable (far mor so than I expected) it was also entertaining! What a concept! I too thought the former player added a lot with his insight. Hopefully somebody has a tape of this that they could send along to the club so that they might get a clue.

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2000

It was my first time listening to a webcast and was expecting it to be a similar format to our radio commentary. With metro fm you get colourful commentary depicting the play so you can picture the game, I never got that with the webcast so I guess I've just been spoilt to- date but I would like to see a radio show (like Metro) broadcast their commentary over the web.

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2000