All-Star Espn U Worlds Coverage

[gofriars610]

Would you mind elaborating a little on this?

How many other sports have multiple "national" championships? In ice hockey, there's the USA Hockey nationals. That's it. You win the USA Hockey championship and you're the national champion. End.

How many national championships does only Varsity control? NCA, UCA, Athletic Championships, Spirit Fest, Spirit Sports, etc. This is not including Cheersport, Jambrands, etc. (Plus Worlds and International All-Levels.)

If cheerleading is considered a sport, all of those would go away, except for one true national championship. That's a lot of money that I'm going to bet Varsity is not willing to lose.

Jim Webb even said that cheerleading isn't a sport and that making it so would threaten traditional sideline cheerleading. (source: Cheerleading Not A Competitive Sport, Expert Testifies At Trial) This makes sense: Varsity makes a ton of money off of things for sidelines--megaphones/props, uniforms, camps, stunt clinics, etc. They're not willing to let that cash cow go. Why would you?

We all know Varsity produced the ESPNU coverage of Worlds and they most likely scripted the commentary. Do you think they made it sound less professional (and more "fun!") on purpose to perpetuate the idea that cheer is not a sport?

 

[kaitlyn.loves.cheer]

coverage was lame. the nfinity commercial had better coverage of all the teams.

 

[ztaprincess]

I don't think Varsity cares that much about allstar being recognized and viewed as a sport because it wouldn't do anything to realy hurt them. With college cheer is it completely different because the NCAA would take over and Varsity would lose money. With allstar the NCAA isn't going to come in and take over because it is not university based. All of those nationals wouldn't necessarily go away if cheer is viewed as a sport because no one is going to come in and say that they can't have those. The only thing that is going to make allstar cheer recognized as a sport are those that watch it. There i no group that is going to step in a say that all of a sudden allstar cheer is a sport and now there are a ton of restrictions. The only time that would happen would if cheer made it to the Olympics.
Varsity isn't making people not look at allstar cheer as a sport on purpose, I think they just don't care what people think of it.

 

[angie]

things like "wow, that looks like fun!" and choreography being referred to basically as personality is what upsets me about the commentators. they make it sounds cheesy. basketball announcers don't see someone make a shot and say "omg, that looks like a blast!" obviously it's unrealistic to expect it to be what we want. but do they not cater to what basketball, football, hockey, etc. fans want? and for a sport that is really trying to get recognized as legitimate, i feel like the worlds coverage kind of down grades it a bit, making it seem so like upbeat and giddy and all smiles. i wish it were more serious, like gymnastics events shown on espn.

I agree with this completely. The announcers should be people serious about cheer and people who are from the cheer world. They need to take our sport seriously and comment on it as someone would any other sport.

 

[tucknduck]

People shouldn't be shocked Panthers or Pink Ladies weren't shown, they were in Jostens and the cameras are only in the Milkhouse.

This is why Jostens was a joke and not even worth watching worlds on ESPN. I saw the UCA coverage and if it were aything like that, it wasn't worth wasting the time. You're better off watching on YouTube, homemade videos in HD or wherever the videos are posted.

 

[cheertired]

It was pretty much the most disappointing coverage of Worlds ever.

And, what do we have to do to get qualified announcers (I.E. People who know what they're talking about)

This is soooo true! I hate it when the announcers say squad... It's a TEAM! Ha and when the Quad group stunts where shown, they kept calling it partner stunting. Wrong! Grr! I know I watched worlds today and I was extremely disappointed with the lack of coverage... Cheer athletics barely were featured! Same with top gun, Cali, and cheer extreme! unbelievable.

 

[cheertired]

Varsity has a vested interest in allstar not being viewed as a sport.

Exactly. Varsity is kinda like the cheer dictator for allstar :/ they control almost EVERYTHING, yet te president said himself that he didn't consider cheer a sport....

 

[kayemm]

At least you get some kind of televised coverage of cheerleading. We get nothing like that in the UK, I'd be absolutely delighted with an hour of Worlds on ESPN here in the UK - no matter how bad the show was. I actually filled in a suggestion form and sent it to ESPN explaining why Worlds would be good to air on UK television and I know a lot of other cheerleaders here have done the same.
I'd love to get a job doing cheerleading commentary. That would make my life. Wonder if ESPN would take kindly to an email explaining that I have a media degree, a huge interest in cheer and a pretty accent that would sound nice on the television

 

[mdmetromom]

I was also just getting on here to say that the nfinity commercial had better coverage of all the teams that the actual espn coverage.

 

[cljacks99]

It's a 30 minute airing. There is no possible way to please everyone. No division is anymore or less significant than any other. There are plenty of amazing teams that didn't get one nanosecond of airtime... Now the commentators, that's another story... :/

 

[canttouchthis]

It's a 30 minute airing. There is no possible way to please everyone. No division is anymore or less significant than any other. There are plenty of amazing teams that didn't get one nanosecond of airtime... Now the commentators, that's another story... :/

true but they didnt even show the medalists!

 

[The Sixth]

USASF lets just be honest. no one likes you. that is all.



#callingthemout #itjustgotreal

This deserved more than a shimmy. It just made me lol.

 

[Ashley]

like, really? no offense to any international teams, but they showed IOC6 teams that we've never heard of, and not large senior or large senior coed? or MAG? really? Cheer Athletics were NO WHERE in the program! like seriously? they got 4 medals, and NO recognition by ESPN? and where were stars & F5? and the announcers have NO clue what they're talking about! ugh. just make me the announcer already. I'd do a better job. :banghead:

It is called Worlds, after all. Maybe they wanted to show some international teams.

 

[QueenofHearts]

This is soooo true! I hate it when the announcers say squad... It's a TEAM! Ha and when the Quad group stunts where shown, they kept calling it partner stunting. Wrong! Grr! I know I watched worlds today and I was extremely disappointed with the lack of coverage... Cheer athletics barely were featured! Same with top gun, Cali, and cheer extreme! unbelievable.

Actually Cali was the most shown out of the top gyms, they showed elites routine, some of smoeds and did a clip of large coed in a huddle and at he beginning in stunts.. Was it a lot considering they brought 5 teams? No... But they of anyone should be happy at least they were featured quite a few times. Senior elite partner stunt was shown and then SSX routine... I feel bad for cheer athletics cheetahs.. They won and didn't get featured at all when Cali coed did.... I was disappointed.

 

[Calibabyy]

How many other sports have multiple "national" championships? In ice hockey, there's the USA Hockey nationals. That's it. You win the USA Hockey championship and you're the national champion. End.

How many national championships does only Varsity control? NCA, UCA, Athletic Championships, Spirit Fest, Spirit Sports, etc. This is not including Cheersport, Jambrands, etc. (Plus Worlds and International All-Levels.)

If cheerleading is considered a sport, all of those would go away, except for one true national championship. That's a lot of money that I'm going to bet Varsity is not willing to lose.

Jim Webb even said that cheerleading isn't a sport and that making it so would threaten traditional sideline cheerleading. (source: Cheerleading Not A Competitive Sport, Expert Testifies At Trial) This makes sense: Varsity makes a ton of money off of things for sidelines--megaphones/props, uniforms, camps, stunt clinics, etc. They're not willing to let that cash cow go. Why would you?

We all know Varsity produced the ESPNU coverage of Worlds and they most likely scripted the commentary. Do you think they made it sound less professional (and more "fun!") on purpose to perpetuate the idea that cheer is not a sport?

A THOUSAND TIMES YES! This is all that I can think of when I listen to the commentators. And the real source of my frustration with Varsity.